Telemetry Categories

The categories a browser session can capture, what each contains, and their cost

A category groups related telemetry events and is the unit you enable or disable. Selection is opt-in: a session captures a category only when you turn it on.

For the full payload schema of any event type, see the Stream telemetry events endpoint in the API reference.

Operational

These categories report on the session itself rather than page content.

Category	Captures	Event types
control	Computer-control API calls against the session	api_call
connection	CDP and live view connect/disconnect activity	cdp_connect, cdp_disconnect, live_view_connect, live_view_disconnect
system	VM-level failures	system_oom_kill, service_crashed
captcha	Results of automated captcha solves	captcha_solve_result

Browser activity

These categories report what’s happening in the page. Capturing any of them attaches a Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) collector to the session and produces highly granular page-level events. Capturing them adds overhead, so enable only the ones you need.

Category	Captures	Event types
console	Console output from the page	console_log, console_error
network	Network requests, responses, and failures	network_request, network_response, network_loading_failed, network_idle
page	Navigation and page lifecycle, including performance signals	page_navigation, page_dom_content_loaded, page_load, page_tab_opened, page_layout_shift, page_lcp, page_layout_settled, page_navigation_settled
interaction	Browser-native input in the page (clicks, keys, scroll)	interaction_click, interaction_key, interaction_scroll_settled
screenshot	Periodic screenshots of the session	monitor_screenshot

interaction events are browser-native DOM events observed in the page, not calls to the computer-control API (those are reported by the control category).

The monitor category

monitor reports the health of the CDP collector itself: monitor_disconnected, monitor_reconnected, monitor_reconnect_failed, and monitor_init_failed.

It isn’t directly settable. It flows automatically whenever any of the browser-activity categories are captured. You can still filter the stream by monitor to isolate these events.

Data sensitivity

Telemetry is off by default and the default set carries operational metadata only. The browser-activity categories are different: they capture what actually flows through the session, which is your own browser’s data and can include credentials and personal information.

Category	Can contain sensitive data
network	Request and response headers (including Authorization and Cookie), request bodies, and truncated response bodies, plus full URLs. A common place for session tokens, credentials, and personal data.
console	Anything the page logs. Applications often log access tokens, request or response bodies, and personal data through console.log.
page	Page URLs and titles, which can embed tokens or identifiers in query strings or fragments.
interaction	Text of clicked elements and typed keys, which can include personal data entered into forms.
screenshot	A full rendered image of the page - the broadest exposure, capturing anything visible on screen.
control, connection, system, captcha, monitor	Session metadata only (control calls, connection and health events). No page content.

Captured events are persisted and can be replayed by resuming the stream, so this sensitivity applies to the data at rest, not just the live stream. Treat captured telemetry - and anywhere you forward or store it - with the same care as the underlying content. For how Kernel encrypts, retains, and processes data overall, see Security and the Data Processing Addendum.

Some exposure is reduced for you automatically: input into sensitive fields such as passwords is suppressed (interaction_key isn’t emitted for them, and interaction_click omits the element text). Beyond that, because selection is opt-in, the most effective control is to capture only the categories you need - enable network, console, page, interaction, or screenshot deliberately, and prefer the operational categories when you only need session health.

If you operate under HIPAA, GDPR, or similar obligations, be deliberate about the browser-activity categories: pointing them at a site that handles regulated data captures that data into storage. If you have compliance requirements around what Kernel may process, contact us before enabling them.