Zero-state telemetry architecture

The zero-state telemetry architecture is the platform's approach to understanding site traffic without cookies, session identifiers, or a third-party analytics provider. A page sends one small beacon when the visitor leaves; the server captures it alongside the requester's IP address and writes an append-only ledger line. There is no client-side accumulation of state between visits — "zero-state" describes the client, not the server-side record.

Payload

On unload, the page sends navigator.sendBeacon a JSON body with two fields: uri (the page path) and timestamp (the client's clock, in milliseconds). No cookies, tracking pixels, or third-party analytics script are involved — the beacon is a single same-origin POST.

The server pairs that payload with two values it reads from the request itself: the requester's IP address (from a forwarding header, first entry if the header carries a chain) and the User-Agent string. All four values — IP, timestamp, URI, user agent — are appended as one line to a plaintext CSV ledger. None of the four fields is masked or truncated. See the security-category article on this same daemon for the compliance implications of the unmasked IP specifically, already escalated separately — this article isn't re-raising that finding, just describing the same real payload from the infrastructure side.

See also

• Telemetry architecture — how the beacon payload is routed and processed after it reaches the server
• Ontological Governance — the governance layer that this telemetry substrate serves
• Verification Surveyor — the verification pattern that this telemetry architecture supports
• Customer Hostability — the customer-rooted data custody principle this architecture implements