diff --git a/dd-trace-core/src/main/java/datadog/trace/common/metrics/package-info.java b/dd-trace-core/src/main/java/datadog/trace/common/metrics/package-info.java
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+/**
+ * Client-side stats aggregate eligible completed spans by resource, service, operation, span kind,
+ * status, and configured tags. Each reporting interval produces hit and error counts and latency
+ * distributions. The aggregates are computed independently of trace sampling, so they include spans
+ * that are not sent individually.
+ *
+ * <p>A {@link datadog.trace.common.metrics.MetricWriter} publishes each interval: msgpack to the
+ * Datadog Agent or OTLP to the configured OTLP metrics endpoint.
+ *
+ * <h2>At a glance</h2>
+ *
+ * <pre>{@code
+ * App / Producer threads              Control threads
+ * ----------------------              ------------------------------
+ * eligible completed span             report schedule, tracer close,
+ *          |                          clear needed
+ * capture values and create                     |
+ * immutable SpanSnapshot                        |
+ *          |                                    |
+ *          +----------------+-------------------+
+ *                           v
+ *                   lock-free MPSC inbox
+ *                           |
+ *                           v
+ *                    Aggregator thread
+ *               (sole writer of aggregate state)
+ *                      /              \
+ *            SpanSnapshot              SignalItem
+ *                 |                        |
+ * canonicalize bounded fields   ReportSignal: reconcile peer schema,
+ * and tags; find/create entry                 expunge stale entries,
+ *                 |                           write interval deltas,
+ * update counts and histograms                reset active entries
+ *                                ClearSignal: clear the table
+ *                                 StopSignal: final report, then stop
+ * }</pre>
+ *
+ * <h2>Threading model (the load-bearing rule)</h2>
+ *
+ * Producer application threads do almost nothing: each captures an immutable {@link
+ * datadog.trace.common.metrics.SpanSnapshot} of the finished span and hands it off through a
+ * lock-free MPSC {@code inbox}. A <em>single</em> aggregator thread ({@link
+ * datadog.trace.common.metrics.Aggregator}) drains that inbox and owns <em>all</em> mutable state
+ * -- the {@link datadog.trace.common.metrics.AggregateTable} and every cardinality handler -- as
+ * its sole writer. None of that state is synchronized; correctness rests entirely on the
+ * single-writer invariant. Any cross-thread request that must mutate (e.g. clearing the table on
+ * downgrade) does not touch the state directly -- it is funneled onto the aggregator thread as a
+ * signal through the same inbox. If you add a mutation path, it goes through the inbox too.
+ *
+ * <h2>The cycle</h2>
+ *
+ * The aggregator folds each drained snapshot into an {@link
+ * datadog.trace.common.metrics.AggregateEntry}, keyed by the canonical form of its labels, updating
+ * that entry's counters and histograms. Once per reporting interval (~10s) it flushes the whole
+ * table through a {@link datadog.trace.common.metrics.MetricWriter} -- msgpack ({@link
+ * datadog.trace.common.metrics.SerializingMetricWriter}) or OTLP -- then resets each entry's
+ * counters for the next interval rather than discarding the table: entries (and their cross-cycle
+ * caches) are retained for reuse, and stale ones are expunged over subsequent cycles. Buckets are
+ * per-interval deltas, not cumulative.
+ *
+ * <h2>Cardinality is the thing that must stay bounded</h2>
+ *
+ * Grouping keys come from span/user data, so distinct values -- and therefore the series count, its
+ * memory, and its backend cost -- would grow without bound if left alone. High-cardinality labels
+ * are canonicalized through a cardinality handler -- {@link
+ * datadog.trace.common.metrics.PropertyCardinalityHandler} for the core string fields (resource,
+ * service, operation, ...) and {@link datadog.trace.common.metrics.TagCardinalityHandler} for peer
+ * and additional tags -- that caps the number of distinct values per label and collapses any
+ * overflow into a shared sentinel, so over-cardinality folds into one entry rather than exploding
+ * the table. (Primitive key fields such as HTTP/gRPC status and the boolean flags are inherently
+ * low-cardinality and copied directly.) The collapses are counted per cycle and reported (to {@link
+ * datadog.trace.core.monitor.HealthMetrics} and, rate-limited, through {@link
+ * datadog.trace.common.metrics.CardinalityLimitReporter}) -- so the bounding is observable without
+ * the bookkeeping itself becoming unbounded.
+ *
+ * <h2>Three handler families</h2>
+ *
+ * <ul>
+ *   <li>{@link datadog.trace.common.metrics.CoreHandlers} -- the always-present per-field handlers
+ *       (resource, service, operation, ...).
+ *   <li>{@link datadog.trace.common.metrics.PeerTagSchema} -- remote-config / feature-discovery
+ *       driven; reconciled once per cycle on the aggregator thread. An old and a new schema may
+ *       briefly co-exist in the table after a discovery change, so a few spans may not fold quite
+ *       as expected for one cycle -- acceptable, because updating the config was always
+ *       fundamentally racy against in-flight spans.
+ *   <li>{@link datadog.trace.common.metrics.AdditionalTagsSchema} -- local-config span-derived
+ *       tags, fixed once at construction.
+ * </ul>
+ *
+ * Each {@link datadog.trace.common.metrics.SpanSnapshot} captures its own schema reference at
+ * capture time, so producer and aggregator agree on tag indexing even if the current schema is
+ * swapped out between capture and consumption.
+ */
+package datadog.trace.common.metrics;