Context Propagation
The transfer of trace, baggage, authentication, or other request-scoped context across thread, process, and network boundaries.
Observability Context
Context propagation carries trace identity, baggage, authentication context, or other request-scoped state across thread, process, messaging, and network boundaries. HTTP headers, message metadata, and in-process carriers allow spans created by different components to remain part of the same causal chain.
Lifecycle Boundary
Context is not business payload. It has its own trust, privacy, lifetime, and cardinality rules, and asynchronous execution or thread hops are common places where propagation can be lost.