diff --git a/hive-c0re/Cargo.toml b/hive-c0re/Cargo.toml
index 54e97769..4e4159bc 100644
--- a/hive-c0re/Cargo.toml
+++ b/hive-c0re/Cargo.toml
@@ -20,12 +20,19 @@ clap.workspace = true
 clap_complete.workspace = true
 clap-markdown = "0.1"
 # OTEL SDK for the per-agent container-resource metrics exporter
-# (stats/otel_metrics.rs). Same versions/features as hive-metric — the
-# blocking OTLP client is deliberate: the metrics SDK's PeriodicReader runs
-# on a background thread with no Tokio reactor, where the async client panics.
+# (stats/otel_metrics.rs). Same versions as hive-metric, and the same blocking
+# OTLP client for the same reason: the metrics SDK's PeriodicReader runs on a
+# background thread with no Tokio reactor, where the async client panics.
+# Features differ by one — see `internal-logs` below and hive-metric's note.
 opentelemetry = "0.32"
 opentelemetry_sdk = { version = "0.32", features = ["metrics"] }
 opentelemetry-otlp = { version = "0.32", default-features = false, features = [
+  # Not a transport — this is the exporter's own diagnostics, and it is in
+  # `default`, so `default-features = false` drops it unless it is named here.
+  # Without it every `otel_warn!`/`otel_debug!` *inside this crate* compiles to
+  # nothing, and the one failure that returns HTTP 200 — the collector accepting
+  # the request and rejecting the data points — is reported nowhere at all.
+  "internal-logs",
   "metrics",
   "http-json",
   "reqwest-blocking-client",
diff --git a/hive-metric/Cargo.toml b/hive-metric/Cargo.toml
index 741d3419..fda8c027 100644
--- a/hive-metric/Cargo.toml
+++ b/hive-metric/Cargo.toml
@@ -19,6 +19,13 @@ opentelemetry_sdk = { version = "0.32", features = ["metrics"] }
 # so the async client panics there with "no reactor running". The blocking
 # client sends on that thread directly — and for a fire-and-forget CLI that
 # records one point then `shutdown()`s, a synchronous send is exactly right.
+#
+# Deliberately WITHOUT the `internal-logs` feature that `hive-c0re` names, even
+# though the defect is identical: this binary installs no `tracing` subscriber,
+# so the SDK's diagnostics would be emitted into a void. Enabling it here would
+# read as "hive-metric reports its export failures" while changing nothing at
+# all. Giving this CLI somewhere to report is a behaviour change with its own
+# decision (does a metrics push print to stderr?) — tracked separately.
 opentelemetry-otlp = { version = "0.32", default-features = false, features = [
   "metrics",
   "http-json",