diff --git a/apps/web/src/lib/runtime.test.ts b/apps/web/src/lib/runtime.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..0d8ca9a29d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/web/src/lib/runtime.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+import { describe, expect, it } from "@effect/vitest";
+import * as Effect from "effect/Effect";
+import * as Tracer from "effect/Tracer";
+
+import { ClientTracingLive } from "../observability/clientTracer";
+import { runtime } from "./runtime";
+
+const readTracer = Effect.service(Tracer.Tracer);
+
+describe("web runtime", () => {
+  it.effect("installs the client tracer so client spans reach the trace proxy", () =>
+    Effect.gen(function* () {
+      const installed = yield* Effect.promise(() => runtime.runPromise(readTracer));
+
+      expect(installed).toBe(yield* readTracer);
+    }).pipe(Effect.provide(ClientTracingLive)),
+  );
+});
diff --git a/apps/web/src/lib/runtime.ts b/apps/web/src/lib/runtime.ts
index 3836d2a3916..421b3cbdc11 100644
--- a/apps/web/src/lib/runtime.ts
+++ b/apps/web/src/lib/runtime.ts
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ import { primaryEnvironmentHttpLayer } from "../environments/primary/httpLayer";
 import { browserCryptoLayer } from "../cloud/dpop";
 import { managedRelayClientLayer } from "../cloud/managedRelayLayer";
 import { resolveCloudPublicConfig, resolveRelayTracingConfig } from "../cloud/publicConfig";
+import { ClientTracingLive } from "../observability/clientTracer";
 
 function configuredRelayUrl(): string {
   return resolveCloudPublicConfig().relayUrl ?? "http://relay.invalid";
@@ -29,6 +30,7 @@ type RuntimeLayerSource =
   | typeof browserCryptoLayer
   | typeof Socket.layerWebSocketConstructorGlobal
   | typeof relayTracingLayer
+  | typeof ClientTracingLive
   | ReturnType<typeof managedRelayClientLayer>;
 
 export const remoteHttpRuntime = ManagedRuntime.make(httpClientLayer);
@@ -58,6 +60,7 @@ const runtimeLayer = Layer.mergeAll(
   httpClientLayer,
   browserCryptoLayer,
   Socket.layerWebSocketConstructorGlobal,
+  ClientTracingLive,
   relayTracingLayer,
   managedRelayClientLayer(configuredRelayUrl()).pipe(
     Layer.provide(Layer.mergeAll(httpClientLayer, browserCryptoLayer)),
diff --git a/apps/web/src/observability/clientTracer.ts b/apps/web/src/observability/clientTracer.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..24fb9bbf49c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/web/src/observability/clientTracer.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+import * as Layer from "effect/Layer";
+import * as Tracer from "effect/Tracer";
+
+let delegate: Tracer.Tracer | null = null;
+
+/**
+ * Points the installed tracer at the exporter `configureClientTracing` just built,
+ * or at nothing while no exporter is configured.
+ */
+export function setClientTracerDelegate(next: Tracer.Tracer | null): void {
+  delegate = next;
+}
+
+export function hasClientTracerDelegate(): boolean {
+  return delegate !== null;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Installed once when the client runtime is built, before any exporter exists, so
+ * client spans keep flowing to whatever exporter is configured later on.
+ */
+export const ClientTracingLive = Layer.succeed(
+  Tracer.Tracer,
+  Tracer.make({
+    span(options) {
+      return delegate?.span(options) ?? new Tracer.NativeSpan(options);
+    },
+  }),
+);
diff --git a/apps/web/src/observability/clientTracing.ts b/apps/web/src/observability/clientTracing.ts
index 2d07e218e85..02d58aee881 100644
--- a/apps/web/src/observability/clientTracing.ts
+++ b/apps/web/src/observability/clientTracing.ts
@@ -2,13 +2,13 @@ import * as Exit from "effect/Exit";
 import * as Layer from "effect/Layer";
 import * as ManagedRuntime from "effect/ManagedRuntime";
 import * as Scope from "effect/Scope";
-import * as Tracer from "effect/Tracer";
 import { HttpClient } from "effect/unstable/http";
 import { OtlpExporter, OtlpSerialization, OtlpTracer } from "effect/unstable/observability";
 
 import { settleAsyncResult, squashAtomCommandFailure } from "@t3tools/client-runtime/state/runtime";
 import { safeErrorLogAttributes } from "@t3tools/client-runtime/errors";
 import { resolvePrimaryEnvironmentHttpUrl } from "../environments/primary";
+import { hasClientTracerDelegate, setClientTracerDelegate } from "./clientTracer";
 import { primaryEnvironmentHttpLayer } from "../environments/primary/httpLayer";
 import { isElectron } from "../env";
 import { APP_VERSION } from "~/branding";
@@ -30,7 +30,6 @@ const delegateRuntimeLayer = Layer.mergeAll(
   Layer.succeed(HttpClient.TracerDisabledWhen, () => true),
 );
 
-let activeDelegate: Tracer.Tracer | null = null;
 let activeRuntime: ManagedRuntime.ManagedRuntime<never, never> | null = null;
 let activeScope: Scope.Closeable | null = null;
 let activeConfigKey: string | null = null;
@@ -41,15 +40,6 @@ export interface ClientTracingConfig {
   readonly exportIntervalMs?: number;
 }
 
-export const ClientTracingLive = Layer.succeed(
-  Tracer.Tracer,
-  Tracer.make({
-    span(options) {
-      return activeDelegate?.span(options) ?? new Tracer.NativeSpan(options);
-    },
-  }),
-);
-
 export function configureClientTracing(config: ClientTracingConfig = {}): Promise<void> {
   if (config.exportIntervalMs === undefined && activeConfigKey !== null) {
     return pendingConfiguration;
@@ -63,7 +53,7 @@ async function applyClientTracingConfig(config: ClientTracingConfig): Promise<vo
   const exportIntervalMs = Math.max(10, config.exportIntervalMs ?? DEFAULT_EXPORT_INTERVAL_MS);
   const nextConfigKey = `${otlpTracesUrl}|${exportIntervalMs}`;
 
-  if (activeConfigKey === nextConfigKey && activeDelegate !== null) {
+  if (activeConfigKey === nextConfigKey && hasClientTracerDelegate()) {
     return;
   }
 
@@ -73,7 +63,7 @@ async function applyClientTracingConfig(config: ClientTracingConfig): Promise<vo
   const previousRuntime = activeRuntime;
   const previousScope = activeScope;
 
-  activeDelegate = null;
+  setClientTracerDelegate(null);
   activeRuntime = null;
   activeScope = null;
 
@@ -115,7 +105,7 @@ async function applyClientTracingConfig(config: ClientTracingConfig): Promise<vo
     return;
   }
 
-  activeDelegate = delegateResult.value;
+  setClientTracerDelegate(delegateResult.value);
   activeRuntime = runtime;
   activeScope = scope;
 }
@@ -135,7 +125,7 @@ async function disposeTracerRuntime(
 export async function __resetClientTracingForTests() {
   configurationGeneration++;
   activeConfigKey = null;
-  activeDelegate = null;
+  setClientTracerDelegate(null);
   pendingConfiguration = Promise.resolve();
 
   const runtime = activeRuntime;
diff --git a/docs/fork/0021-a-trace-includes-the-client-that-started-it.md b/docs/fork/0021-a-trace-includes-the-client-that-started-it.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..1deba53fd97
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/fork/0021-a-trace-includes-the-client-that-started-it.md
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+# 0021: A trace includes the client that started it
+
+- PR: [TrogonStack/t3code#34](https://github.com/TrogonStack/t3code/pull/34)
+- Status: active
+
+## What you can do now
+
+- Read a trace from the click that started it. Work you begin in the app now
+  appears in the same trace as the server work it caused, so the path from an
+  action to its result is one story instead of a fragment of one.
+- Tell a slow app from a slow machine. Time the client spends before a request
+  ever leaves is now visible next to the time the server spent on it, which is
+  the first question worth asking when something feels slow and the server
+  looks fine.
+- Stop chasing parents that do not exist. Server work used to point at a client
+  step that never arrived anywhere, so traces read as though something had gone
+  missing in transit. Nothing was lost in transit; the client step simply never
+  left.
+- Get it on the desktop app too, on the same trace destination you already
+  configured. There is nothing new to turn on.
+
+## Why
+
+The app has produced its own trace steps for a long time, and it has always
+told the server which step to attach its work to. What it never did was send
+those steps anywhere. The result was the most expensive kind of wrong: traces
+that looked complete, arrived on time, and described only half of what happened,
+with a root that pointed at something no backend had ever been given.
+
+That gap is worst exactly where tracing earns its keep. Turn latency is a
+question about the whole path, and a trace that starts at the server can only
+ever answer the second half of it. Anyone reading one had to know, from
+outside the tool, that the missing half was missing rather than empty.
+
+This was not a decision anyone made. Client tracing was built, wired up, and
+then quietly unwired by a later change to how the app builds itself, and the
+part that went missing was the only part that had no test. It has been off ever
+since, without a warning, a log line, or an empty panel to hint at it.
+
+## Upstream considerations
+
+This belongs upstream and should be easy for them to take: it restores behavior
+upstream built and intended, changes no API, and adds nothing that is specific
+to this fork. The divergence disappears the moment upstream reconnects it, and
+this entry goes with it.
+
+The rebase burden is small but has a sharp edge. The trace destination has to be
+attached where the app assembles its shared services, and a sync that rewrites
+that assembly has to bring the attachment along. That is precisely how it was
+lost the first time, so it now fails a test when it goes missing instead of
+failing silently.
diff --git a/docs/fork/README.md b/docs/fork/README.md
index 7b249f64e04..cae0dafbef6 100644
--- a/docs/fork/README.md
+++ b/docs/fork/README.md
@@ -57,3 +57,5 @@ Each entry uses these sections:
   active, [#32](https://github.com/TrogonStack/t3code/pull/32)
 - **0020** [Server logs reach your collector](./0020-server-logs-reach-your-collector.md)
   active, [#33](https://github.com/TrogonStack/t3code/pull/33)
+- **0021** [A trace includes the client that started it](./0021-a-trace-includes-the-client-that-started-it.md)
+  active, [#34](https://github.com/TrogonStack/t3code/pull/34)