diff --git a/packages/junior/src/chat/pi/traced-stream.ts b/packages/junior/src/chat/pi/traced-stream.ts
index e6ee7328..49295b3c 100644
--- a/packages/junior/src/chat/pi/traced-stream.ts
+++ b/packages/junior/src/chat/pi/traced-stream.ts
@@ -13,6 +13,75 @@ import {
   serializeGenAiAttribute,
 } from "@/chat/logging";
 import { GEN_AI_PROVIDER_NAME } from "@/chat/pi/client";
+import { TURN_CONTEXT_TAG } from "@/chat/turn-context-tag";
+
+const TURN_CONTEXT_OPEN = `<${TURN_CONTEXT_TAG}>`;
+const CURRENT_INSTRUCTION_RE =
+  /<current-instruction[^>]*>\n?([\s\S]*?)\n?<\/current-instruction>/;
+const WRAPPER_BLOCKS_RE =
+  /<(?:thread-background|session-context|turn-context)>[\s\S]*?<\/(?:thread-background|session-context|turn-context)>\n*/g;
+
+/** Extract the user's actual instruction from a `buildUserTurnText` output. */
+function extractUserInstruction(text: string): string {
+  const match = CURRENT_INSTRUCTION_RE.exec(text);
+  if (match) {
+    return match[1].trim();
+  }
+  return text.replace(WRAPPER_BLOCKS_RE, "").trim();
+}
+
+/**
+ * Clean user messages for the observable `gen_ai.input.messages` attribute:
+ * 1. Drop `<runtime-turn-context>` content parts entirely (volatile runtime metadata).
+ * 2. Unwrap `<current-instruction>` / strip `<thread-background>` etc. from text
+ *    so only the actual user instruction remains.
+ */
+function cleanUserMessagesForObservability(messages: unknown[]): unknown[] {
+  return messages.map((msg) => {
+    const record = msg as Record<string, unknown> | null;
+    if (!record || record.role !== "user") {
+      return msg;
+    }
+
+    const content = record.content;
+    if (!Array.isArray(content)) {
+      return msg;
+    }
+
+    let changed = false;
+    const cleaned = content
+      .filter((part) => {
+        if (
+          part &&
+          typeof part === "object" &&
+          (part as { type?: unknown }).type === "text"
+        ) {
+          const text = (part as { text?: unknown }).text;
+          if (typeof text === "string" && text.startsWith(TURN_CONTEXT_OPEN)) {
+            changed = true;
+            return false;
+          }
+        }
+        return true;
+      })
+      .map((part) => {
+        if (
+          part &&
+          typeof part === "object" &&
+          (part as { type?: unknown }).type === "text"
+        ) {
+          const text = (part as { text?: unknown }).text;
+          if (typeof text === "string" && CURRENT_INSTRUCTION_RE.test(text)) {
+            changed = true;
+            return { ...part, text: extractUserInstruction(text) };
+          }
+        }
+        return part;
+      });
+
+    return changed ? { ...record, content: cleaned } : msg;
+  });
+}
 
 // Compose only the OTel GenAI attributes that are knowable at span start
 // (request-shape + system instructions). End-of-call attributes such as
@@ -27,7 +96,10 @@ function buildChatStartAttributes(
     "gen_ai.request.model": model.id,
   };
 
-  const inputMessages = serializeGenAiAttribute(context.messages);
+  const observableMessages = cleanUserMessagesForObservability(
+    context.messages,
+  );
+  const inputMessages = serializeGenAiAttribute(observableMessages);
   if (inputMessages) {
     attributes["gen_ai.input.messages"] = inputMessages;
   }
diff --git a/packages/junior/tests/unit/chat/pi/traced-stream.test.ts b/packages/junior/tests/unit/chat/pi/traced-stream.test.ts
index c4636d5f..863743a1 100644
--- a/packages/junior/tests/unit/chat/pi/traced-stream.test.ts
+++ b/packages/junior/tests/unit/chat/pi/traced-stream.test.ts
@@ -116,6 +116,62 @@ describe("createTracedStreamFn", () => {
     expect(opts.attributes["gen_ai.request.model"]).toBe("openai/gpt-5.4");
   });
 
+  it("strips runtime context and XML wrappers from observable user messages", async () => {
+    const { createTracedStreamFn } = await import("@/chat/pi/traced-stream");
+    const stream = createAssistantMessageEventStream();
+    const base = vi.fn(() => stream);
+
+    const userText = [
+      "<thread-background>",
+      "<thread-transcript>",
+      '  <message index="1" role="user">prior question</message>',
+      '  <message index="2" role="assistant">prior answer</message>',
+      "</thread-transcript>",
+      "</thread-background>",
+      "",
+      "<session-context>",
+      "- gen_ai.conversation.id: conv123",
+      "</session-context>",
+      "",
+      '<current-instruction priority="highest">',
+      "what is sentry?",
+      "</current-instruction>",
+    ].join("\n");
+
+    const traced = createTracedStreamFn(base as unknown as StreamFn);
+    await traced(
+      fakeModel("openai/gpt-5.4"),
+      {
+        systemPrompt: "you are junior",
+        messages: [
+          {
+            role: "user",
+            content: [
+              {
+                type: "text",
+                text: "<runtime-turn-context>\nskills and config...\n</runtime-turn-context>",
+              },
+              { type: "text", text: userText },
+            ],
+            timestamp: 0,
+          },
+        ],
+      },
+      undefined,
+    );
+
+    const opts = startInactiveSpan.mock.calls[0]?.[0] as unknown as {
+      attributes: Record<string, unknown>;
+    };
+    const inputMessages = opts.attributes["gen_ai.input.messages"] as string;
+    expect(inputMessages).toContain("what is sentry?");
+    expect(inputMessages).not.toContain("runtime-turn-context");
+    expect(inputMessages).not.toContain("thread-background");
+    expect(inputMessages).not.toContain("session-context");
+    expect(inputMessages).not.toContain("current-instruction");
+    expect(inputMessages).not.toContain("prior answer");
+  });
+
   it("sets output.messages, usage tokens, finish_reasons, response.model after stream completion", async () => {
     const { createTracedStreamFn } = await import("@/chat/pi/traced-stream");
     const stream = createAssistantMessageEventStream();