diff --git a/hyperactor/src/mailbox.rs b/hyperactor/src/mailbox.rs
index 781a8cfc..6afc4f8b 100644
--- a/hyperactor/src/mailbox.rs
+++ b/hyperactor/src/mailbox.rs
@@ -1043,7 +1043,7 @@ impl MailboxSender for MailboxClient {
         return_handle: PortHandle<Undeliverable<MessageEnvelope>>,
     ) {
         // tracing::trace!(name = "post", "posting message to {}", envelope.dest);
-        tracing::event!(target:"message", tracing::Level::DEBUG, "crc"=envelope.data.crc(), "size"=envelope.data.len(), "sender"= %envelope.sender, "dest" = %envelope.dest.0, "port"= envelope.dest.1, "message_type" = envelope.data.typename().unwrap_or("unknown"), "send_message");
+        tracing::event!(target:"messages", tracing::Level::DEBUG, "crc"=envelope.data.crc(), "size"=envelope.data.len(), "sender"= %envelope.sender, "dest" = %envelope.dest.0, "port"= envelope.dest.1, "message_type" = envelope.data.typename().unwrap_or("unknown"), "send_message");
 
         if let Err(mpsc::error::SendError((envelope, return_handle))) =
             self.buffer.send((envelope, return_handle))
diff --git a/hyperactor_telemetry/Cargo.toml b/hyperactor_telemetry/Cargo.toml
index 8ffdfe42..51ea1334 100644
--- a/hyperactor_telemetry/Cargo.toml
+++ b/hyperactor_telemetry/Cargo.toml
@@ -20,9 +20,11 @@ lazy_static = "1.5"
 opentelemetry = "0.29"
 opentelemetry_sdk = { version = "0.29.0", features = ["rt-tokio"] }
 rand = { version = "0.8", features = ["small_rng"] }
+rusqlite = { version = "0.36.0", features = ["backup", "blob", "bundled", "column_decltype", "functions", "limits", "modern_sqlite", "serde_json"] }
 scuba = { version = "0.1.0", git = "https://github.com/facebookexperimental/rust-shed.git", branch = "main", optional = true }
 serde = { version = "1.0.219", features = ["derive", "rc"] }
 serde_json = { version = "1.0.140", features = ["alloc", "float_roundtrip", "unbounded_depth"] }
+serde_rusqlite = "0.39.3"
 tokio = { version = "1.46.1", features = ["full", "test-util", "tracing"] }
 tracing = { version = "0.1.41", features = ["attributes", "valuable"] }
 tracing-appender = "0.2.3"
diff --git a/hyperactor_telemetry/src/lib.rs b/hyperactor_telemetry/src/lib.rs
index 415ff17e..e2c19879 100644
--- a/hyperactor_telemetry/src/lib.rs
+++ b/hyperactor_telemetry/src/lib.rs
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ mod otel;
 mod pool;
 pub mod recorder;
 mod spool;
+pub mod sqlite;
 use std::io::IsTerminal;
 use std::io::Write;
 use std::str::FromStr;
diff --git a/hyperactor_telemetry/src/sqlite.rs b/hyperactor_telemetry/src/sqlite.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1930f077
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hyperactor_telemetry/src/sqlite.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,364 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (c) Meta Platforms, Inc. and affiliates.
+ * All rights reserved.
+ *
+ * This source code is licensed under the BSD-style license found in the
+ * LICENSE file in the root directory of this source tree.
+ */
+
+use std::collections::HashMap;
+use std::sync::Arc;
+use std::sync::Mutex;
+
+use anyhow::Result;
+use anyhow::anyhow;
+use lazy_static::lazy_static;
+use rusqlite::Connection;
+use rusqlite::functions::FunctionFlags;
+use serde::Serialize;
+use serde_json::Value as JValue;
+use serde_rusqlite::*;
+use tracing::Event;
+use tracing::Subscriber;
+use tracing::level_filters::LevelFilter;
+use tracing_subscriber::Layer;
+use tracing_subscriber::filter::Targets;
+use tracing_subscriber::prelude::*;
+
+pub trait TableDef {
+    fn name(&self) -> &'static str;
+    fn columns(&self) -> &'static [&'static str];
+    fn create_table_stmt(&self) -> String {
+        let name = self.name();
+        let columns = self
+            .columns()
+            .iter()
+            .map(|col| format!("{col} TEXT "))
+            .collect::<Vec<String>>()
+            .join(",");
+        format!("create table if not exists {name} (seq INTEGER primary key, {columns})")
+    }
+    fn insert_stmt(&self) -> String {
+        let name = self.name();
+        let columns = self.columns().join(", ");
+        let params = self
+            .columns()
+            .iter()
+            .map(|c| format!(":{c}"))
+            .collect::<Vec<String>>()
+            .join(", ");
+        format!("insert into {name} ({columns}) values ({params})")
+    }
+}
+
+impl TableDef for (&'static str, &'static [&'static str]) {
+    fn name(&self) -> &'static str {
+        self.0
+    }
+
+    fn columns(&self) -> &'static [&'static str] {
+        self.1
+    }
+}
+
+#[derive(Clone, Debug)]
+pub struct Table {
+    pub columns: &'static [&'static str],
+    pub create_table_stmt: String,
+    pub insert_stmt: String,
+}
+
+impl From<(&'static str, &'static [&'static str])> for Table {
+    fn from(value: (&'static str, &'static [&'static str])) -> Self {
+        Self {
+            columns: value.columns(),
+            create_table_stmt: value.create_table_stmt(),
+            insert_stmt: value.insert_stmt(),
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq)]
+pub enum TableName {
+    ActorLifecycle,
+    Messages,
+    Events,
+}
+
+impl TableName {
+    pub const ACTOR_LIFECYCLE_STR: &'static str = "actor_lifecycle";
+    pub const MESSAGES_STR: &'static str = "messages";
+    pub const EVENTS_STR: &'static str = "events";
+
+    pub fn as_str(&self) -> &'static str {
+        match self {
+            TableName::ActorLifecycle => Self::ACTOR_LIFECYCLE_STR,
+            TableName::Messages => Self::MESSAGES_STR,
+            TableName::Events => Self::EVENTS_STR,
+        }
+    }
+
+    pub fn get_table(&self) -> &'static Table {
+        match self {
+            TableName::ActorLifecycle => &ACTOR_LIFECYCLE,
+            TableName::Messages => &MESSAGES,
+            TableName::Events => &EVENTS,
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+lazy_static! {
+    static ref ACTOR_LIFECYCLE: Table = (
+        TableName::ActorLifecycle.as_str(),
+        [
+            "actor_id",
+            "actor",
+            "name",
+            "supervised_actor",
+            "actor_status",
+            "module_path",
+            "line",
+            "file",
+        ]
+        .as_slice()
+    )
+        .into();
+    static ref MESSAGES: Table = (
+        TableName::Messages.as_str(),
+        [
+            "span_id",
+            "time_us",
+            "src",
+            "dest",
+            "payload",
+            "module_path",
+            "line",
+            "file",
+        ]
+        .as_slice()
+    )
+        .into();
+    static ref EVENTS: Table = (
+        TableName::Events.as_str(),
+        [
+            "span_id",
+            "time_us",
+            "name",
+            "message",
+            "actor_id",
+            "level",
+            "line",
+            "file",
+            "module_path",
+        ]
+        .as_slice()
+    )
+        .into();
+    static ref ALL_TABLES: Vec<Table> =
+        vec![ACTOR_LIFECYCLE.clone(), MESSAGES.clone(), EVENTS.clone()];
+}
+
+pub struct SqliteLayer {
+    conn: Arc<Mutex<Connection>>,
+}
+use tracing::field::Visit;
+
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, Default, Serialize)]
+struct SqlVisitor(HashMap<String, JValue>);
+
+impl Visit for SqlVisitor {
+    fn record_debug(&mut self, field: &tracing::field::Field, value: &dyn std::fmt::Debug) {
+        self.0.insert(
+            field.name().to_string(),
+            JValue::String(format!("{:?}", value)),
+        );
+    }
+
+    fn record_str(&mut self, field: &tracing::field::Field, value: &str) {
+        self.0
+            .insert(field.name().to_string(), JValue::String(value.to_string()));
+    }
+
+    fn record_i64(&mut self, field: &tracing::field::Field, value: i64) {
+        self.0
+            .insert(field.name().to_string(), JValue::Number(value.into()));
+    }
+
+    fn record_f64(&mut self, field: &tracing::field::Field, value: f64) {
+        let n = serde_json::Number::from_f64(value).unwrap();
+        self.0.insert(field.name().to_string(), JValue::Number(n));
+    }
+
+    fn record_u64(&mut self, field: &tracing::field::Field, value: u64) {
+        self.0
+            .insert(field.name().to_string(), JValue::Number(value.into()));
+    }
+
+    fn record_bool(&mut self, field: &tracing::field::Field, value: bool) {
+        self.0.insert(field.name().to_string(), JValue::Bool(value));
+    }
+}
+
+macro_rules! insert_event {
+    ($table:expr, $conn:ident, $event:ident) => {
+        let mut v: SqlVisitor = Default::default();
+        $event.record(&mut v);
+        let meta = $event.metadata();
+        v.0.insert(
+            "module_path".to_string(),
+            meta.module_path().map(String::from).into(),
+        );
+        v.0.insert("line".to_string(), meta.line().into());
+        v.0.insert("file".to_string(), meta.file().map(String::from).into());
+        $conn.prepare_cached(&$table.insert_stmt)?.execute(
+            serde_rusqlite::to_params_named_with_fields(v, $table.columns)?
+                .to_slice()
+                .as_slice(),
+        )?;
+    };
+}
+
+impl SqliteLayer {
+    pub fn new() -> Result<Self> {
+        let conn = Connection::open_in_memory()?;
+
+        for table in ALL_TABLES.iter() {
+            conn.execute(&table.create_table_stmt, [])?;
+        }
+        conn.create_scalar_function(
+            "assert",
+            2,
+            FunctionFlags::SQLITE_UTF8 | FunctionFlags::SQLITE_DETERMINISTIC,
+            move |ctx| {
+                let condition: bool = ctx.get(0)?;
+                let message: String = ctx.get(1)?;
+
+                if !condition {
+                    return Err(rusqlite::Error::UserFunctionError(
+                        anyhow!("assertion failed:{condition} {message}",).into(),
+                    ));
+                }
+
+                Ok(condition)
+            },
+        )?;
+
+        Ok(Self {
+            conn: Arc::new(Mutex::new(conn)),
+        })
+    }
+
+    fn insert_event(&self, event: &Event<'_>) -> Result<()> {
+        let conn = self.conn.lock().unwrap();
+        match (event.metadata().target(), event.metadata().name()) {
+            (TableName::MESSAGES_STR, _) => {
+                insert_event!(TableName::Messages.get_table(), conn, event);
+            }
+            (TableName::ACTOR_LIFECYCLE_STR, _) => {
+                insert_event!(TableName::ActorLifecycle.get_table(), conn, event);
+            }
+            _ => {
+                insert_event!(TableName::Events.get_table(), conn, event);
+            }
+        }
+        Ok(())
+    }
+
+    pub fn connection(&self) -> Arc<Mutex<Connection>> {
+        self.conn.clone()
+    }
+}
+
+impl<S: Subscriber> Layer<S> for SqliteLayer {
+    fn on_event(&self, event: &Event<'_>, _ctx: tracing_subscriber::layer::Context<'_, S>) {
+        self.insert_event(event).unwrap();
+    }
+}
+
+#[allow(dead_code)]
+fn print_table(conn: &Connection, table_name: TableName) -> Result<()> {
+    let table_name_str = table_name.as_str();
+
+    // Get column names
+    let mut stmt = conn.prepare(&format!("PRAGMA table_info({})", table_name_str))?;
+    let column_info = stmt.query_map([], |row| {
+        row.get::<_, String>(1) // Column name is at index 1
+    })?;
+
+    let columns: Vec<String> = column_info.collect::<Result<Vec<_>, _>>()?;
+
+    // Print header
+    println!("=== {} ===", table_name_str.to_uppercase());
+    println!("{}", columns.join(" | "));
+    println!("{}", "-".repeat(columns.len() * 10));
+
+    // Print rows
+    let mut stmt = conn.prepare(&format!("SELECT * FROM {}", table_name_str))?;
+    let rows = stmt.query_map([], |row| {
+        let mut values = Vec::new();
+        for (i, column) in columns.iter().enumerate() {
+            // Handle different column types properly
+            let value = if i == 0 && *column == "seq" {
+                // First column is always the INTEGER seq column
+                match row.get::<_, Option<i64>>(i)? {
+                    Some(v) => v.to_string(),
+                    None => "NULL".to_string(),
+                }
+            } else {
+                // All other columns are TEXT
+                match row.get::<_, Option<String>>(i)? {
+                    Some(v) => v,
+                    None => "NULL".to_string(),
+                }
+            };
+            values.push(value);
+        }
+        Ok(values.join(" | "))
+    })?;
+
+    for row in rows {
+        println!("{}", row?);
+    }
+    println!();
+    Ok(())
+}
+
+pub fn with_tracing_db() -> Arc<Mutex<Connection>> {
+    let layer = SqliteLayer::new().unwrap();
+    let conn = layer.connection();
+
+    let layer = layer.with_filter(
+        Targets::new()
+            .with_default(LevelFilter::TRACE)
+            .with_targets(vec![
+                ("tokio", LevelFilter::OFF),
+                ("opentelemetry", LevelFilter::OFF),
+                ("runtime", LevelFilter::OFF),
+            ]),
+    );
+    tracing_subscriber::registry().with(layer).init();
+    conn
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use tracing::info;
+
+    use super::*;
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_sqlite_layer() -> Result<()> {
+        let conn = with_tracing_db();
+
+        info!(target:"messages", test_field = "test_value", "Test msg");
+        info!(target:"events", test_field = "test_value", "Test event");
+
+        let count: i64 =
+            conn.lock()
+                .unwrap()
+                .query_row("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM messages", [], |row| row.get(0))?;
+        print_table(&conn.lock().unwrap(), TableName::Events)?;
+        assert!(count > 0);
+        Ok(())
+    }
+}