diff --git a/artifacts/api-server/src/app.ts b/artifacts/api-server/src/app.ts
index 82f2a4b..b29723c 100644
--- a/artifacts/api-server/src/app.ts
+++ b/artifacts/api-server/src/app.ts
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import path from "path";
 import { fileURLToPath } from "url";
 import router from "./routes/index.js";
 import adminRelayPanelRouter from "./routes/admin-relay-panel.js";
+import { requestIdMiddleware } from "./middlewares/request-id.js";
 import { responseTimeMiddleware } from "./middlewares/response-time.js";
 
 const app: Express = express();
@@ -50,6 +51,7 @@ app.use(
 
 app.use(express.json());
 app.use(express.urlencoded({ extended: true }));
+app.use(requestIdMiddleware);
 app.use(responseTimeMiddleware);
 
 app.use("/api", router);
diff --git a/artifacts/api-server/src/lib/logger.ts b/artifacts/api-server/src/lib/logger.ts
index da53042..e155fab 100644
--- a/artifacts/api-server/src/lib/logger.ts
+++ b/artifacts/api-server/src/lib/logger.ts
@@ -4,7 +4,19 @@ export interface LogContext {
   [key: string]: unknown;
 }
 
+const LEVEL_ORDER: Record<LogLevel, number> = { debug: 0, info: 1, warn: 2, error: 3 };
+
+function resolveMinLevel(): LogLevel {
+  const env = (process.env["LOG_LEVEL"] ?? "").toLowerCase();
+  if (env === "debug" || env === "info" || env === "warn" || env === "error") return env;
+  return "debug";
+}
+
+const minLevel: number = LEVEL_ORDER[resolveMinLevel()];
+
 function emit(level: LogLevel, component: string, message: string, ctx?: LogContext): void {
+  if (LEVEL_ORDER[level] < minLevel) return;
+
   const line: Record<string, unknown> = {
     timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
     level,
diff --git a/artifacts/api-server/src/lib/metrics.ts b/artifacts/api-server/src/lib/metrics.ts
index 2fd2dfc..5ee3e9c 100644
--- a/artifacts/api-server/src/lib/metrics.ts
+++ b/artifacts/api-server/src/lib/metrics.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import { db, jobs, invoices } from "@workspace/db";
 import { sql } from "drizzle-orm";
 import { latencyHistogram, type BucketStats } from "./histogram.js";
+import { requestCounters, type RequestCountsSnapshot } from "./request-counters.js";
 
 export interface JobStateCounts {
   awaiting_eval: number;
@@ -12,6 +13,7 @@ export interface JobStateCounts {
 
 export interface MetricsSnapshot {
   uptime_s: number;
+  http: RequestCountsSnapshot;
   jobs: {
     total: number;
     by_state: JobStateCounts;
@@ -94,6 +96,7 @@ export class MetricsService {
 
     return {
       uptime_s: Math.floor((Date.now() - START_TIME) / 1000),
+      http: requestCounters.snapshot(),
       jobs: {
         total: jobsTotal,
         by_state: byState,
diff --git a/artifacts/api-server/src/lib/request-counters.ts b/artifacts/api-server/src/lib/request-counters.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3db2656
--- /dev/null
+++ b/artifacts/api-server/src/lib/request-counters.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+/** In-memory HTTP request counters for the /api/metrics endpoint. */
+
+export interface RequestCountsSnapshot {
+  total: number;
+  by_status: Record<string, number>;
+  errors_4xx: number;
+  errors_5xx: number;
+}
+
+class RequestCounters {
+  private total = 0;
+  private byStatus: Record<number, number> = {};
+  private errors4xx = 0;
+  private errors5xx = 0;
+
+  record(statusCode: number): void {
+    this.total++;
+    this.byStatus[statusCode] = (this.byStatus[statusCode] ?? 0) + 1;
+    if (statusCode >= 400 && statusCode < 500) this.errors4xx++;
+    else if (statusCode >= 500) this.errors5xx++;
+  }
+
+  snapshot(): RequestCountsSnapshot {
+    const byStatus: Record<string, number> = {};
+    for (const [code, count] of Object.entries(this.byStatus)) {
+      byStatus[code] = count;
+    }
+    return {
+      total: this.total,
+      by_status: byStatus,
+      errors_4xx: this.errors4xx,
+      errors_5xx: this.errors5xx,
+    };
+  }
+}
+
+export const requestCounters = new RequestCounters();
diff --git a/artifacts/api-server/src/middlewares/request-id.ts b/artifacts/api-server/src/middlewares/request-id.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3bcb9ac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/artifacts/api-server/src/middlewares/request-id.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+import crypto from "crypto";
+import type { Request, Response, NextFunction } from "express";
+
+const HEADER = "X-Request-Id";
+
+/**
+ * Assigns a unique request ID to every incoming request.
+ * If the client (or a reverse proxy) already sent X-Request-Id, reuse it;
+ * otherwise generate a short random hex string.
+ * The ID is stored on `res.locals.requestId` for downstream middleware/routes
+ * and echoed back via the X-Request-Id response header.
+ */
+export function requestIdMiddleware(req: Request, res: Response, next: NextFunction): void {
+  const id = (req.headers[HEADER.toLowerCase()] as string | undefined) ?? crypto.randomUUID();
+  res.locals["requestId"] = id;
+  res.setHeader(HEADER, id);
+  next();
+}
diff --git a/artifacts/api-server/src/middlewares/response-time.ts b/artifacts/api-server/src/middlewares/response-time.ts
index 7475dbb..0d76102 100644
--- a/artifacts/api-server/src/middlewares/response-time.ts
+++ b/artifacts/api-server/src/middlewares/response-time.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import type { Request, Response, NextFunction } from "express";
 import { makeLogger } from "../lib/logger.js";
 import { latencyHistogram } from "../lib/histogram.js";
+import { requestCounters } from "../lib/request-counters.js";
 
 const logger = makeLogger("http");
 
@@ -13,8 +14,10 @@ export function responseTimeMiddleware(req: Request, res: Response, next: NextFu
     const routeKey = `${req.method} ${route ?? req.path}`;
 
     latencyHistogram.record(routeKey, durationMs);
+    requestCounters.record(res.statusCode);
 
     logger.info("request", {
+      request_id: res.locals["requestId"] ?? null,
       method:      req.method,
       path:        req.path,
       route:       route ?? null,