diff --git a/Taskfile.yml b/Taskfile.yml
index 46a7bf8..abe5f4a 100644
--- a/Taskfile.yml
+++ b/Taskfile.yml
@@ -119,6 +119,8 @@ tasks:
 
   dev-run:
     desc: Run receiver locally against dev stack
+    deps:
+      - up
     env:
       CAATSM_NATS_URL: nats://localhost:4222
       CAATSM_NATS_MODE: jetstream
@@ -129,6 +131,8 @@ tasks:
       GO_ENV: dev
     cmds:
       - |
+        echo "Ensuring observability stack is healthy (Jaeger @ http://localhost:16686)"
+        docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml ps jaeger otel-collector >/dev/null
         echo "Running receiver with telemetry (mode=${CAATSM_NATS_MODE:-core})"
         CAATSM_NATS_MODE=${CAATSM_NATS_MODE:-core} \
         go run ./cmd/main listen
diff --git a/configs/config.dev.toml b/configs/config.dev.toml
index de1c3b0..31878d3 100644
--- a/configs/config.dev.toml
+++ b/configs/config.dev.toml
@@ -52,6 +52,6 @@ level = "info"
 format = "json"
 
 [telemetry]
-enabled = false
-endpoint = "otel-collector:4318"
+enabled = true
+endpoint = "localhost:4318"
 insecure = true
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/configs/otel-collector.dev.yaml b/configs/otel-collector.dev.yaml
index ce6d975..6ce9efd 100644
--- a/configs/otel-collector.dev.yaml
+++ b/configs/otel-collector.dev.yaml
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ exporters:
   logging:
     loglevel: info
   otlp/jaeger:
-    endpoint: jaeger:14250
+    endpoint: jaeger:4317
     tls:
       insecure: true
 
diff --git a/docker-compose.dev.yml b/docker-compose.dev.yml
index 6b229eb..5b148ad 100644
--- a/docker-compose.dev.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.dev.yml
@@ -82,6 +82,8 @@ services:
       OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT: http://otel-collector:4318
 
   otel-collector:
+    # Receives OTLP HTTP(4318)/gRPC(4317) traffic from the host dev app.
+    # Forwarding of traces/metrics is defined in configs/otel-collector.dev.yaml.
     image: otel/opentelemetry-collector-contrib:0.99.0
     command:
       - "--config=/etc/otelcol/config.yaml"
@@ -105,6 +107,12 @@ services:
     environment:
       COLLECTOR_OTLP_ENABLED: "true"
       LOG_LEVEL: debug
+    healthcheck:
+      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "wget -qO- http://localhost:16686 2>/dev/null | grep -q Jaeger"]
+      interval: 10s
+      timeout: 3s
+      retries: 6
+      start_period: 5s
     networks:
       - devnet