diff --git a/frontend/cli/cmd_serve.go b/frontend/cli/cmd_serve.go
index 54287d8344..fea7559c7e 100644
--- a/frontend/cli/cmd_serve.go
+++ b/frontend/cli/cmd_serve.go
@@ -89,17 +89,16 @@ func (s *serveCmd) run(ctx context.Context, projConfig projectconfig.Config, ini
 
 	logger.Infof("Starting FTL with %d controller(s)", s.Controllers)
 
+	err := observability.Init(ctx, false, "", "ftl-serve", ftl.Version, s.ObservabilityConfig)
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("observability init failed: %w", err)
+	}
 	// Bring up the DB and DAL.
 	dsn, err := s.setupDB(ctx, s.DatabaseImage)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
 
-	err = observability.Init(ctx, false, "", "ftl-serve", ftl.Version, s.ObservabilityConfig)
-	if err != nil {
-		return fmt.Errorf("observability init failed: %w", err)
-	}
-
 	wg, ctx := errgroup.WithContext(ctx)
 
 	bindAllocator, err := bind.NewBindAllocator(s.Bind)