In described embodiments, a transceiver includes an eye monitor and margin detector having one or more samplers with corresponding logic. One or more programmable provisioning parameters are defined based on a pre-defined minimum target operating margin for acceptable noise and jitter margins. For example, two programmable provisioning parameters, phase and voltage, correspond with thresholds for margin samplers placed within the eye. Initially, the transceiver applies equalization, after which an inner eye of the transceiver, as detected by the eye monitor, is relatively open with some margin for supporting channels. If the receiver margin goes below this target margin, the eye closes, which is registered by the samplers. In the presence of spectrally rich input data, if the receiver margin goes below this target margin, an updated adaptation of equalizer or other circuit parameters might be initiated; else, adaptation is not generally required.