Why CMEs erupt is a major outstanding puzzle of solar physics. Signatures observable at the earliest stages of eruption onset may hold precious clues about the onset mechanism. We summarize and discuss observations from SOHO/EIT in EUV and from Yohkoh/SXT in soft X-rays of the pre-eruption and eruption phases of three CME expulsions, along with the eruptions' magnetic setting inferred from SOHO/MDI magnetograms. Our events involve clearly-observable filament eruptions and multiple neutral lines, and we use the magnetic settings and motions of the filaments to help infer the geometry and behavior of the associated erupting magnetic fields. Pre-eruption and early-eruption signatures include a relatively slow filament rise prior to eruption, and intensity dimmings and brightenings, both in the immediate neighborhood of the “core” (location of greatest magnetic shear) of the erupting fields and at locations remote from the core. These signatures and their relative timings place observational constraints on eruption mechanisms; our recent work has focused on implications for the so-called “tether cutting” and “breakout” models, but the same observational constraints are applicable to any model.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html