Search and browse individual sampled traces and spans, then open one to inspect.


Get here: Traces → + → Trace Explorer. (The same Root/All Spans view appears service‑scoped under Distributed Tracing and operation‑scoped via View Traces.)

Page structure

The Explorer stacks three areas from top to bottom:

  1. Trend chart (top) — plots trace/operation activity from trace metrics across your selected time range. Click‑drag over it to pick a narrower window, and the tables below update to match.
  2. Query bar — where you narrow the list: basic pill filters or the advanced editor (see Query Syntax and Facets), together with the time‑range picker, refresh, Save View, and Copy View actions.
  3. Results tables — the matching traces and spans, shown in two tabs:
    • Root Entry Spans — one row per trace, keyed on the request that started it (its root span); the fastest way to browse whole requests.
    • All Spans — one row per individual span, so you can search across every operation inside those traces.

Basic filters (pills)

Add filters as pills to narrow the list. As you type, values are suggested from your live data, so you only choose from what actually exists. Available filters: Service · Operation · Application · Transaction type/category · Infrastructure · Error status · Duration.

Result columns

  • Root Entry Spans (one row per trace) — shows Service · Operation · Start Time · Spans Count · Service Count · Error Count · Duration · Trace Duration; any trace that contains an error is highlighted red.
  • All Spans (one row per span) — shows Service · Operation · Start Time · Duration; a row’s … → View details opens that span.

Worst Spans

On All Spans, toggle Worst Spans and set a latency threshold (default 500 ms, ms/s) to list only spans exceeding it.

Column settings (⚙ gear)

The gear icon at the top‑right of the spans table (next to Worst Spans) opens column settings, grouped into Default (built‑in fields) and Custom (any span attribute from your instrumentation — e.g. http.route, user_id, region). Check an attribute to add it as a column; you can also line‑wrap, sort, and reorder (drag) columns. Choices are remembered with the view (and travel with saved/shared views).

Limits

Results cap at 1000 rows; >100 attribute combinations prompts refine your search.