Plugins 〉Explore Traces
Explore Traces
Explore Traces
Distributed traces provide a way to monitor applications by tracking requests across services. Traces record the details of a request to help understand why an issue is or was happening. Tracing is best used for analyzing the performance of your system, identifying bottlenecks, monitoring latency, and providing a complete picture of how requests are processed.
Explore Traces helps you make sense of your tracing data so you can automatically visualize insights from your Tempo traces data. Using the app, you can:
- Use Rate, Errors, and Duration (RED) metrics derived from traces to investigate issues
- Uncover related issues and monitor changes over time
- Browse automatic visualizations of your data based on its characteristics
- Do all of this without writing TraceQL queries
Note: Explore Traces is presently undergoing active development and is offered in a preview state. Subsequent updates are likely to incorporate significant changes that may impact existing functionality.
Before you begin
To use Explore Traces with Grafana Cloud, you need:
- A Grafana Cloud account
- A Grafana stack in Grafana Cloud with a configured Tempo data source receiving tracing data
To use Explore Traces with self-hosted Grafana open source or Grafana Enterprise, you need:
- Your own Grafana instance running 11.2 or newer
- Tempo 2.6 or newer
- A configured Tempo data source receiving tracing data
Getting started
Refer to the Explore Traces documentation. For instructions installing, refer to the access and installation instructions.
Resources
Contributing
We love accepting contributions! If your change is minor, please feel free submit a pull request. If your change is larger, or adds a feature, please file an issue beforehand so that we can discuss the change. You're welcome to file an implementation pull request immediately as well, although we generally lean towards discussing the change and then reviewing the implementation separately.
Bugs
If your issue is a bug, please open one here.
Changes
We do not have a formal proposal process for changes or feature requests. If you have a change you would like to see in Explore Traces, please file an issue with the necessary details.
Grafana Cloud Free
- Free tier: Limited to 3 users
- Paid plans: $55 / user / month above included usage
- Access to all Enterprise Plugins
- Fully managed service (not available to self-manage)
Self-hosted Grafana Enterprise
- Access to all Enterprise plugins
- All Grafana Enterprise features
- Self-manage on your own infrastructure
Grafana Cloud Free
- Free tier: Limited to 3 users
- Paid plans: $55 / user / month above included usage
- Access to all Enterprise Plugins
- Fully managed service (not available to self-manage)
Self-hosted Grafana Enterprise
- Access to all Enterprise plugins
- All Grafana Enterprise features
- Self-manage on your own infrastructure
Grafana Cloud Free
- Free tier: Limited to 3 users
- Paid plans: $55 / user / month above included usage
- Access to all Enterprise Plugins
- Fully managed service (not available to self-manage)
Self-hosted Grafana Enterprise
- Access to all Enterprise plugins
- All Grafana Enterprise features
- Self-manage on your own infrastructure
Grafana Cloud Free
- Free tier: Limited to 3 users
- Paid plans: $55 / user / month above included usage
- Access to all Enterprise Plugins
- Fully managed service (not available to self-manage)
Self-hosted Grafana Enterprise
- Access to all Enterprise plugins
- All Grafana Enterprise features
- Self-manage on your own infrastructure
Grafana Cloud Free
- Free tier: Limited to 3 users
- Paid plans: $55 / user / month above included usage
- Access to all Enterprise Plugins
- Fully managed service (not available to self-manage)
Self-hosted Grafana Enterprise
- Access to all Enterprise plugins
- All Grafana Enterprise features
- Self-manage on your own infrastructure
Installing Explore Traces on Grafana Cloud:
Installing plugins on a Grafana Cloud instance is a one-click install; same with updates. Cool, right?
Note that it could take up to 1 minute to see the plugin show up in your Grafana.
Installing plugins on a Grafana Cloud instance is a one-click install; same with updates. Cool, right?
Note that it could take up to 1 minute to see the plugin show up in your Grafana.
Installing plugins on a Grafana Cloud instance is a one-click install; same with updates. Cool, right?
Note that it could take up to 1 minute to see the plugin show up in your Grafana.
Installing plugins on a Grafana Cloud instance is a one-click install; same with updates. Cool, right?
Note that it could take up to 1 minute to see the plugin show up in your Grafana.
Installing plugins on a Grafana Cloud instance is a one-click install; same with updates. Cool, right?
Note that it could take up to 1 minute to see the plugin show up in your Grafana.
Installing plugins on a Grafana Cloud instance is a one-click install; same with updates. Cool, right?
Note that it could take up to 1 minute to see the plugin show up in your Grafana.
Installing plugins on a Grafana Cloud instance is a one-click install; same with updates. Cool, right?
Note that it could take up to 1 minute to see the plugin show up in your Grafana.
For more information, visit the docs on plugin installation.
Installing on a local Grafana:
For local instances, plugins are installed and updated via a simple CLI command. Plugins are not updated automatically, however you will be notified when updates are available right within your Grafana.
1. Install the Application
Use the grafana-cli tool to install Explore Traces from the commandline:
grafana-cli plugins install The plugin will be installed into your grafana plugins directory; the default is /var/lib/grafana/plugins. More information on the cli tool.
Alternatively, you can manually download the .zip file for your architecture below and unpack it into your grafana plugins directory.
Alternatively, you can manually download the .zip file and unpack it into your grafana plugins directory.
2. Enable it
Next, log into your Grafana instance. Navigate to the Plugins section, found in your Grafana main menu.
Click the Apps tabs in the Plugins section and select the newly installed app.
To enable the app, click the Config tab. Follow the instructions provided with the application and click Enable. The app and any new UI pages are now accessible from within the main menu, as designed by the app creator.
If dashboards have been included with the application, they will attempt to be automatically installed. To view the dashboards, re-import or delete individual dashboards, click the Dashboards tab within the app page.
Changelog
0.2.2 (2025-01-13)
Enhancements
- Custom values in filters bar: The filters bar now allows custom values which can be used to build regular expressions or input values missing from the dropdown options. (#288)
0.2.0 (2025-01-10)
Features
- Support for exemplars: Quickly jump to the relevant data points or logs for deeper troubleshooting with newly added support for exemplars, directly on your metrics graph. By clicking on a point of interest on the graph—like a spike or anomaly—you can quickly jump to the relevant traces for deeper troubleshooting and dramatically reduce the time it takes to root cause an issue. (#278) Requires Grafana >= 11.5.0
- Open traces in Explore: When viewing trace spans, now you can easily open the full trace in Explore. This provides a streamlined way to pivot between trace analysis and the broader Grafana Explore experience without losing context. (#267)
Enhancements
- Trace breakdown adjusts better to smaller screens: The Breakdown tab now automatically adjusts its attribute selector display based on available screen width, improving usability on smaller viewports. (#267)
- Search is now case-insensitive: Search in the Breakdown and Comparison tabs now ignores capitalization, ensuring you see all matching results. (#252)
- Performance boost and reduced bundle size: Code-splitting and lazy loading for faster loading times. Only the modules you need are fetched on demand, cutting down on initial JavaScript payload and improving app performance. (#275)
- Various fixes and improvements: Fixed loading and empty states. Fixed broken documentation link. Refined styles above filters for a more polished look. Added descriptive text to the Span List tab for added clarity. Enhanced tooltip design for RED metrics. Standardized error messages and titles, plus added helpful hints when an empty state appears. (#263)
0.1.2
Release public preview version.
