Link to a trace ID

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 19:43:06 +0000

Link to a trace ID

You can link to Tempo traces from logs or metrics.

Link to a trace ID from logs

You can link to Tempo traces from logs in Loki, Elasticsearch, Splunk, and other logs data sources by configuring an internal link.

To configure this feature, refer to the Derived fields section of the Loki data source docs or the Data links section of the Elasticsearch or Splunk data source docs.

Link to a trace ID from metrics

You can link to Tempo traces from metrics in Prometheus data sources by configuring an exemplar.

To configure this feature, refer to the Exemplars documentation.

Upload a JSON trace file

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 19:43:06 +0000

Upload a JSON trace file

You can upload a JSON file that contains a single trace and visualize it. If the file has multiple traces, Grafana visualizes the first trace.

To upload a trace file:

Select Explore in Grafana.
Select Import trace in the right corner.
Upload your JSON trace file.

Download a trace or service graph

To download a trace or Service Graph through the Inspector panel:

Open the inspector.
Navigate to the Data tab.
Click Download traces or Download Service Graph.

Trace JSON example

{
  "batches": [
    {
      "resource": {
        "attributes": [
          { "key": "service.name", "value": { "stringValue": "db" } },
          { "key": "job", "value": { "stringValue": "tns/db" } },
          { "key": "opencensus.exporterversion", "value": { "stringValue": "Jaeger-Go-2.22.1" } },
          { "key": "host.name", "value": { "stringValue": "63d16772b4a2" } },
          { "key": "ip", "value": { "stringValue": "0.0.0.0" } },
          { "key": "client-uuid", "value": { "stringValue": "39fb01637a579639" } }
        ]
      },
      "instrumentationLibrarySpans": [
        {
          "instrumentationLibrary": {},
          "spans": [
            {
              "traceId": "AAAAAAAAAABguiq7RPE+rg==",
              "spanId": "cmteMBAvwNA=",
              "parentSpanId": "OY8PIaPbma4=",
              "name": "HTTP GET - root",
              "kind": "SPAN_KIND_SERVER",
              "startTimeUnixNano": "1627471657255809000",
              "endTimeUnixNano": "1627471657256268000",
              "attributes": [
                { "key": "http.status_code", "value": { "intValue": "200" } },
                { "key": "http.method", "value": { "stringValue": "GET" } },
                { "key": "http.url", "value": { "stringValue": "/" } },
                { "key": "component", "value": { "stringValue": "net/http" } }
              ],
              "status": {}
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Trace correlations

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 19:43:06 +0000

Trace correlations

You can use Grafana correlations to embed interactive correlation links in your trace view to jump from spans to related logs, metrics, profiles, or external systems. This guide explains how to configure and manage Trace correlations in Grafana.

What are trace correlations?

Trace correlations let you define rules that inject context-sensitive links into your trace spans. When viewing traces in Explore or the Traces panel, users can click these links to navigate directly to relevant queries or URLs. Correlations are similar but more flexible to the trace to logs, metrics, and profiles links you can configure for the Tempo data source.

Before you begin

To use trace correlations, you need:

Grafana 12 or later
A Tempo data source configured in Grafana
Admin access to configuration settings or provisioning files in Grafana

Set up a trace correlation

Log in to Grafana with an admin account.
Go to Configuration > Plugins & data > Correlations.
Select Add correlation or Add new.
On step 1, provide a label for the correlation, and an optional description.

On step 2, configure the correlation target.

Select the Type drop-down list and choose Query to link to another data source or choose External for a custom URL.
For a query Target, select the target drop-down list and select the data source that should be queried when the link is clicked. Define the target query.
For an external Target, enter the External URL.
For both query and external targets, you can use the following variables based on trace data. Object variables must be parsed into a value variable with a regular expression transformation.

Variable	Type	Description
`traceId`	String	Trace identifier
`spanID`	String	Span identifier
`parentSpanID`	String	Parent span identifier
`serviceName`	String	Service name
`serviceTags`	Object	Resource attributes
`tags`	Object	Span attributes
`logs`	Object	Trace events
`references`	Object	Trace links

On step 3, configure the correlation data source:
- Select your Tempo data source in the Source drop-down list.
- Enter the trace data variable you use for the correlation in the Results field.
- Optionally, add one or more Transformations to parse the trace data into additional variables. You can use these variables to configure the correlation Target.
Select Save to save the correlation.

Verifying correlations in Explore

Open Explore and select your Tempo tracing source.
Run a query to load spans.
Hover over the span links menu or open the span details to reveal the correlation link buttons.
Click a correlation link to open a split view or navigate to your target system or query.

Examples

Below are several practical correlation configurations to get you started.

Example 1: Trace to logs by service name and trace identifier

In this example, you configure trace to logs by service name and a trace identifier.

On step 1, add a new correlation with the label Logs for this service and trace and an optional description.
On step 2, configure the correlation target:
- Select the target type Query and select your Loki data source as Target.
- Define the Loki query, using serviceName and traceID as variables derived from the span data:
```
{service_name="$serviceName"} | trace_id=`$traceID` |= ``
```
On step 3, configure the correlation source:
- Select your Tempo data source as Source.
- Use traceID as Results field.
- Add a new transformation to extract the serviceName from the span serviceTags using the regular expression:
```
{(?=[^\}]*\bkey":"service.name")[^\}]*\bvalue":"(.*?)".*}
```
Save the correlation.

Example 2: Trace to custom URL

In this example, you configure trace corrections with a custom URL.

On step 1, add a new correlation with the label Open custom URL and an optional description.
On step 2, configure the correlation target:
- Select the target type External.
- Define your target URL, using variables derived from the span data. In this example, we are using serviceName and traceID.
```
https://my-server.example.com/service=$serviceName&trace=$traceID
```
On step 3, configure the correlation source:
- Select your Tempo data source as Source.
- Use traceID as Results field.
- Add a new transformation to extract the serviceName from the span serviceTags using the regular expression:
```
{(?=[^\}]*\bkey":"service.name")[^\}]*\bvalue":"(.*?)".*}
```
Save the correlation.

Best practices

Name clearly: Use descriptive names indicating source and target. For example: Trace to errors in logs.
Limit scope: For high-cardinality fields (like traceID), ensure your target system can handle frequent queries.
Template wisely: Use multiple $variable tokens if you need to inject more than one field.

Use traces in Grafana on Grafana Labs

Link to a trace ID

Link to a trace ID

Link to a trace ID from logs

Link to a trace ID from metrics

Upload a JSON trace file

Upload a JSON trace file

Download a trace or service graph

Trace JSON example

Trace correlations

Trace correlations

What are trace correlations?

Before you begin

Set up a trace correlation

Verifying correlations in Explore

Examples

Example 1: Trace to logs by service name and trace identifier

Example 2: Trace to custom URL

Best practices