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Trace Context

Observra correlates a request across the platform using the W3C Trace Context standard, consistent with Observra's preference for open standards over proprietary integrations.

How it works​

If the client sends a traceparent header, the gateway resolves it into a traceId and spanId and attaches them to the resulting observation.

If no traceparent header is present, trace correlation is simply skipped - it's optional, not required, and its absence never blocks a request.

Where you'll see it​

  • Your observation detail view displays the trace id for any observation that has one.
  • You can pass your own traceparent header when calling the gateway (most OpenTelemetry-instrumented HTTP clients do this automatically) to link a gateway-observed request back to a broader trace in your own tracing system.

What this is not (yet)​

Today, Observra correlates via traceId/spanId on the gateway-observed request only. It does not yet ingest a generic OTLP trace or reconstruct multi-span execution graphs - that's future work.