Traceax

traceax is a software framework designed to capture and analyze execution traces in distributed systems. It enables observability by recording the journey of a request across multiple services, measuring latency, and helping diagnose performance issues. The design emphasizes modularity and interoperability across languages and runtimes.

Core concepts in traceax include traces and spans. A trace represents a single request’s path through a system, while spans describe individual units of work within a service, with attributes, timestamps, and status. Spans are linked in parent-child relationships, forming a trace tree that captures timing and causality. Traceax supports sampling to control data volume and overhead.

The typical traceax architecture comprises a collector, a processor, and a storage backend. Clients instrument applications to create spans and propagate trace contexts through headers or metadata. Traceax can offer auto-instrumentation libraries alongside manual instrumentation to suit different codebases. Collectors receive trace data, processors enrich and aggregate it, and storage backends retain traces for analysis and historical trends.

Interoperability is a focus of traceax. It aligns with common standards such as the OpenTelemetry data model and the OTLP protocol, facilitating exchanges with other tracing backends like Jaeger or Zipkin. Adapters and exporters enable integration with various storage systems, from time-series databases to search-oriented stores.

Use cases for traceax include performance optimization, root-cause analysis, dependency mapping, and service-level objective tracking. While tracing provides deep insights, it introduces overhead and data volume considerations. Effective use requires thoughtful sampling, retention policies, and governance to balance fidelity with resource use.