---
title: "Traces | Grafana Cloud documentation"
description: "Analyze traces for a service using the embedded Traces Drilldown view with error breakdowns and root cause analysis."
---

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

# Traces

The Traces tab embeds the Grafana Traces Drilldown app, pre-filtered to the selected service. It provides trace analysis capabilities including error breakdowns, root cause identification, and attribute-based exploration.

## Pre-applied filters

The Traces tab automatically filters by:

- `resource.service.name`: the service’s name
- `resource.service.namespace`: the service’s namespace

You can add additional label filters.

## Metric types

Select a metric type to focus your analysis:

- **Errors rate**: view the rate of traces with errors over time.
- Other available metric views depending on your data.

## Visualizations

The Traces tab displays:

- **Time-series chart**: the selected metric (for example, errors rate) plotted over time with a “Seeker” timeline for navigation.
- **Insights bar**: highlights time periods with detected anomalies or elevated errors.
- **Side panels**: count and latency metrics for quick reference.

## Sub-tabs

Expand table

| Tab                   | Description                                                  |
|-----------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Breakdown**         | Break down traces by attributes to identify patterns.        |
| **Root cause errors** | Identify the most common error sources and their attributes. |
| **Comparison**        | Compare trace attributes across time periods.                |
| **Exceptions**        | View exception types and their frequency.                    |
| **Errored traces**    | List individual traces that contain errors.                  |

## Attributes panel

The left panel shows trace attributes ordered by their contribution to the selected metric (for example, rate of errors per second). Use it to:

- Browse attributes by category: **Favorites**, **All**, **Resource**, **Span**.
- Select an attribute to break down the metric by its values.
- Star frequently used attributes for quick access.

## View modes

Switch between **Single**, **Grid**, and **Rows** layouts for attribute breakdowns.

## Open in Traces Drilldown

Click **Traces Drilldown** in the top right to open the full Traces Drilldown app. For complete documentation, refer to [Explore Traces](/docs/grafana-cloud/visualizations/simplified-exploration/traces/).

## Next steps

- Use **Root cause errors** to identify which attributes are most associated with failures.
- Add the service to [RCA workbench](/docs/grafana-cloud/knowledge-graph/troubleshoot-infra-apps/workbench/) for cross-service root cause analysis.