--- title: "Push spans with HTTP | Grafana Tempo documentation" description: "Learn a basic technique for pushing spans with HTTP and JSON" --- > For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt). # Push spans with HTTP Sometimes using a tracing system is intimidating because it seems like you need complex application instrumentation or a span ingestion pipeline in order to push spans. This guide aims to show an extremely basic technique for pushing spans with HTTP/JSON from a Bash script using the [OpenTelemetry](https://opentelemetry.io/docs/specs/otlp/) receiver. ## Before you begin This procedure uses an example Docker Compose setup to run Tempo, so you don’t need an existing installation. The Docker image also includes a Grafana container which lets you visualize traces. To use this procedure, you need to have Docker and `docker compose` installed. ## Start Tempo using the quick start Use the instructions in the [Quick start for Tempo documentation](/docs/tempo/latest/getting-started/docker-example/) to start a local instance of Tempo and Grafana. ## Push spans with OTLP Now that Tempo is running and listening on port 4318 for [OTLP spans](https://opentelemetry.io/docs/specs/otlp/#otlphttp), you can push a span to Tempo using `curl`. Before you can use this example, you need to update the start and end time. The `startTimeUnixNano` and `endTimeUnixNano` fields are in nanoseconds, where 100000000 nanoseconds is 100 milliseconds. The nanosecond value can be obtained by any tool that provides the epoch date in nanoseconds. For example, under Linux, you can use `date +%s%N`. You can also use an online tool such as [Epoch Converter](https://www.epochconverter.com/) to get the current time in nanoseconds. 1. Copy and paste the `curl` command into a text editor. Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```bash curl -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' http://localhost:4318/v1/traces -d ' { "resourceSpans": [{ "resource": { "attributes": [{ "key": "service.name", "value": { "stringValue": "my.service" } }] }, "scopeSpans": [{ "scope": { "name": "my.library", "version": "1.0.0", "attributes": [{ "key": "my.scope.attribute", "value": { "stringValue": "some scope attribute" } }] }, "spans": [ { "traceId": "5B8EFFF798038103D269B633813FC700", "spanId": "EEE19B7EC3C1B100", "name": "I am a span!", "startTimeUnixNano": 1689969302000000000, "endTimeUnixNano": 1689970000000000000, "kind": 2, "attributes": [ { "key": "my.span.attr", "value": { "stringValue": "some value" } }] }] }] }] }' ``` 2. Replace `startTimeUnixNano` and `endTimeUnixNano` with current values for the last 24 hours to allow you to search for them using a 24 hour relative time range. You can get this in seconds and milliseconds from the [Unix Epoch Clock](https://www.epochconverter.com/). For `startTimeUnixNano`, use the current time minus 24 hours. Use the link above to figure out the value. For `endTimeUnixNano`, use the current time. Multiply the milliseconds value by 1,000,000 to turn it into nanoseconds. You can do this from a bash terminal with the following command. Replace `` with the milliseconds value. Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```bash echo $(( * 1000000)) ``` 3. Copy the updated curl command to a terminal window and run it. 1. View the trace in Grafana: 1. Open a browser window to http://localhost:3000. 2. Open the **Explorer** page and select the Tempo data source. 3. Select the **Search** query type. 4. Select **Run query** to list available traces. 5. Select the trace ID (yellow box) to view details about the trace and its spans. ## Retrieve traces The easiest way to get the trace is to execute a simple curl command to Tempo. The returned format is [OTLP](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-proto/blob/main/opentelemetry/proto/trace/v1/trace.proto). 1. Replace the trace ID in the `curl` command with the trace ID that was generated from the push. This information is in the data that’s sent with the `curl`. You could use Grafana’s Explorer page to find this, as shown in the previous section. Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```bash curl http://localhost:3200/api/v2/traces/5b8efff798038103d269b633813fc700 {"trace": {"resourceSpans":[{"resource":{"attributes":[{"key":"service.name","value":{"stringValue":"my.service"}}]},"scopeSpans":[{"scope":{"name":"my.library","version":"1.0.0"},"spans":[{"traceId":"W47/95gDgQPSabYzgT/HAA==","spanId":"7uGbfsPBsQA=","name":"I am a span!","kind":"SPAN_KIND_SERVER","startTimeUnixNano":"1689969302000000000","endTimeUnixNano":"1689970000000000000","attributes":[{"key":"my.span.attr","value":{"stringValue":"some value"}}],"status":{}}]}]}]}} ``` 2. Copy and paste the updated `curl` command into a terminal window. ### Use TraceQL to search for a trace Alternatively, you can also use [TraceQL](/docs/tempo/latest/traceql/) to search for the trace that was pushed. You can search by using the unique trace attributes that were set: Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```bash curl -G -s http://localhost:3200/api/search --data-urlencode 'q={ .service.name = "my.service" }' {"traces":[{"traceID":"5b8efff798038103d269b633813fc700","rootServiceName":"my.service","rootTraceName":"I am a span!","startTimeUnixNano":"1694718625557000000","durationMs":10000,"spanSet":{"spans":[{"spanID":"eee19b7ec3c1b100","startTimeUnixNano":"1694718625557000000","durationNanos":"10000000000","attributes":[{"key":"service.name","value":{"stringValue":"my.service"}}]}],"matched":1},"spanSets":[{"spans":[{"spanID":"eee19b7ec3c1b100","startTimeUnixNano":"1694718625557000000","durationNanos":"10000000000","attributes":[{"key":"service.name","value":{"stringValue":"my.service"}}]}],"matched":1}]}],"metrics":{"inspectedBytes":"292781","completedJobs":1,"totalJobs":1}} ``` To format this in a more human-readable output, consider using a [tool such as `jq`](https://jqlang.github.io/jq/), which lets you to run the same `curl` command and pipe it to `jq` to format the block. For example: Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```bash curl -G -s http://localhost:3200/api/search --data-urlencode 'q={ .service.name = "my.service" }' | jq ``` ## Spans from everything Tracing isn’t limited to enterprise languages with complex frameworks. As you can see, it’s easy to store and track events from your js, python or bash scripts. You can use Tempo and distributed tracing today to trace CI pipelines, long running bash processes, python data processing flows, or anything else you can think of. Happy tracing!