The Trace Map

15 systems, standards, and formats

Explore what each system publicly documents across identity, principal and delegation, context, decision artifacts, models, tools, effects, human control, outcomes, integrity, portability, and privacy.

Read the posture, not a score.Every profile has exactly 12 evidence-family findings and links each material row to primary documentation. No current system profile is Tracevity tested.

6 profiles

Standards & formats

StandardObserved 2026-08-28: dedicated repository main branch, Development; related core Semantic Conventions 1.44.0.

OpenTelemetry GenAI Semantic Conventions

Development-status OpenTelemetry semantics for generative AI agents, model calls, retrieval, tools, plans, evaluations, and MCP activity.

1 documented families4 gaps or conflicts
StandardObserved 2026-08-28: current unversioned public specification; no stability or maturity label asserted in the reviewed pages.

OpenInference

An OpenTelemetry-based semantic convention for AI model, agent, retrieval, tool, graph, evaluation, and annotation traces.

2 documented families2 gaps or conflicts
StandardObserved 2026-08-28: Trace Context Level 1, W3C Recommendation dated 2021-11-23.

W3C Trace Context

A W3C Recommendation defining interoperable HTTP trace-context propagation through traceparent and tracestate headers.

1 documented families9 gaps or conflicts
StandardObserved 2026-08-28: MCP core specification 2026-07-28; related OpenTelemetry MCP spans are Development.

Model Context Protocol

A JSON-RPC protocol for connecting AI applications to tools, resources, prompts, and related capabilities, with W3C trace-context propagation.

0 documented families4 gaps or conflicts
Trace formatObserved 2026-08-28: OTLP Specification 1.11.0; trace transport Stable.

OpenTelemetry Protocol

The OpenTelemetry wire and file protocol for exporting trace, metric, and log telemetry between sources, collectors, and backends.

1 documented families8 gaps or conflicts
Trace formatObserved 2026-08-28: Agent Trace 0.1.0 RFC, January 2026.

Cursor Agent Trace

A vendor-neutral JSON record for attributing AI-generated code alongside human authorship in version-controlled files.

1 documented families4 gaps or conflicts

4 profiles

Runtimes & coding agents

Runtime / frameworkObserved 2026-08-28: current unversioned official OpenAI documentation; no maturity label asserted on the reviewed page.

OpenAI Agents SDK tracing

Built-in tracing for OpenAI Agents SDK workflows, including model calls, tools, handoffs, guardrails, and custom spans.

0 documented families3 gaps or conflicts
Runtime / frameworkCurrent Python OSS documentation observed 2026-08-28; no versioned checkpoint schema asserted.

LangGraph

A stateful agent runtime whose checkpoint, thread, subgraph, replay, and interrupt semantics can preserve execution state independently of an observability backend.

1 documented families5 gaps or conflicts
Coding agentCurrent public documentation observed 2026-08-28; distributed tracing is beta and no versioned session JSONL schema is asserted.

Claude Code / Claude Agent SDK

A coding-agent and SDK family with local session JSONL, subagent hierarchy, tool permission decisions, hooks, OTel spans/events, and W3C trace propagation.

9 documented families1 gaps or conflicts
Coding agentCurrent official public OpenAI documentation observed 2026-08-28; no versioned JSONL event schema asserted.

OpenAI Codex CLI

A coding-agent CLI with a public JSONL event stream and opt-in OpenTelemetry logs, metrics, and traces for execution, plans, tools, approvals, usage, and outcomes.

6 documented families1 gaps or conflicts

5 profiles

Observability platforms

Observability platformCurrent documentation observed 2026-08-28; unversioned run data format.

LangSmith

An observability and evaluation platform with an explicit run/trace/thread model, rich execution payloads, export APIs, distributed context, and capture controls.

5 documented families3 gaps or conflicts
Observability platformCurrent documentation observed 2026-08-28; Observations API v2, with self-hosted v4+ noted on the reviewed API page.

Langfuse

An OpenTelemetry-rooted observability platform with typed generation, agent, tool, retriever, evaluator, and guardrail observations plus export and privacy controls.

6 documented families2 gaps or conflicts
Observability platformCurrent documentation observed 2026-08-28; phoenix-otel>=0.16.0 on the reviewed setup page and retention policies documented for Phoenix 9.0+.

Arize Phoenix

An open-source observability and evaluation platform that accepts OTLP traces and uses OpenInference semantics for model, retrieval, agent, and tool activity.

6 documented families2 gaps or conflicts
Observability platformCurrent documentation observed 2026-08-28; no versioned public trace schema asserted.

Braintrust

An observability and evaluation platform with nested application spans, OTel ingestion, raw JSON, query export, scoring, masking, and separated data-plane options.

5 documented families3 gaps or conflicts
Observability platformCurrent documentation observed 2026-08-28; JSON span storage from 3.3.0, OTLP ingestion behavior from 3.6+, and GenAI semantic-convention mapping for 3.11+.

MLflow Tracing

An OTel-compatible application and evaluation tracing system with explicit spans, OTLP import/export, feedback, masking, archive, retention, and deletion controls.

6 documented families1 gaps or conflicts

Documentation view

Place up to three profiles side by side

0/3 selected

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