Follow a trace

Logs, spans and errors are three collections, and one W3C trace id is what ties them together. Emit the same trace_id on all three and you can begin at whichever one you have and reach the other two. All three are read inside one project environment; nothing here crosses into another.

#What carries the id

Log entry

trace_id and span_id, both optional

Span

trace_id, span_id and parent_span_id

Error event

trace_id and span_id, both optional

trace_id is 32 hex characters and span_id is 16. A record that omits them is still stored; it just cannot be reached this way.

#From a log entry to its spans

Query the log entries of a trace, then read the trace itself. The query needs a bounded interval (start_time, at most 31 days before end_time) and takes an AIP-160 filter:

curl -X POST "https://api.sylphx.com/v1/orgs/acme/projects/shop/envs/production/log_entries:query" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SYLPHX_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"start_time":"2026-09-30T00:00:00Z","filter":"trace_id = \"4bf92f3577b34da6a3ce929d0e0e4736\""}'

A Trace is named traces/t{trace_id}. Reading one answers with every span in start order, and parent_span_id rebuilds the tree: it is empty on the root span.

curl "https://api.sylphx.com/v1/orgs/acme/projects/shop/envs/production/traces/t4bf92f3577b34da6a3ce929d0e0e4736" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SYLPHX_API_KEY"

The trace's has_error says whether any span has an error status, so a trace list can be scanned for the failing ones without reading each.

#From an error to its trace

An Error Event is one immutable occurrence, and carries the trace_id and span_id it was raised under, along with its breadcrumbs, oldest first. List the events of a group, take the trace_id of the occurrence you care about, and read that trace as above. Filter the log entries by the same id to see what the service said around it.

An occurrence captured without a trace id has no trace to open; propagate the id into your error capture to close that gap.

#From a span to the rest

Take the span's trace_id and use it in the two queries above. The log entries that also carry the span's span_id are the ones written inside that span.