Distributed Tracing

What it is

Distributed tracing records the path of a single request through a system made of many services. Each step is a span with timing and metadata, and spans share a trace ID so the whole journey can be viewed together.

Why it matters

When a customer reports 'it's slow' or 'it failed once', a trace is often the only way to see which service caused it. Without one, engineers guess across dozens of services.

Best practices

1. Propagate trace IDs to the edge – Return them in error responses so customers and support can quote them.
2. Tag spans with account IDs – Makes it possible to find one customer's requests.
3. Sample errors at 100% – Keep every failing trace even if you sample successes.

How Decimal helps

Decimal connects to observabilityObservabilityHow well you can understand a system's internal state from the data it emits. tools such as Datadog and SigNoz to pull the traces behind a customer's report and point to the failing span.