Cloud Trace¶

Distributed tracing system for latency analysis.

Overview¶

Cloud Trace collects latency data from applications and displays it in the Google Cloud Console, helping you understand how requests propagate through your application.

Key Features¶

Distributed tracing
Latency analysis
Performance insights
Automatic trace collection (App Engine, Cloud Run, GKE)
Custom trace spans
Integration with OpenTelemetry

Quick Start¶

Automatic Tracing¶

Cloud Run:

# Tracing enabled by default
gcloud run deploy my-service --image=IMAGE_URL

GKE with Istio:

apiVersion: install.istio.io/v1alpha1
kind: IstioOperator
spec:
  meshConfig:
    enableTracing: true
    defaultConfig:
      tracing:
        stackdriver: {}

Manual Instrumentation¶

Python:

from google.cloud import trace_v1

tracer = trace_v1.TraceServiceClient()
project_id = "my-project"

# Create trace
trace = {
    "project_id": project_id,
    "trace_id": "unique-trace-id",
    "spans": [{
        "span_id": "1",
        "name": "my-operation",
        "start_time": start_time,
        "end_time": end_time
    }]
}

Best Practices¶

✓ Use consistent trace context
✓ Sample traces appropriately (1-10%)
✓ Monitor critical paths
✓ Analyze latency patterns
✓ Integrate with logging

Last Updated: March 2026