Observability
Tempo
A distributed tracing backend that stores and queries traces with a focus on simple, cost-effective operation.
Problem it solves
Why it exists.
It helps teams follow requests across services and find where latency or failure occurs.
Optimized for
Where it shines.
Cloud-native services instrumented with OpenTelemetry and connected to Grafana.
Use with care
Where not to use it.
Do not treat traces as a replacement for logs, metrics, or clear service boundaries.
Components
What it is made of.
- Traces
- Spans
- OpenTelemetry
- TraceQL
- Grafana
Process
How it works.
- Services emit spans
- Spans form a trace
- Tempo stores the trace
- Queries reveal service dependencies and latency