Attributes

Attributes are key-value metadata attached to traces and issues. They provide the context you need to debug problems — who was affected, what they were doing, and in what environment.

Structure

Attributes are key-value pairs where each key and value are a string. They can exist on both traces and issues.

Examples of common attributes:

Values

Since all values are strings, there are two ways they get displayed in the dashboard:

• Plain strings — Displayed as-is, without any formatting (e.g., "12345", "production")
• JSON strings — If the string contains valid JSON, the dashboard renders it in a JSON viewer with syntax highlighting and collapsible sections (e.g., '{"name": "John", "age": 30}')

This means you can attach structured data to any trace or issue by serializing it to a JSON string.

Scope Levels

Global Attributes

Set once at application startup. Applied to every trace and issue your application produces.

Per-Request Attributes

Set during request handling via the SDK. Applied only to the current trace and any issues captured during that request.

Inheritance

Per-request attributes start as a clone of the global attributes. Request-level values override global values if they share the same key.

Global Attributes          Request Attributes         Final Tags
─────────────────          ──────────────────         ──────────
environment: prod     +    user_id: 123         =    environment: prod
region: us-east-1          tenant: acme               region: us-east-1
service: user-api                                     service: user-api
                                                      user_id: 123
                                                      tenant: acme

Where Attributes Appear

• Traces (endpoints and tasks) — attributes are recorded with the trace
• Issues (exceptions and messages) — attributes in scope at capture time are attached to the issue

In the dashboard, attributes appear in the detail view for endpoints, tasks, and issues.