> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://checkly-422f444a-immanuel-fix-api-spec.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Traces

> Trace and debug requests and data flowing through your application and identify performance bottlenecks and failures.

<img src="https://mintcdn.com/checkly-422f444a-immanuel-fix-api-spec/ehQNRcw58aixo1ky/images/docs/images/otel/otel_check_result.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=ehQNRcw58aixo1ky&q=85&s=1dedb4a78c951f3dae7956c9b5e7988a" alt="Check result with OpenTelemetry trace" width="1392" height="1064" data-path="images/docs/images/otel/otel_check_result.png" />

## What is Distributed Tracing?

Distributed tracing tracks requests as they flow through your application's services and infrastructure. It helps you:

* Understand request flow across services
* Identify performance bottlenecks
* Debug failures and errors
* Optimize application performance

With telemetry traces configured, you will have access to traces in all the places where it matters to more quickly resolve issues:

* **Check results:** resolve production outages faster by correlating failing checks with infrastructure traces.
* **Test sessions:** understand any failures during test session execution.
* **Check editors:** get a live trace while building, editing and debugging check code.

## Getting Started with Checkly Traces

To get started with Checkly Traces using OpenTelemetry, pick the scenario that best fits your needs.

<Columns cols={3}>
  <Card title="I don't have an OpenTelemetry setup" href="/traces-open-telemetry/instrumenting-code/">
    Instrument your app and send traces directly to Checkly. No need for a 3rd party OTel backend.
  </Card>

  <Card title="I already have an OTEL Collector" href="/traces-open-telemetry/importing-traces/">
    Send your infrastructure traces to Checkly to get contextualized check failure analysis.
  </Card>

  <Card title="I want to export Check results to my OpenTelemetry setup" href="/traces-open-telemetry/exporting-traces/">
    Export check results as traces to your 3rd party OTel tooling
  </Card>
</Columns>

See this in action in the video below:

<Frame>
  <iframe src="https://www.loom.com/embed/30c143388ba54e9ba6b665dfbfe0d295?sid=8ad8d273-b0bb-48ca-b456-1b137384b9de" title="Embedded content" className="w-full aspect-video rounded-xl" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen />
</Frame>

## Key Benefits

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Cost-Effective Tracing">
    Only traces generated by Checkly checks are forwarded to third-party tools, significantly reducing data transfer costs while maintaining comprehensive monitoring coverage.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Unified Observability">
    Combine synthetic monitoring data with application traces in your existing observability platform for a complete picture of system health.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Faster Debugging">
    When checks fail, trace data provides immediate context about what happened in your application stack, accelerating root cause analysis.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Seamless Integration">
    Works with existing OpenTelemetry instrumentation and popular observability platforms without requiring changes to your application logic.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>