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Share a Trace

Link directly to any trace in Honeycomb for faster, context-rich debugging.

Honeycomb lets you create links called direct trace links, which open traces from other tools.

A direct trace link lets you open a trace waterfall view in Honeycomb using a Trace ID. These links are especially helpful when connecting Honeycomb to third-party tools, like error trackers or alert systems, so you can jump straight from a notification to the relevant trace for investigation.

Note
Embedding Honeycomb pages, including trace waterfalls, within an iframe isn’t supported.

Construct a direct trace link by combining your Honeycomb region, trace context, and time range into a URL.

URL Format 

To open a trace directly, construct a URL in this format:

https://<subdomain>.honeycomb.io/<team>/environments/<environment>/datasets/<dataset>/trace?trace_id=<traceId>
  &span=<spanId>
  &trace_start_ts=<ts>
  &trace_end_ts=<ts>

When opened, Honeycomb searches for traces matching the given trace_id within the specified time range.

Note

If you are linking to a dataset in Honeycomb Classic, use this URL format instead:

http://<subdomain>.honeycomb.io/<team>/datasets/<dataset>/trace?trace_id=<traceId>
  &span=<spanId>
  &trace_start_ts=<ts>
  &trace_end_ts=<ts>

URL Parameters 

Each part of the URL identifies the trace and its context:

Region Parameters 

  • subdomain: Subdomain of the Honeycomb UI instance for your region:
    • US: ui
    • EU: ui-eu1

Trace Context Parameters 

  • team: Slug for the Team in Honeycomb. This short, URL-friendly string uniquely identifies your team and appears in Honeycomb URLs.

  • environment: Slug for the Environment in Honeycomb. This short, URL-friendly string uniquely identifies your environment and appears in Honeycomb URLs.

  • dataset: Slug for the Dataset in Honeycomb. This short, URL-friendly string uniquely identifies your dataset and appears in Honeycomb URLs.

    Note

    You can omit /datasets/<dataset>/ from the URL and the link will still work:

    https://<subdomain>.honeycomb.io/<team>/environments/<environment>/trace?trace_id=<traceId>
&span=<spanId>
&trace_start_ts=<ts>
&trace_end_ts=<ts>

  • trace_id: Unique identifier of the trace. URL-encode if necessary.

  • span: Unique identifier of the span to jump to within the trace. If no matching span is found, the link opens to the trace’s root span.

Time Range Parameters 

Note
If you omit a time range entirely, Honeycomb searches from the current time back two hours.

Example 

This example shows a complete direct trace link for the US region, including a span and a defined time range:

https://ui.honeycomb.io/my-team/environments/my-env/datasets/my-dataset/trace?trace_id=d82cb2fcf355dc40789106f673400d06
  &span=32e459181a2c6098
  &trace_start_ts=1704067200
  &trace_end_ts=1704153600

Best Practices 

Follow these tips to build direct trace links that load efficiently and return complete, reliable results.

  • Include a full time range for faster, more accurate results: Adding both trace_start_ts and trace_end_ts helps Honeycomb locate the trace efficiently.
  • Keep the search window reasonable: Narrow ranges return results faster, while wider ranges help ensure all spans are included. Choose a range that balances speed and completeness.
  • Adjust as needed for completeness: If some spans don’t appear, try slightly widening the time range to capture the full trace.
  • Use flexible ranges when timing is uncertain: If you only provide trace_start_ts, Honeycomb automatically searches for traces within ten minutes after that time.

Limitations 

Keep these points in mind to ensure your direct trace links work as expected:

  • Time range affects trace visibility: Narrow search windows may omit some spans, while very broad ranges can increase load time.
  • Embedding isn’t supported: Honeycomb pages, including trace waterfalls, cannot be displayed within an iframe.
  • Honeycomb Classic datasets use a different URL format: Links to Honeycomb Classic datasets follow a slightly different template. To learn more, visit the Creating a Direct Link to a Trace section.
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