Tempo HTTP API

openapi: 3.1.0
info:
  title: Grafana Tempo HTTP API
  description: >-
    The Grafana Tempo HTTP API provides endpoints for querying distributed traces,
    searching spans with TraceQL, discovering tag keys and values, and generating
    metrics from trace data. Tempo is compatible with Jaeger, Zipkin, and OpenTelemetry
    trace ingestion and query protocols. The API runs on the Tempo HTTP port (default 3200).
  version: '2.x'
  contact:
    name: Grafana Tempo Community
    url: https://community.grafana.com/c/grafana-tempo/
    email: [email protected]
  license:
    name: Apache 2.0
    url: https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
externalDocs:
  description: Grafana Tempo API Documentation
  url: https://grafana.com/docs/tempo/latest/api_docs/
servers:
  - url: http://localhost:3200
    description: Local Tempo instance (default)
  - url: http://tempo:3200
    description: Kubernetes service endpoint
tags:
  - name: Traces
    description: Retrieve individual traces by trace ID
  - name: Search
    description: Search traces and spans using TraceQL
  - name: Tags
    description: Discover tag keys and values in trace data
  - name: Metrics
    description: Generate metrics from trace data
  - name: Health
    description: Health and readiness endpoints
paths:
  /api/traces/{traceID}:
    get:
      operationId: getTrace
      summary: Get Trace By ID
      description: >-
        Retrieve a complete trace by its trace ID. Returns all spans belonging
        to the trace in JSON format. Supports deep object storage search when
        the trace is not in recent cache.
      tags:
        - Traces
      parameters:
        - name: traceID
          in: path
          required: true
          description: Hexadecimal trace identifier
          schema:
            type: string
            pattern: '^[0-9a-fA-F]{16,32}$'
        - name: start
          in: query
          required: false
          description: Unix epoch start time for search window (seconds)
          schema:
            type: integer
            format: int64
        - name: end
          in: query
          required: false
          description: Unix epoch end time for search window (seconds)
          schema:
            type: integer
            format: int64
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Trace found and returned
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/Trace'
        '404':
          description: Trace not found
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error'

  /api/search:
    get:
      operationId: searchTraces
      summary: Search Traces
      description: >-
        Search for traces matching a TraceQL query or tag-based filter. Returns
        a list of matching trace metadata with root span information, duration,
        and service names.
      tags:
        - Search
      parameters:
        - name: q
          in: query
          required: false
          description: TraceQL query string
          schema:
            type: string
          example: '{.service.name="order-service"}'
        - name: tags
          in: query
          required: false
          description: >-
            URL-encoded logfmt tag filter (deprecated — use q with TraceQL
            instead). Example: service.name=frontend
          schema:
            type: string
        - name: minDuration
          in: query
          required: false
          description: Minimum trace duration filter (e.g., 100ms, 1s, 2m)
          schema:
            type: string
        - name: maxDuration
          in: query
          required: false
          description: Maximum trace duration filter (e.g., 100ms, 1s, 2m)
          schema:
            type: string
        - name: limit
          in: query
          required: false
          description: Maximum number of search results to return
          schema:
            type: integer
            minimum: 1
            maximum: 1000
            default: 20
        - name: start
          in: query
          required: false
          description: Unix epoch start time for search window (seconds)
          schema:
            type: integer
            format: int64
        - name: end
          in: query
          required: false
          description: Unix epoch end time for search window (seconds)
          schema:
            type: integer
            format: int64
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Search results returned
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/SearchResult'
        '400':
          description: Invalid query
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error'

  /api/search/tags:
    get:
      operationId: listTagKeys
      summary: List Tag Keys
      description: >-
        Returns all tag keys (span attribute names) present in the trace data
        within the configured search window. Useful for building search UIs
        and TraceQL autocomplete.
      tags:
        - Tags
      parameters:
        - name: scope
          in: query
          required: false
          description: Attribute scope filter (span, resource, intrinsic)
          schema:
            type: string
            enum: [span, resource, intrinsic]
        - name: start
          in: query
          required: false
          description: Unix epoch start time
          schema:
            type: integer
            format: int64
        - name: end
          in: query
          required: false
          description: Unix epoch end time
          schema:
            type: integer
            format: int64
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Tag keys returned
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/TagKeysResult'

  /api/search/tag/{tagName}/values:
    get:
      operationId: listTagValues
      summary: List Tag Values
      description: >-
        Returns all distinct values for a specific tag key within the trace data.
        Used for building search filter dropdowns and TraceQL query autocomplete.
      tags:
        - Tags
      parameters:
        - name: tagName
          in: path
          required: true
          description: Tag key name to retrieve values for
          schema:
            type: string
          example: service.name
        - name: q
          in: query
          required: false
          description: TraceQL query context for filtering tag values
          schema:
            type: string
        - name: start
          in: query
          required: false
          description: Unix epoch start time
          schema:
            type: integer
            format: int64
        - name: end
          in: query
          required: false
          description: Unix epoch end time
          schema:
            type: integer
            format: int64
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Tag values returned
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/TagValuesResult'

  /api/metrics/query_range:
    get:
      operationId: queryMetricsRange
      summary: Query Metrics Range
      description: >-
        Generate time-series metrics from trace data using TraceQL metrics queries.
        Supports span rate, error rate, duration histograms, and custom metric
        generation from trace attributes.
      tags:
        - Metrics
      parameters:
        - name: q
          in: query
          required: true
          description: TraceQL metrics query expression
          schema:
            type: string
          example: 'rate({.service.name="order-service"}[5m])'
        - name: start
          in: query
          required: true
          description: Start time as Unix epoch (seconds)
          schema:
            type: integer
            format: int64
        - name: end
          in: query
          required: true
          description: End time as Unix epoch (seconds)
          schema:
            type: integer
            format: int64
        - name: step
          in: query
          required: false
          description: Query step interval (e.g., 30s, 1m, 5m)
          schema:
            type: string
            default: "1m"
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Metrics time-series data returned
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/MetricsResult'
        '400':
          description: Invalid query
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error'

  /ready:
    get:
      operationId: checkReady
      summary: Check Readiness
      description: >-
        Readiness probe endpoint. Returns 200 OK when Tempo is ready to serve
        requests. Used by Kubernetes readiness probes and load balancers.
      tags:
        - Health
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Tempo is ready
          content:
            text/plain:
              schema:
                type: string
                example: "ready"
        '500':
          description: Tempo is not yet ready

  /metrics:
    get:
      operationId: getPrometheusMetrics
      summary: Get Prometheus Metrics
      description: >-
        Exposes Tempo's own operational Prometheus metrics including ingestion
        rate, query latency, cache hit rates, and storage backend metrics.
        Scraped by Prometheus or Grafana Agent for Tempo self-monitoring.
      tags:
        - Health
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Prometheus metrics in text exposition format
          content:
            text/plain:
              schema:
                type: string

components:
  schemas:
    Trace:
      type: object
      description: A complete distributed trace containing all spans
      properties:
        batches:
          type: array
          description: OTLP resource span batches
          items:
            type: object
            properties:
              resource:
                type: object
                description: Resource attributes (service name, version, etc.)
                properties:
                  attributes:
                    type: array
                    items:
                      $ref: '#/components/schemas/KeyValue'
              scopeSpans:
                type: array
                description: Spans grouped by instrumentation scope
                items:
                  type: object
                  properties:
                    scope:
                      type: object
                      properties:
                        name:
                          type: string
                        version:
                          type: string
                    spans:
                      type: array
                      items:
                        $ref: '#/components/schemas/Span'

    Span:
      type: object
      description: A single operation within a distributed trace
      properties:
        traceId:
          type: string
          description: Trace identifier (hex)
        spanId:
          type: string
          description: Span identifier (hex)
        parentSpanId:
          type: string
          description: Parent span identifier (hex)
        name:
          type: string
          description: Operation name
        kind:
          type: integer
          description: Span kind (0=unspecified, 1=internal, 2=server, 3=client, 4=producer, 5=consumer)
        startTimeUnixNano:
          type: string
          description: Start time in nanoseconds since Unix epoch
        endTimeUnixNano:
          type: string
          description: End time in nanoseconds since Unix epoch
        attributes:
          type: array
          description: Span attributes
          items:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/KeyValue'
        status:
          type: object
          description: Span status
          properties:
            code:
              type: integer
              description: Status code (0=unset, 1=ok, 2=error)
            message:
              type: string

    KeyValue:
      type: object
      description: An attribute key-value pair
      properties:
        key:
          type: string
        value:
          type: object

    SearchResult:
      type: object
      description: Trace search results
      properties:
        traces:
          type: array
          items:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/TraceSearchResult'
        metrics:
          type: object
          properties:
            inspectedTraces:
              type: integer
            inspectedBytes:
              type: string

    TraceSearchResult:
      type: object
      description: Summary of a trace matching a search query
      properties:
        traceID:
          type: string
          description: Trace identifier
        rootServiceName:
          type: string
          description: Name of the root span's service
        rootTraceName:
          type: string
          description: Name of the root span's operation
        startTimeUnixNano:
          type: string
          description: Trace start time (nanoseconds)
        durationMs:
          type: integer
          description: Total trace duration in milliseconds
        spanSets:
          type: array
          description: Matching span sets (from TraceQL queries)
          items:
            type: object

    TagKeysResult:
      type: object
      description: List of tag keys present in trace data
      properties:
        tagNames:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
          example: ["service.name", "http.method", "db.system"]

    TagValuesResult:
      type: object
      description: Distinct values for a tag key
      properties:
        tagValues:
          type: array
          items:
            type: object
            properties:
              type:
                type: string
              value:
                type: string

    MetricsResult:
      type: object
      description: Time-series metrics generated from trace data
      properties:
        status:
          type: string
          enum: [success, error]
        data:
          type: object
          properties:
            resultType:
              type: string
              enum: [matrix]
            result:
              type: array
              items:
                type: object
                properties:
                  metric:
                    type: object
                    description: Metric label set
                  values:
                    type: array
                    description: Time-value pairs
                    items:
                      type: array
                      items:
                        oneOf:
                          - type: integer
                          - type: string

    Error:
      type: object
      description: API error response
      properties:
        error:
          type: string
          description: Error message