---
title: NerdGraph tutorial: View distributed trace details
source: https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/apis/nerdgraph/examples/nerdgraph-distributed-trace-data-tutorial
---

You can use New Relic's [NerdGraph GraphiQL explorer](https://api.newrelic.com/graphiql) to query your [distributed tracing](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/understand-dependencies/distributed-tracing/get-started/introduction-distributed-tracing) data. This document explains:

-   Trace metadata that's only available with NerdGraph
-   Example queries of trace data

## Trace metadata

In addition to [span event and transaction event data](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/understand-dependencies/distributed-tracing/get-started/how-new-relic-distributed-tracing-works#trace-structure), we calculate additional metadata about the trace and its span relationships. To query this metadata, go to the NerdGraph GraphiQL explorer at [api.newrelic.com/graphiql](https://api.newrelic.com/graphiql).

Additional trace-level data:

| Trace-level metadata | Description                                                                                                                               |
| -------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `durationMs`         | The duration of this trace in milliseconds.                                                                                               |
| `entities`           | All [entities](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/using-new-relic/welcome-new-relic/get-started/glossary#entity) that are part of this trace. |
| `entityCount`        | The number of entities that are part of this trace.                                                                                       |
| `spanConnections`    | Parent/child IDs that represent all of the span relationships within this trace.                                                          |
| `timestamp`          | The trace's start time in milliseconds since the [Unix epoch](https://currentmillis.com/).                                                |

Additional span-level data:

| Span-level metadata | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |
| ------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `clientType`        | For a client span, this indicates the type of entity called: `DATASTORE` or `EXTERNAL`.                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| `entityGuid`        | The New Relic identifier for the entity that sent the span.                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |
| `processBoundary`   | The position of a span with respect to the boundaries between processes: `ENTRY`, `EXIT`, or `IN_PROCESS`.                                                                                                                                                                  |
| `spanAnomalies`     | Anomalies detected for a span, compared to similar spans that occurred over the previous hours before this span occurred. Anomalous spans appear in the [trace UI](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/apm/distributed-tracing/ui-data/understand-use-distributed-tracing-data). |

For more about trace structure and span relationships, see [Trace structure](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/understand-dependencies/distributed-tracing/get-started/how-new-relic-distributed-tracing-works#trace-structure).

## Trace data query examples [#trace-query-examples]

Here are example NerdGraph queries of distributed tracing data:

**Query by trace ID**

This NerdGraph query example shows how to return all data for a trace by using a trace's [`traceId`](/attribute-dictionary/span/traceid). Note that `attributes` is used to return [`Span` event attributes](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/understand-dependencies/distributed-tracing/get-started/how-new-relic-distributed-tracing-works#trace-storage).

````graphql
{
  actor {
    distributedTracing {
      trace(traceId: "YOUR_TRACE_ID") {
        spans {
          attributes
          clientType
          durationMs
          entityGuid
          id
          name
          parentId
          processBoundary
          timestamp
          traceId
          spanAnomalies {
            anomalousValue
            anomalyType
            averageMeasure
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}
```

For more about trace structure and span relationships, see [Trace structure](/docs/understand-dependencies/distributed-tracing/get-started/how-new-relic-distributed-tracing-works#trace-structure).

````

**Query span relationship data**

This NerdGraph query example shows how to return trace-level metadata about the relationships between spans:

````graphql
{
  actor {
    distributedTracing {
      trace(traceId: "YOUR_TRACE_ID") {
        id
        timestamp
        durationMs
        spanConnections {
          parent
          child
        }
      }
    }
  }
}
```

For more about trace structure and span relationships, see [Trace structure](/docs/understand-dependencies/distributed-tracing/get-started/how-new-relic-distributed-tracing-works#trace-structure).

````

**Query data of the entities in a trace**

This NerdGraph query example returns the [entities](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/using-new-relic/welcome-new-relic/get-started/glossary#entity) associated with a trace and some data about those entities.

````graphql
{
  actor {
    distributedTracing {
      trace(traceId: "YOUR_TRACE_ID") {
        entities {
          name
          tags {
            key
          }
          account {
            name
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}
```

````