# Tracers

> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.redpanda.com/llms.txt). Component-specific: [connect-full.txt](https://docs.redpanda.com/connect-full.txt)

---
title: Tracers
latest-connect-version: 4.93.0
latest-operator-version: v26.1.4
latest-console-tag: v3.7.3
latest-redpanda-tag: v26.1.9
docname: tracers/about
page-component-name: connect
page-version: master
page-component-version: master
page-component-title: Connect
page-relative-src-path: tracers/about.adoc
page-edit-url: https://github.com/redpanda-data/rp-connect-docs/edit/main/modules/components/pages/tracers/about.adoc
page-git-created-date: "2024-05-24"
page-git-modified-date: "2024-09-05"
---

<!-- Source: https://docs.redpanda.com/connect/components/tracers/about.md -->

A tracer type represents a destination for Redpanda Connect to send tracing events to such as [Jaeger](https://www.jaegertracing.io/).

When a tracer is configured all messages will be allocated a root span during ingestion that represents their journey through a Redpanda Connect pipeline. Many Redpanda Connect processors create spans, and so tracing is a great way to analyse the pathways of individual messages as they progress through a Redpanda Connect instance.

Some inputs, such as `http_server` and `http_client`, are capable of extracting a root span from the source of the message (HTTP headers). This is a work in progress and should eventually expand so that all inputs have a way of doing so.

Other inputs, such as `kafka` can be configured to extract a root span by using the `extract_tracing_map` field.

A tracer config section looks like this:

```yaml
tracer:
  jaeger:
    agent_address: localhost:6831
    sampler_type: const
    sampler_param: 1
```

> ⚠️ **CAUTION**
>
> Although the configuration spec of this component is stable the format of spans, tags and logs created by Redpanda Connect is subject to change as it is tuned for improvement.