Announcing Lightstep Developer Mode: A Simple Way to Instrument Services and Get Started with Tracing

As long as I have been programming, the console has been my friend. I’m writing code, and I want to visualize it better. Slap in a few debug logs, check out the console, and carry on. This. Is. My. Life.

But as much as I love my console, I also love structured data. Trace data is inherently structured. It’s visual. Let’s take advantage of that.

This brings us to Developer Mode.

At Lightstep, we want to make it as easy as possible for organizations to adopt best-of-breed tracing. It can be hard to write instrumentation without a good feedback loop. Developer Mode acts like a console for tracing: Hit execute, and instantly see your traces. SpansSpans stream live on the screen, so you can debug quickly while staying in your flow.

What Can You Do with Developer Mode?

1. See traces in real time, while you write applications.

2. Debug software during development.

3. Run experiments and tutorials.

What Does Developer Mode Do?

Developer Mode allows engineers — and anyone new to tracing — to quickly get up and running with a local tracing solution.

With Developer Mode, you have your own personal tracing sandbox. This includes a Developer Satellite you run locally, and a UI for displaying a live stream of events. Simply configure your tracer to send to localhost, and you can see real-time traces whenever you execute code.

How to Get Started with Developer Mode

1. Sign up for a free Lightstep Tracing trialfree Lightstep Tracing trial (if you don’t already have an account).

2. Install the developer satellite on your laptop or local device.

3. Point your tracer at localhost.

4. That’s it!

If you have any questions or need help setting up live traces of your applications, you can send us a note at hello@lightstep.comhello@lightstep.com!

Interested in joining our team? See our open positions herehere.