Updates to Developer Mode: New Instrumentation and Debugging Tools for Tracing

Developing modern, microservice-based applications can be challenging. When we launched Developer ModeDeveloper Mode last month, we were interested in seeing how providing a stream of structured trace data could make it easier to instrument and write applications.

What We Heard

People who have tried developer mode really like it! The ability to quickly start tracing your applications — and get real-time feedback on your tracing instrumentation — is super valuable. What we saw and heard from users who had more complex applications, though, was that it was very challenging to filter through the firehose of data that multiple services could generate. With that in mind, we’ve made some changes to Developer Mode to support everyone from first-time users to customers with large existing applications.

What’s New?

You’ll now be able to see a list of services reporting to your developer satellite in the sidebar, along with a count of spans that you’ve sent. Clicking on these service names will filter to a view that only contains spans from that service. In addition, we’ve added the ability to search for operations in the event stream — great for narrowing down your view to locate just the spans you’re looking for.

Ever wanted to have someone else on your team look at a trace in Developer Mode? You now can! The URL for a Developer Mode trace is now shareable with other users in your organization.

Ready To Go?

These new features should make Developer Mode more powerful for everyone, regardless of where you are in your tracing journey. Not already using Developer Mode? Head to Lightstep Play Lightstep Play to get started! Questions or comments? Drop us a line at hello@lightstep.comhello@lightstep.com, we’ll be in touch!