Compass Docs
Observability

Runs & traces

Find a run, watch it execute live, and explore its full step-by-step trace.

A run is one execution of an agent or workflow. It records the input it was given, the output (or error) it produced, how long it took, how many tokens it used, what triggered it, and which version executed. Because a run captures every step it took, a run is its trace.

The runs list

The runs list shows executions newest-first, with:

  • Status — a colored badge: completed, running, failed, or cancelled.
  • A reference identifying the run, and the agent or workflow it ran, with its step count.
  • Trigger — what started it (scheduled, manual, test).
  • Duration and started time.

You can filter by status (All, Running, Completed, Failed, Cancelled — each with a count) and search by name or id to find a specific run.

Select any run to open its detail view.

Watching a run live

Open a run that's still going and you'll see it execute in real time:

  • a Running · live indicator,
  • each tool call appearing as it's invoked, and marked done when its result returns,
  • the agent's reasoning and output streaming in as it's generated,
  • and any error shown immediately if it fails mid-run.

When the run finishes, the view switches automatically to the full trace below.

Exploring a completed trace

A finished run opens as a two-pane trace explorer.

On the left is the step tree: every node that ran — agents, integrations, and the tool calls an agent made — indented to show nesting. When a step called a sub-workflow or another agent, you can expand it to see that sub-run's own steps inline, all the way down. Failed steps are marked in red.

On the right is the detail for whatever step you select:

  • For a node: its name, type, duration, start time, token count (and the model, for an agent), with Input and Output tabs showing the data.
  • For a tool call: its name and duration, with Args and Result tabs.
  • Any error is shown here too.

Together they let you follow exactly what happened, in what order, with the data at each step — the primary way to understand and debug a run.

The run header

The detail view's header carries the run's essentials at a glance: status, its reference id, what triggered it, when it started, how long it took, and total tokens used.

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