---
term: "Agent trace"
category: "Evidence and audit"
url: https://agenticopenfinance.com/glossary/agent-trace
source: AgenticOpenFinance glossary
---

# Agent trace

> A record of one agent run, made of spans for model calls, tool calls, handoffs and other steps.

An agent trace records one end-to-end run of an agent as a set of spans, each covering an operation with a start and end time, such as a model call, a tool call, a handoff or a guardrail check. OpenTelemetry's generative AI conventions, still in development, define spans for invoking agents and workflows, planning and executing tools, and make capture of message content opt-in. Putting the trace identifier on the resulting payment and case record lets one search show what happened.

Related terms: [Audit trail](https://agenticopenfinance.com/glossary/audit-trail.md), [Automatic logging](https://agenticopenfinance.com/glossary/automatic-logging.md), [Tamper-evident log](https://agenticopenfinance.com/glossary/tamper-evident-log.md), [Evidence pack](https://agenticopenfinance.com/glossary/evidence-pack.md)