> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.chronosphere.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Query traces in dashboards

Viewing a dashboard can provide insights such as spikes in memory usage, CPU
utilization, and other metrics that help identify issues in your system. When
troubleshooting problems, context matters. Knowing whether relevant trace data exists
for an existing problem that's visualized in your dashboard can help decrease Mean
Time To Repair (MTTR).

Rather than leave your dashboard to explore traces, you can bring trace data to where
you need it and discover traces from any dashboard in your Chronosphere
Observability Platform tenant.

You must first [enable trace querying](#enable-trace-querying) on each dashboard
from where you want to query traces. After enabling this feature, you can
[query traces from a dashboard](#query-traces-from-a-dashboard).

<Note>
  To view trace data in dashboards, your organization must purchase
  [distributed tracing](https://chronosphere.io/platform/distributed-tracing/)
  and have it enabled in your tenant.
</Note>

## Enable trace querying

Before you can query traces from a dashboard, you must enable the trace query
feature, which adds a **Query traces** button in your dashboard. After enabling the
feature, you can click this button to display a dialog for querying traces directly
from the dashboard.

To enable trace querying from a dashboard:

1. In the navigation menu select **Dashboards**.

   Alternatively, you can [search for a dashboard](/observe/dashboards#view-dashboards)
   from anywhere in Observability Platform.

2. Select the dashboard where you want to enable queries for trace data.

3. Click **<Icon icon="settings" alt="Settings icon" /> Settings**, and then click
   **General** to display the dashboard settings.

4. In the **Dashboard settings** page, in the **Select a tag** field, type and
   then select **tracing-context**.

5. Click **Apply**, and then click **Save** in your dashboard.

The **Query traces** button displays at the top of your dashboard. You can now click
that button to query traces.

## Query traces from a dashboard

After [enabling trace querying](#enable-trace-querying), you can display a query
builder and search traces directly from a dashboard where trace querying is active.

To search traces from a dashboard:

1. In the dashboard where you [enabled trace querying](#enable-trace-querying), click
   **Query traces** to open the **Traces** drawer.

2. In the **Query builder**, enter a service, operation, tag, or combination of those
   criteria to query trace data.

   For more information about how to construct a trace query, see
   [Search and filter trace data](/investigate/querying/traces).

3. Select a filter to apply to your query. For example, you can choose to filter the
   query results to only traces where the selected service or operation contains an
   error.

4. Click **<Icon icon="refresh-cw" alt="Run icon" /> Run** to run the defined query.
   The **Query builder** section collapses, and the timeline graph updates based on
   the query results.

   The time window displays the last 24 hours by default. You can query data up to 30
   days in the past.

   <Note>
     If you click **<Icon icon="refresh-cw" alt="Run icon" /> Run** without
     defining any criteria in the query, results display for all traces in the last 24
     hours.
   </Note>

5. Explore the results of your trace query. When selecting one of these options,
   Observability Platform applies the context from your query to Trace Explorer:

   * **View trace details**: To open the full trace details for an individual trace
     in Trace Explorer, click any trace in the table.

   * **Explore queries**: To open the defined query in Trace Explorer, click
     **Open in Trace Explorer**.

   * **Differential diagnosis**: To identify trends and scan through all related tags
     and values in the defined query, click **Differential diagnosis**. See
     [Differential diagnosis](/investigate/analyze/differential-diagnosis/traces)
     for more information.