# Get Started with APM & Distributed Tracing

Learn how to set up APM (Application Performance Monitoring) and distributed tracing with SigNoz using OpenTelemetry. Instrument your app, visualize traces, and debug performance issues in minutes.

> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://signoz.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions are also available by appending `.md` to documentation URLs.

Tags: SigNoz Cloud, Self-Host

APM & Distributed Tracing in SigNoz gives you end-to-end visibility into your application's health and request flow. Monitor service-level RED metrics (Rate, Errors, Duration) and trace individual requests as they travel across microservices.

![APM traces workflow: Services list → Application Details → context menu → Traces Explorer](https://d3nu8xzr1i9u95.cloudfront.net/web/img/docs/instrumentation/apm-traces-workflow.gif)

APM traces workflow — from Services list to Traces Explorer

## Key capabilities

- **APM/Services**: Monitor every service with [latency percentiles, error rates, requests per second, and Apdex scores](https://signoz.io/docs/userguide/metrics/), with [database call](https://signoz.io/docs/apm-and-distributed-tracing/database-calls/) and [external call](https://signoz.io/docs/apm-and-distributed-tracing/external-calls/) breakdowns.
- **Trace Explorer**: [Search and filter traces](https://signoz.io/docs/userguide/traces/) by service, operation, duration, or any span attribute.
- **Distributed tracing**: Follow a single request across all microservices with a [flamegraph view](https://signoz.io/docs/userguide/span-details/) that shows every span, its duration, and parent-child relationships.
- **Trace funnels**: [Analyze how requests flow](https://signoz.io/docs/trace-funnels/overview/) through a sequence of services or spans and identify drop-off points.
- **Service map**: [Visualize dependencies](https://signoz.io/docs/userguide/service-map/) between services, databases, and messaging systems, and spot which endpoint is receiving failed calls, sized by incoming call rate.

## Get started

- [Send traces to SigNoz](https://signoz.io/docs/instrumentation/) — Instrument your services with OpenTelemetry.
- [APM metrics from traces](https://signoz.io/docs/userguide/custom-apm-dashboards-alerts/) — Understand how SigNoz derives RED metrics from trace data automatically.

## Work with APM & Tracing

- [View Services](https://signoz.io/docs/userguide/metrics/) — RED metrics, Apdex, and per-service performance overview.
- [Database Calls](https://signoz.io/docs/apm-and-distributed-tracing/database-calls/) — Latency and call counts for database operations.
- [External Calls](https://signoz.io/docs/apm-and-distributed-tracing/external-calls/) — Outbound HTTP and gRPC call metrics.
- [Trace Explorer](https://signoz.io/docs/userguide/traces/) — Search and filter individual traces by service, operation, duration, or attributes.
- [Trace Details](https://signoz.io/docs/userguide/span-details/) — Flamegraph view for a single trace with span-level attributes and events.
- [Service Map](https://signoz.io/docs/userguide/service-map/) — Visualize service dependencies and error hot-spots.
- [Trace Funnels](https://signoz.io/docs/trace-funnels/overview/) — Analyze request flow across a sequence of services.

## Concepts and reference

- [OpenTelemetry Environment Variables](https://signoz.io/docs/ingestion/opentelemetry-environment-variables/): Configure service identity, OTLP endpoints, headers, protocols, batching, and sampling.
- [Querying Traces](https://signoz.io/docs/apm-and-distributed-tracing/querying-traces/) — Query traces using Query Builder, Trace Matching, and ClickHouse SQL.
- [APM Metrics, Dashboards & Alerts](https://signoz.io/docs/userguide/custom-apm-dashboards-alerts/) — Build custom dashboards and alerts from APM data.
- [Using Traces API](https://signoz.io/docs/apm-and-distributed-tracing/traces-api/) — Query traces programmatically via the API.
- [Control Traces Volume](https://signoz.io/docs/traces-management/guides/drop-spans/) — Drop unwanted spans to reduce costs.
- [Correlate Traces & Logs](https://signoz.io/docs/traces-management/guides/correlate-traces-and-logs/) — Link traces with logs for unified debugging.
- [Debug Missing Telemetry](https://signoz.io/docs/ingestion/signoz-cloud/troubleshooting/data-not-appearing/) — Find where traces, logs, or metrics are getting lost between your app and SigNoz.

## Related modules

- [Logs Management](https://signoz.io/docs/logs-management/overview/) — Correlate traces with logs.
- [Metrics](https://signoz.io/docs/metrics-management/overview/) — Explore metrics alongside trace data.
- [Dashboards](https://signoz.io/docs/dashboards/overview/) — Build custom views from APM data.
- [Alerts](https://signoz.io/docs/alerts/) — Alert on latency, error rate, or Apdex.

More docs: /docs/sitemap.md