An idiomatic C++ client library for the Cloud Trace API, a service to send application trace data to Cloud Trace for viewing. This library is used to interact with the Trace API directly. If you are looking to instrument your application for Cloud Trace, we recommend using OpenTelemetry or a similar framework.
While this library is GA, please note Google Cloud C++ client libraries do not follow Semantic Versioning.
Quickstart
The following shows the code that you'll run in the google/cloud/trace/quickstart/ directory, which should give you a taste of the Cloud Trace API C++ client library API.
#include "google/cloud/trace/v2/trace_client.h"
#include "google/cloud/project.h"
#include <google/protobuf/util/time_util.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <random>
#include <thread>
std::string RandomHexDigits(std::mt19937_64& gen, int count) {
auto const digits = std::string{"0123456789abcdef"};
std::string sample;
std::generate_n(std::back_inserter(sample), count, [&] {
auto n = digits.size() - 1;
return digits[std::uniform_int_distribution<std::size_t>(0, n)(gen)];
});
return sample;
}
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) try {
if (argc != 2) {
std::cerr << "Usage: " << argv[0] << " project-id\n";
return 1;
}
namespace trace = ::google::cloud::trace_v2;
namespace v2 = ::google::devtools::cloudtrace::v2;
using ::google::protobuf::util::TimeUtil;
auto client = trace::TraceServiceClient(trace::MakeTraceServiceConnection());
// Create a span ID using some random hex digits.
auto gen = std::mt19937_64(std::random_device{}());
v2::Span span;
auto span_id = RandomHexDigits(gen, 16);
span.set_name(std::string{"projects/"} + argv[1] + "/traces/" +
RandomHexDigits(gen, 32) + "/spans/" + span_id);
span.set_span_id(std::move(span_id));
*span.mutable_start_time() = (TimeUtil::GetCurrentTime)();
// Simulate a call using a small sleep
std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::milliseconds(2));
*span.mutable_end_time() = (TimeUtil::GetCurrentTime)();
auto response = client.CreateSpan(span);
if (!response) throw std::move(response).status();
std::cout << response->DebugString() << "\n";
return 0;
} catch (google::cloud::Status const& status) {
std::cerr << "google::cloud::Status thrown: " << status << "\n";
return 1;
}
Main classes
This library offers multiple *Client classes, which are listed below. Each one of these classes exposes all the RPCs for a service as member functions of the class. This library groups multiple services because they are part of the same product or are often used together. A typical example may be the administrative and data plane operations for a single product.
The library also has other classes that provide helpers, configuration parameters, and infrastructure to mock the *Client classes when testing your application.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eThe Cloud Trace API C++ Client Library allows direct interaction with the Cloud Trace API for sending application trace data, but OpenTelemetry is recommended for application instrumentation.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe latest version of the library is 2.37.0-rc, and the webpage provides links to documentation for various previous versions, including 2.36.0 through 2.11.0.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe library provides \u003ccode\u003e*Client\u003c/code\u003e classes, such as \u003ccode\u003etrace_v1::TraceServiceClient\u003c/code\u003e and \u003ccode\u003etrace_v2::TraceServiceClient\u003c/code\u003e, which contain member functions for each service's RPCs.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThis library, while generally available, does not follow Semantic Versioning, as is the case for Google Cloud C++ client libraries.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe webpage also provides resources on error handling, endpoint overriding, authentication credential changes, retry policy overrides, and environment variables related to library behavior.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["Version latestkeyboard_arrow_down\n\n- [2.42.0-rc (latest)](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/latest)\n- [2.41.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.41.0)\n- [2.40.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.40.0)\n- [2.39.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.39.0)\n- [2.38.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.38.0)\n- [2.37.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.37.0)\n- [2.36.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.36.0)\n- [2.35.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.35.0)\n- [2.34.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.34.0)\n- [2.33.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.33.0)\n- [2.32.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.32.0)\n- [2.31.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.31.0)\n- [2.30.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.30.0)\n- [2.29.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.29.0)\n- [2.28.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.28.0)\n- [2.27.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.27.0)\n- [2.26.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.26.0)\n- [2.25.1](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.25.1)\n- [2.24.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.24.0)\n- [2.23.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.23.0)\n- [2.22.1](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.22.1)\n- [2.21.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.21.0)\n- [2.20.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.20.0)\n- [2.19.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.19.0)\n- [2.18.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.18.0)\n- [2.17.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.17.0)\n- [2.16.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.16.0)\n- [2.15.1](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.15.1)\n- [2.14.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.14.0)\n- [2.13.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.13.0)\n- [2.12.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.12.0)\n- [2.11.0](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/2.11.0) \n\nCloud Trace API C++ Client Library\n==================================\n\nAn idiomatic C++ client library for the [Cloud Trace API](https://cloud.google.com/trace), a service to send application trace data to Cloud Trace for viewing. This library is used to interact with the Trace API directly. If you are looking to instrument your application for Cloud Trace, we recommend using [OpenTelemetry](https://opentelemetry.io) or a similar framework.\n\nWhile this library is **GA** , please note Google Cloud C++ client libraries do **not** follow [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/).\n\n### Quickstart\n\nThe following shows the code that you'll run in the `google/cloud/trace/quickstart/` directory, which should give you a taste of the Cloud Trace API C++ client library API. \n\n #include \"google/cloud/trace/v2/trace_client.h\"\n #include \"google/cloud/project.h\"\n #include \u003cgoogle/protobuf/util/time_util.h\u003e\n #include \u003ciostream\u003e\n #include \u003crandom\u003e\n #include \u003cthread\u003e\n\n std::string RandomHexDigits(std::mt19937_64& gen, int count) {\n auto const digits = std::string{\"0123456789abcdef\"};\n std::string sample;\n std::generate_n(std::back_inserter(sample), count, [&] {\n auto n = digits.size() - 1;\n return digits[std::uniform_int_distribution\u003cstd::size_t\u003e(0, n)(gen)];\n });\n return sample;\n }\n\n int main(int argc, char* argv[]) try {\n if (argc != 2) {\n std::cerr \u003c\u003c \"Usage: \" \u003c\u003c argv[0] \u003c\u003c \" project-id\\n\";\n return 1;\n }\n\n namespace trace = ::google::cloud::trace_v2;\n namespace v2 = ::google::devtools::cloudtrace::v2;\n using ::google::protobuf::util::TimeUtil;\n\n auto client = trace::TraceServiceClient(trace::MakeTraceServiceConnection());\n\n // Create a span ID using some random hex digits.\n auto gen = std::mt19937_64(std::random_device{}());\n v2::Span span;\n auto span_id = RandomHexDigits(gen, 16);\n span.set_name(std::string{\"projects/\"} + argv[1] + \"/traces/\" +\n RandomHexDigits(gen, 32) + \"/spans/\" + span_id);\n span.set_span_id(std::move(span_id));\n *span.mutable_start_time() = (TimeUtil::GetCurrentTime)();\n // Simulate a call using a small sleep\n std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::milliseconds(2));\n *span.mutable_end_time() = (TimeUtil::GetCurrentTime)();\n\n auto response = client.CreateSpan(span);\n if (!response) throw std::move(response).status();\n std::cout \u003c\u003c response-\u003eDebugString() \u003c\u003c \"\\n\";\n\n return 0;\n } catch (google::cloud::Status const& status) {\n std::cerr \u003c\u003c \"google::cloud::Status thrown: \" \u003c\u003c status \u003c\u003c \"\\n\";\n return 1;\n }\n\n### Main classes\n\nThis library offers multiple `*Client` classes, which are listed below. Each one of these classes exposes all the RPCs for a service as member functions of the class. This library groups multiple services because they are part of the same product or are often used together. A typical example may be the administrative and data plane operations for a single product.\n\nThe library also has other classes that provide helpers, configuration parameters, and infrastructure to mock the `*Client` classes when testing your application.\n\n- [`trace_v1::TraceServiceClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/latest/classgoogle_1_1cloud_1_1trace__v1_1_1TraceServiceClient)\n- [`trace_v2::TraceServiceClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/latest/classgoogle_1_1cloud_1_1trace__v2_1_1TraceServiceClient)\n\n### More Information\n\n- [Error Handling](https://cloud.google.com/cpp/docs/reference/common/latest/common-error-handling.html) - describes how the library reports errors.\n- [How to Override the Default Endpoint](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/latest/trace-override-endpoint) - describes how to override the default endpoint.\n- [How to Override the Authentication Credentials](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/latest/trace-override-authentication) - describes how to change the authentication credentials used by the library.\n- [Override Retry, Backoff, and Idempotency Policies](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/latest/trace-override-retry) - describes how to change the default retry policies.\n- [Environment Variables](/cpp/docs/reference/trace/latest/trace-env) - describes environment variables that can configure the behavior of the library."]]