Tempo MCP Server
Server Configuration
Describes the environment variables required to run the server.
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
No arguments | |||
Instructions
Guidance the server publishes about itself, which clients place ahead of the tool catalog so the model reads it before choosing anything.
This server publishes no instructions, or was last inspected before Glama recorded them.
Capabilities
Features and capabilities supported by this server
Protocol revision2025-11-25
| Capability | Details |
|---|---|
| tools | {} |
Tools
Functions exposed to the LLM to take actions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| tempo_search_tracesA | Search traces using TraceQL query language. Automatically handles various query syntax formats. The query parser will normalize your query to work with Tempo. Default time range: last 7 days. |
| tempo_get_traceB | Get complete trace data by trace ID, including all spans with full details |
| tempo_get_trace_spansB | Get all spans from a specific trace with optional filtering by service name, span name, duration, attributes, or error status |
| tempo_search_spansC | Search for traces and return all matching spans across multiple traces with filtering. Useful for finding specific operations across your system. |
| tempo_get_span_statisticsB | Get aggregated statistics for spans grouped by service, operation, or status. Returns count, avg/min/max/percentile durations. |
| tempo_query_by_tagB | Convenience method to query traces by specific tag/attribute filters. Useful for filtering by sometag, user.id, environment, etc. |
Prompts
Interactive templates invoked by user choice
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
No prompts | |
Resources
Contextual data attached and managed by the client
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
No resources | |
TDQS
Scored across 6 tools
The tools are largely distinct: get_trace (full trace), search_traces (TraceQL), get_trace_spans (spans within a trace), search_spans (spans across traces), get_span_statistics (aggregations), query_by_tag (tag-based queries). The main overlap is between search_traces and query_by_tag—both retrieve traces—but the tool descriptions clarify their inputs. This is a modest overlap, not a severe one.
Naming follows a consistent pattern of tempo_ followed by action_noun: tempo_get_trace, tempo_search_traces, tempo_get_trace_spans, tempo_search_spans, tempo_get_span_statistics, tempo_query_by_tag. The verb/noun structure is uniform across all tools, making the API predictable. tempo_query_by_tag uses 'query' instead of 'search', a minor deviation, but overall the pattern is clear and consistent.
Six tools is a well-scoped set for a tracing query server. Each tool serves a distinct purpose: retrieving full traces, searching by query language, filtering spans, cross-trace span search, aggregations, and tag-based lookup. None feel redundant or unnecessary; the count is right for the domain scope.
The server covers trace lookup, searching (by TraceQL and tags), span retrieval, and statistics—a solid coverage of Tempo's core tracing query workflows. Missing operations like trace comparison or raw query execution are minor; the surface is reasonably complete for its domain. A notable gap is no direct capability to fetch recent traces without a query, relying on search having sensible defaults.