AgentTrace vs Traditional Logs
Reproducing the impossible vs reading text files.
What Logs are good at
- Universal and easy to implement anywhere.
- Good for post-mortem analysis if you know what to look for.
- Cheap and scalable for simple metrics.
This helps build trust — we know Logs / APM is a great tool.
Where Logs stop working for agents
- Logs show you 'what' happened, but not 'why' or 'how' to fix it.
- You cannot 'replay' a log file to reproduce a bug.
- Agents generate too much noise; logs become unreadable.
- Missing the full context of the execution state.
The Core Difference
Dimension
AgentTrace
Logs / APM
Interactive
Replayable
State Visibility
Full Memory
Text Only
Fix Loop
Instant
Manual Repro
When to use both
Logs are still necessary for high-level health metrics. AgentTrace is for when you actually need to fix the complex behavior that logs can't explain.