PetalTrace review
An open-source trace, replay, and cost-analysis tool for self-hosted agent teams.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
PetalTrace is an open-source observability platform for AI agent workflows, aimed at developers who need detailed traces and replay without moving run data to a hosted service. It collects OTLP over HTTP or gRPC, classifies LLM, tool, node, edge, and custom spans, and stores run data in SQLite. Its web UI, HTTP API, CLI, and MCP server provide several ways to inspect workflows, while integrations with OpenTelemetry, PetalFlow, MCP, and Claude Code support an open-standard workflow.
Its strongest area is trace depth. PetalTrace captures full prompts and completions, tracks tool-call inputs and outputs, calculates token usage and estimated model costs, and supports full-text search across prompts and completions. Run comparison goes beyond basic logs by showing structural, content, and cost differences. Replay is available in live, mocked, or hybrid modes, making the product suited to teams investigating agent behavior, reviewing regressions, or comparing workflow runs.
The main trade-off is operational ownership: deployment is self-hosted, so the target audience is comfortable running the system and managing its environment. The product also centers on OpenTelemetry-based collection, which makes instrumentation an important part of adoption. PetalTrace fits developers who want open-source control, trace replay, MCP inspection, and cost visibility across agent workflows. Teams seeking a managed observability service or a deployment model that avoids self-hosting should choose an alternative.
PetalTrace pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Captures prompts, completions, tool calls, tokens, and estimated model costs
- Compares runs by structural, content, and cost differences
- Replays executions in live, mocked, or hybrid modes
- Where it doesn't
- Deployment is self-hosted, requiring operational ownership
- Cost figures are estimates based on token usage and model data
- Trace collection centers on OpenTelemetry instrumentation
PetalTrace fact sheet, pricing and score →
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