Trace Span Specification

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This document outlines the design of Prompt flow spans, detailing what information is traced and how it is structured.

Introduction

The span, as you may know, is the fundamental unit of the trace system, representing a unit that captures execution information in the Prompt flow system. Spans are nested together in a parent-child relationship and paired together by link relationships, providing developers and users with a comprehensive view of the application’s execution process.

By adhering to these specifications, we ensure transparency and consistency in our tracing system.

The UI interprets the captured spans and presents them in a user-friendly manner. Understanding the fields and contracts defined within the spans is essential for effectively utilizing Prompt flow or integrating its components.

OpenTelemetry Span Basics

A typical span object contains below information:

Field	Description
name	Name of span
parent_id	Parent span ID (empty for root spans)
context	Span Context
start_time	Start time of the span
end_time	End time of the span
status	Span Status
attributes	Attributes
events	Span Events
links	Span Links

Span in Prompt flow

In Prompt flow, we define several span types, and the system automatically creates spans with execution information in designated attributes and events.

These span types share common attributes and events, which we refer to as standard attributes and events. Let’s explore these common elements before diving into the specifics of each span type.

Common Attributes and Events

Attributes

Each span in Prompt flow is enriched with a set of standard attributes that provide essential information about the span’s context and purpose. The following table outlines these attributes:

Attribute	Type	Description	Examples	Requirement Level
framework	string	This attribute specifies the framework in which the trace was recorded. For our project, this value is consistently set to promptflow.	promptflow	Required
node_name	string	Denotes the name of the flow node.	chat	Conditionally Required if the flow is a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) flow.
span_type	string	Specifies the type of span, such as LLM or Flow. See this for details.	LLM	Required
line_run_id	string	Unique identifier for the execution run within Prompt flow.	d23159d5-cae0-4de6-a175-295c715ce251	Required
function	string	The function associated with the span.	search	Recommended
session_id	string	Unique identifier for chat sessions.	4ea1a462-7617-439f-a40c-12a8b93f51fb	Opt-In
referenced.line_run_id	string	Represents the line run ID that is the source of the evaluation run.	f747f7b8-983c-4bf2-95db-0ec3e33d4fd1	Conditionally Required only used in evaluation runs - runs on evaluation flow.
batch_run_id	string	The batch run ID when in batch mode.	61daff70-80d5-4e79-a50b-11b38bb3d344	Conditionally Required only used in batch runs.
referenced.batch_run_id	string	Notes the batch run ID against which an evaluation flow ran.	851b32cb-545c-421d-8e51-0a3ea66f0075	Conditionally Required only used in evaluation runs.
line_number	int	The line number within a batch run, starting from 0.	1	Conditionally Required only used in batch runs.
__computed__.cumulative_token_count.prompt	int	Cumulative token count of child nodes for prompts. [1]	200	Recommended
__computed__.cumulative_token_count.completion	int	Cumulative token count of child nodes for completion responses. [1]	80	Recommended
__computed__.cumulative_token_count.total	int	Total cumulative token count for both prompts and completions. [1]	120	Recommended

[1]: Cumulative token counts are propagated up the span hierarchy, ensuring each span reflects the total token count of all LLM executions within its scope.

Events

In Prompt flow, events emitted by the Prompt flow framework follow the format below

• event MUST has attributes

• event attributes MUST contain a key named payload, which refers to the data carried within an event.

• event attributes payload MUST be a JSON string that represent an object.

Event	Payload Description	Payload Examples	Requirement Level
promptflow.function.inputs	Input of a function call	{"chat_history":[],"question":"What is ChatGPT?"}	Required
promptflow.function.output	Output of a function call	{"answer":"ChatGPT is a conversational AI model developed by OpenAI."}	Required

Span Types Specification

Within the Prompt flow system, we have delineated several distinct span types to cater to various execution units. Each span type is designed to capture specific execution information, complementing the standard attributes and events. Currently, our system includes the following span types: LLM, Function, LangChain, Flow, Embedding and Retrieval.

Beyond the standard attributes and events, each span type possesses designated fields to store pertinent information unique to its role within the system. These specialized attributes and events ensure that all relevant data is meticulously traced and available for analysis.

LLM

The LLM (Large Language Model) span captures detailed execution information from calls to large language models.

Attribute	Type	Description	Examples	Requirement Level
span_type	string	Identifies the span as an LLM type.	LLM	Required
llm.usage.total_tokens	int	Total number of tokens used, including both prompt and response.	180	Required
llm.usage.prompt_tokens	int	Number of tokens used in the LLM prompt.	100	Required
llm.usage.completion_tokens	int	Number of tokens used in the LLM response (completion).	80	Required
llm.response.model	string	Specifies the LLM that generated the response.	gpt-4	Required

Event	Payload Description	Payload Examples	Requirement Level
promptflow.llm.generated_message	Captures the output message from an LLM call.	{"content":"ChatGPT is a conversational AI model developed by OpenAI.","role":"assistant","function_call":null,"tool_calls":null}	Required

Note: OpenTelemetry currently defines several LLM-related span attributes and events as semantic conventions. We plan to align with these conventions in the future. For more information, visit Semantic Conventions for GenAI operations.

Function

The Function span is a versatile default span within Prompt flow, designed to capture a wide range of general function execution information.

Attribute	Type	Description	Examples	Requirement Level
span_type	string	Identifies the span as a Function type.	Function	Required

Event	Payload Description	Payload Examples	Requirement Level
promptflow.prompt.template	Details the prompt template and variable information.	{"prompt.template":"# system:\nYou are a helpful assistant.\n\n# user:\n{{question}}","prompt.variables":"{\n "question": "What is ChatGPT?"\n}"}	Conditionally Required if the function contains prompt template formating. [1]

[1]: Template formatting is a process by resolving prompt template into prompt message, this process can happen within a function that invokes LLM call.

Flow

The Flow span encapsulates the execution details of a flow within Prompt flow.

Attribute	Type	Description	Examples	Requirement Level
span_type	string	Designates the span as a Flow type.	Flow	Required

Embedding

The Embedding span is dedicated to recording the details of embedding calls within Prompt flow.

Attribute	Type	Description	Examples	Requirement Level
span_type	string	Denotes the span as an Embedding type.	Embedding	Required
llm.usage.total_tokens	int	Total number of tokens used, sum of prompt and response tokens.	180	Required
llm.usage.prompt_tokens	int	Number of tokens used in the prompt for the embedding call.	100	Required
llm.usage.completion_tokens	int	Number of tokens used in the response from the embedding call.	80	Required
llm.response.model	string	Identifies the LLM model used for generating the embedding.	text-embedding-ada-002	Required

Event	Payload Description	Payload Examples	Requirement Level
promptflow.embedding.embeddings	Details the embeddings generated by a call.	[{"embedding.vector":"","embedding.text":"When does a pipeline job reuse a previous job's results in Azure Machine Learning?"}]	Required

Retrieval

The Retrieval span type is specifically designed to encapsulate the execution details of a retrieval task within Prompt flow.

Attribute	Type	Description	Examples	Requirement Level
span_type	string	Labels the span as a Retrieval type.	Retrieval	Required

Event	Payload Description	Payload Examples	Requirement Level
promptflow.retrieval.query	Captures the text of the retrieval query.	"When does a pipeline job reuse a previous job's results in Azure Machine Learning?"	Required
promptflow.retrieval.documents	Details the list of retrieved documents relevant to the query.	[{"document.id":"https://componentsdk.azurewebsites.net/howto/caching-reuse.html","document.score":2.677619457244873,"document.content":"# Component concepts &..."},{"document.id":"https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/machine-learning/v1/reference-pipeline-yaml","document.score":2.563112735748291,"document.content":"etc. |\r\n| runconfig | T..."}]	Required