# Tracing

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A trace is essentially a series of steps that your application takes to go from input to output.
Traces contain individual steps called `runs`. These can be individual calls from a model, retriever,
tool, or sub-chains.
Tracing gives you observability inside your chains and agents, and is vital in diagnosing issues.

For a deeper dive, check out [this LangSmith conceptual guide](https://docs.smith.langchain.com/concepts/tracing).