> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.ionos.com/cloud/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.ionos.com/cloud/home/observability/tracing-service/overview/tracing-sources.md).

# Tracing Sources

Tracing Service supports trace data from applications, services, SDKs, and collectors that can export OpenTelemetry traces.

{% hint style="info" %}
**Note:** You can send traces from any environment if your exporter can reach the service endpoint and is configured with the correct pipeline key.
{% endhint %}

Examples of supported tracing source categories include:

{% tabs %}
{% tab title="Application SDKs" %}
OpenTelemetry SDKs for languages such as Go, Java, Python, JavaScript, and .NET can instrument applications directly and export traces to the Tracing Service.
{% endtab %}

{% tab title="OpenTelemetry Collector" %}
The OpenTelemetry Collector can receive traces from multiple sources, batch them, and forward them to Tracing Service using `OTLP/HTTP` or `OTLP/gRPC`.
{% endtab %}

{% tab title="Service Mesh" %}
Ingress layers, proxies, or service meshes that emit OpenTelemetry-compatible traces can forward those traces to the Tracing Service for centralized analysis.
{% endtab %}

{% tab title="Custom Instrumentation" %}
Custom applications or frameworks that build OTLP trace payloads can export to the Tracing Service if they use the correct endpoint and `apikey` authentication.
{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}


---

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