Quick answer
Cloudflare agent tracing does not replace Workers observability. It adds the agent layer—invocations, model calls, tool execution, approval events, supported subagents, and token metadata—around Workers spans such as fetch, D1, KV, Durable Objects, and service bindings.
Use the Agents view to understand agent behavior. Open the full Workers trace to inspect the infrastructure and SDK work underneath it.
Side-by-side comparison
| Question | Agents view and agent tracing | Workers observability |
|---|---|---|
| Which model and tool ran? | Primary view | May show lower-level calls without full agent meaning |
| What context shaped the turn? | Session replay where payloads were captured | Not the primary surface |
| Which binding or fetch failed? | Correlated under the agent operation | Primary infrastructure detail |
| How did subagents nest? | Supported calls nest in active trace context | Underlying spans remain visible |
| What counts toward events? | Visible operations count | Additional Worker and SDK spans count too |
| Can data be exported? | Uses the tracing/observability export path | OTLP-compatible destination support |
The most useful workflow is layered: replay for context, agent trace for decisions and latency, Workers trace for infrastructure, and an external evaluation for answer quality.
Example diagnosis path
If a turn returns HTTP 200 but the answer is wrong:
- Inspect replay for the instructions and context available.
- Check whether the intended tool was selected.
- Inspect tool arguments and result where payload capture permits.
- Follow the child infrastructure spans for timeout, D1, KV, or fetch errors.
- Compare the final response with the source and evaluation case.
- Add the confirmed failure to a regression suite.
Use the debugging guide for this workflow and the setup guide for instrumentation.
Frequently asked questions
Does agent tracing replace Workers tracing?
No. It adds agent semantics to the existing infrastructure trace context.
When should I open Workers observability?
When you need binding, fetch, SDK, or other infrastructure spans that are not fully represented in the Agents view.
Do all spans count?
Cloudflare says every span counts as an observability event, including Worker-level spans outside the Agents view.
Official sources
Source check: August 6, 2026. Verify current integrations, visible fields, sampling, pricing, and retention before rollout.