fix(console): keep live traces listed and drop empty payload cards in traces view

[sergiofilhowz]

Follow-ups to #504 from live testing: spans showing request/response · empty, live traces stalling mid-run, and a second prompt's thread missing from the list for a long time.

Problems

1. Empty request/response on most spans — the span panel synthesizes a call card for any span that resolves a function id (ancestor walk / baggage), but the SDK attaches iii.payload.json events only to the invocation span itself, so nested plumbing and scope spans all rendered cards with two empty panes.
2. Rows vanished mid-run — the list's span-filter verdicts recomputed from the all-spans feed on every pass. The feed retains ~2min, so during a long quiet stretch (one long LLM/tool call) a trace's visible bars pruned out while hidden bookkeeping spans kept it in the feed, flipping the row back to hidden until more work closed near completion.
3. A new turn's row hid until its first visible span closed — turn traces root in the producer-hidden harness::turn dispatch group and worker spans only export on close, so early in a turn the feed holds nothing but hidden plumbing and the filter judged the whole trace hidden.
4. No recovery from delivery gaps — a dropped trace-rows frame left a trace off the list until a full reseed, and the all-spans feed never re-seeded on tab-visible, leaving permanent holes after tab switches.

Solutions

• functionCallFromSpan: spans that only inherit their identity render a card only when they actually captured data (payload events, tool.arguments, exception); invocation spans keep their card.
• useSpanFilteredTraceRows: verdicts are monotone per selection (a visible verdict sticks — composition only grows); fetched verdicts never downgrade a visible one; live traces (pending snapshot in the feed, or a span end within 10s) are never hidden on a feed-only negative verdict.
• useTraceData: span activity for unknown traces routes through the existing debounced trace_ids read and missing roots are backfilled into the list — a dropped row frame self-heals in ~1s.
• useAllSpans: re-seed on tab-visible, mirroring the list's recovery.

Tests cover the card gate, monotone verdicts, the live exemption, and liveTraceIds.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes
  • Live traces now remain visible while spans are pending or have recently completed.
  • Trace verdicts no longer incorrectly downgrade during concurrent updates.
  • Trace tags refresh more reliably, including for newly discovered root spans.
  • Returning to a browser tab refreshes trace data to prevent stale spans.
  • Empty function-call cards are no longer shown for non-invocation spans.
• Tests
  • Added coverage for live trace visibility, tag updates, verdict merging, and function-call rendering.

[vercel]

The latest updates on your projects. Learn more about Vercel for GitHub.

Project	Deployment	Actions	Updated (UTC)
workers	Ready	Preview, Comment	Jul 16, 2026 3:08pm
workers-tech-spec	Ready	Preview, Comment	Jul 16, 2026 3:08pm

[github-actions]

skill-check — worker

0 verified, 44 skipped (no docs/).

Layer	Result
structure	✓
vale	✓
ai	✓
render	✓

Four for four. Nicely done.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Run ID: 6b68ecd8-272a-437d-87f2-c49549156174

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 521ed49 and 2b91e56.

📒 Files selected for processing (6)

• console/web/src/pages/TracesV2/hooks/useAllSpans.ts
• console/web/src/pages/TracesV2/hooks/useSpanFilteredTraceRows.test.ts
• console/web/src/pages/TracesV2/hooks/useSpanFilteredTraceRows.ts
• console/web/src/pages/TracesV2/hooks/useTraceData.ts
• console/web/src/pages/TracesV2/lib/functionCallFromSpan.test.ts
• console/web/src/pages/TracesV2/lib/functionCallFromSpan.ts

---

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The changes improve trace visibility during live activity, refresh missing trace tags and roots, reseed spans after hidden-tab intervals, and suppress empty function-call cards from inherited identity-only spans.

Changes

Trace resilience and rendering

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Live trace visibility and verdict merging console/web/src/pages/TracesV2/hooks/useSpanFilteredTraceRows.ts, console/web/src/pages/TracesV2/hooks/useSpanFilteredTraceRows.test.ts	Live and recently ended traces remain visible, while existing positive verdicts are preserved during merged reads.
Trace tag refresh and root backfill console/web/src/pages/TracesV2/hooks/useTraceData.ts	Debounced trace refreshes update tags, backfill missing roots, adjust totals, and process activity for uncached trace IDs.
Visible-tab span reseeding console/web/src/pages/TracesV2/hooks/useAllSpans.ts	Visible-tab transitions trigger reseeding when active, with listener cleanup during disposal.
Function-call card filtering console/web/src/pages/TracesV2/lib/functionCallFromSpan.ts, console/web/src/pages/TracesV2/lib/functionCallFromSpan.test.ts	Identity-only spans without payloads return no card, while payload, error, and genuine invocation cases continue to render.

Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~25 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• iii-hq/workers#504: Updates related trace-row visibility and verdict reconciliation logic.

Poem

I’m a bunny watching traces flow,
Live little spans now stay aglow.
Lost roots hop back, tags bloom bright,
Empty call cards vanish from sight—
A tidy burrow, day and night!

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage	⚠️ Warning	Docstring coverage is 50.00% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%.	Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly summarizes the main UI fixes: preserving live traces and suppressing empty payload cards in the traces view.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

✨ Finishing Touches

📝 Generate docstrings

• Create stacked PR
• Commit on current branch

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch fix/traces-improvements

---

Thanks for using CodeRabbit! It's free for OSS, and your support helps us grow. If you like it, consider giving us a shout-out.

❤️ Share

• X
• Mastodon
• Reddit
• LinkedIn

_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands.}