Inline Annotations

Inline annotations are the main way to leave human feedback on a trace. Any trace you can open—from Traces, Search, Issues, or Sessions—has an annotation panel.

How Inline Annotations Work

When viewing a trace:

Open the trace detail view.
Use the annotation panel on the right.
Choose a scope:
- Conversation-level: assess the whole interaction.
- Message-level: annotate one message.
- Text-range: anchor feedback to selected text inside a message.
Add a thumbs-up or thumbs-down verdict and feedback.
Optionally link the annotation to an issue.

Annotations save as drafts while you edit. Once finalized, they feed analytics, issue discovery, and evaluation alignment alongside annotations from flaggers and the API.

A Typical Review Workflow

For batch review, start from search or a saved search:

Run or open a search for the cohort you want to review, such as “failed payments last week” or “checkout flows over 5 steps”.
Open a matching trace.
Read the conversation, annotate it, and move to the next trace.
Use the saved search’s Annotated / Total columns to track progress.

For shared review work, assign the saved search to a teammate. Assignment is a lightweight ownership signal; everyone can still see and open the search.

When to Use Inline Annotations

Use inline annotations for:

Systematic review of a trace cohort
Ad-hoc spot checks while browsing traces
Issue investigation
Team review and coaching
Extra context on traces that already have scores or flagger annotations

If you want detection without human review for a fixed set of known failure categories, use flaggers.