A question buyers ask AI

Which tools trace LLM calls, retrieval steps, and agent actions with full inputs, outputs, and metadata so we can actually debug what happened?

Measured in 1 answer, last on Nov 8, 2026. Only the passages that name a brand are shown.

Brands in the answers

BrandNamed inRecommended inPositiveAvg. position
Langfuse100%100%100%1
LangSmith100%100%100%2
Arize Phoenix100%100%100%3
Braintrust100%0%100%4
Datadog LLM Observability100%0%100%6
Weights & Biases Weave100%0%100%—

Where each answer names a brand

Answer 1 · Nov 8, 2026 · 6 sources cited
Langfuse#1RecommendedSite citedpositive
“1. Langfuse Best overall starting point”
+ Captures LLM inputs and outputs, retrieval spans, tool calls and nested execution traces

“- Captures LLM inputs and outputs, retrieval spans, tool calls and nested execution traces.”

+ Shows token usage, latency, costs, errors and session metadata

“- Shows token usage, latency, costs, errors and session metadata.”

+ Includes prompt management, evaluations and trace filtering

“- Includes prompt management, evaluations and trace filtering.”

+ Open source; can self-host

“- Open source; can self-host.”

+ Best for framework-independent applications and production debugging

“Best for: framework-independent applications and production debugging.”

+ Complete trace history, flexibility and self-hosting

“1. Langfuse if you want the complete trace history, flexibility and self-hosting.”

LangSmith#2RecommendedSite citedpositive
“2. LangSmith Best for agent debugging”
+ Detailed execution trees for chains, agents and tool calls

“- Detailed execution trees for chains, agents and tool calls.”

+ Captures intermediate inputs and outputs

“- Captures intermediate inputs and outputs.”

+ Supports multi-step and multi-turn execution inspection

“- Supports multi-step and multi-turn execution inspection.”

+ Dataset-based testing and evaluation

“- Dataset-based testing and evaluation.”

+ Best for LangChain and LangGraph applications

“Best for: LangChain and LangGraph applications.”

+ Best if agents are built with LangGraph or LangChain

“2. LangSmith if your agents are built with LangGraph or LangChain.”

Arize Phoenix#3Recommendedpositive
“3. Arize Phoenix Best for RAG debugging”
+ Traces retrieval, embedding and LLM operations

“- Traces retrieval, embedding and LLM operations.”

+ Inspect retrieved documents, relevance and context

“- Inspect retrieved documents, relevance and context.”

+ Supports agent traces and OpenInference instrumentation

“- Supports agent traces and OpenInference instrumentation.”

+ Open source and self-hostable

“- Open source and self-hostable.”

+ Best for complex RAG pipelines and framework-independent tracing

“Best for: complex RAG pipelines and framework-independent tracing.”

+ Best if biggest debugging challenge is retrieval quality and RAG

“3. Arize Phoenix if your biggest debugging challenge is retrieval quality and RAG.”

Braintrust#4Site citedpositive
+ Detailed spans for LLM and agent execution

“- Detailed spans for LLM and agent execution.”

+ Trace inspection alongside evaluation scores

“- Trace inspection alongside evaluation scores.”

+ Compare runs and identify regressions

“- Compare runs and identify regressions.”

+ Connect production traces to test datasets

“- Connect production traces to test datasets.”

+ Best for teams wanting debugging and systematic quality evaluation together

“Best for: teams wanting debugging and systematic quality evaluation together.”

Datadog LLM Observability#6Site citedpositive
+ Connects LLM traces to infrastructure traces

“- Connects LLM traces to infrastructure traces.”

+ Monitors prompts, retrieval, tool calls and model performance

“- Monitors prompts, retrieval, tool calls and model performance.”

+ Adds production monitoring, alerting and service-level visibility

“- Adds production monitoring, alerting and service-level visibility.”

+ Best for enterprise environments already using Datadog

“Best for: enterprise environments already using Datadog.”

Weights & Biases WeaveSite citedpositive
+ Tracks nested operations and LLM calls

“- Tracks nested operations and LLM calls.”

+ Inspects inputs, outputs and intermediate execution

“- Inspects inputs, outputs and intermediate execution.”

+ Supports evaluation, scoring and experiment comparison

“- Supports evaluation, scoring and experiment comparison.”

+ Best for ML engineering teams already using Weights & Biases

“Best for: ML engineering teams already using Weights & Biases.”

Sources the answers cite

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