Tempo 3.1 release: new features for Kafka, TraceQL metrics updates, trace redaction, and more

Grafana Tempo 3.1 expands the distributed tracing platform with Kafka ingestion enhancements, including TLS, additional SASL authentication methods, rack-aware fetching to reduce cross-zone transfer costs, and configurable producer compression for broader backend compatibility. The release adds query-based trace redaction through TraceQL, enabling users to locate and permanently remove sensitive data across traces while providing dry-run, tenant metrics, and time-range controls. TraceQL metrics gains sampling-aware extrapolation, arithmetic expressions for calculations such as error rates, and faster span-only query processing for vParquet5 blocks. Other improvements include clearer service-graph diagnostics, support for updated OpenTelemetry database semantic conventions, lower metrics-generator resource use, experimental span pruning and filtering for trace-by-ID requests, and experimental trace-diff tools designed to simplify manual and AI-assisted investigations. Tempo 3.1 also makes vParquet5 the default storage format, improving query performance and adding expanded dedicated-column configuration options, while users are advised to review release notes and upgrade guidance before deployment.

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