# Microservices Lineage

This feature traces the data provenance of microservice-based applications. ODD represents microservices as catalog objects and shows their call graph as a typical lineage diagram — the same UI surface as [Data Objects Lineage](/features/data-lineage/data-objects.md), with microservice nodes participating alongside datasets, transformers, and the rest of the entity model.

![](/files/wNMRVUypwpxCem0NVwSz)

## How microservices land in the catalog

Microservice lineage is sourced from **OpenTelemetry traces**. The path is:

1. The microservice (instrumented with OpenTelemetry) emits trace spans to a telemetry collector — typically an OTel Collector or directly to a backend that speaks OTLP.
2. [`odd-tracing-gateway`](/integrations/integrations/odd-tracing-gateway.md) — the platform's only [standalone gateway](/introduction/main-concepts.md#the-architecture-chain) push adapter today — receives those traces, infers the microservice topology and the calls between services, and emits the corresponding ODD entities (microservice transformers + the call edges between them) into the platform's [Ingestion API](/introduction/main-concepts.md#odd-specification).
3. The platform stores the inferred entities in the catalog and renders their lineage in the same Lineage tab as data-object lineage.

Operator-mental-model: "push" — microservices push their traces and the gateway forwards. The Platform-side leg is a pull hidden behind the gateway's standalone deployment, which is why `odd-tracing-gateway` is classified as a [standalone-gateway push adapter](/introduction/main-concepts.md#the-architecture-chain) in the architecture chain.

## Where to find it in the UI

Microservices appear in the catalog as `MICROSERVICE`-class transformer entities. From any microservice detail page, the **Lineage tab** opens the same graph view used for data-object lineage — call edges between microservices flow alongside dataset / transformer / consumer edges where the platform has visibility into both surfaces.

## Where to next

* [Data Objects Lineage](/features/data-lineage/data-objects.md) — the catalog-side lineage surface that microservice nodes render alongside.
* [`odd-tracing-gateway`](/integrations/integrations/odd-tracing-gateway.md) — the standalone gateway that turns OpenTelemetry traces into ODD microservice entities.
* [Architecture](/introduction/architecture.md) — the platform-wide data-flow diagram, including the gateway's position in the producer-side topology.
* [Main Concepts → The architecture chain](/introduction/main-concepts.md#the-architecture-chain) — where standalone-gateway push adapters sit among the producer-side concepts.
* [API Reference → Lineage](/developer-guides/api-reference/lineage.md) — the same lineage HTTP surface used for both data-object and microservice lineage.


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.opendatadiscovery.org/features/data-lineage/microservices.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.