# openzipkin/brave

Java distributed tracing implementation compatible with Zipkin backend services.

Repository: https://github.com/openzipkin/brave
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/brave
Language: Java
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: zipkin, java, distributed-tracing, tracing, zipkin-brave, instrumentation, openzipkin
Last push: 2026-03-25T19:20:55+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 76/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 74, release rhythm 64, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4896, "days_push": 161, "days_rel": 162, "gap_med": 70, "n_releases_24m": 4}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2405, forks 714 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:44.067077+00:00)

## What it is
Brave is a dependency-free Java distributed tracing library that instruments production services to gather timing data, propagate trace contexts, and report spans to Zipkin or compatible backends. It ships ready-made instrumentation for common components like Servlet, Spring, and log correlation with SLF4J/Log4J.

## Use cases
- trace requests across microservices in java
- propagate trace context between services
- add trace ids to application logs
- instrument spring web mvc with distributed tracing
- send spans to zipkin backend
- trace legacy java 6 applications without adding dependencies

## When to choose
- you run Java/JVM services and want Zipkin-compatible distributed tracing
- you need a tracer with zero third-party dependencies and a tiny footprint
- you want prebuilt instrumentation for Servlet, Spring, or log correlation
- you must trace legacy applications on old JREs

## When to avoid
- your stack is not on the JVM
- you have standardized on OpenTelemetry and want vendor-neutral APIs
- you need tracing features outside what Brave's instrumentation covers and would have to write it all yourself

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: tracing, monitoring, middleware, logging
- domain: microservices, monitoring, developer-tools, backend
- platform: jvm, cross-platform
- tags: zipkin, distributed-tracing, instrumentation, x-b3, opentelemetry-alternative, microservices

## Member repositories
- openzipkin/brave (main) score 76

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:44.067077+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:34:09.038338+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/openzipkin/brave (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:44.067077+00:00, sha a933de498cc2)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.