Traces link two items so you can see what depends on what: which requirement a test verifies, which system requirement a subsystem requirement is derived from, and so on. Every item shows its traces in the Traced to section of the item details sidebar, and that is also where you create and remove them.
Types of traces
Every organization has three built-in trace kinds:
Parent/Child - the hierarchy you see in the tree. A parent item is parent of its children, and each child is child of its parent. Moving an item in the tree changes these traces.
Related - a general link between two items. It can be undirected (is related to) or directional (is upstream of / is downstream of; these are the default verbs used when a type has none). Upstream means the item you trace from is the source; downstream means the item you trace to is the target.
Duplicate - marks two items as duplicates of each other (is duplicate of).
Your organization can add custom trace types with their own icon and verbs, for example verifies / is verified by or derives / is derived from. Admins manage them under Organization settings > Trace types. See the article Trace types and traceability rules.
Traces created by integrations (Jira issues, GitHub pull requests) show the tool's icon instead of a trace icon.
Viewing traces
Open an item's details sidebar and scroll to Traced to. Each row shows:
The type icon and short ID of the traced item. Hover it for a preview of that item.
The item title. Click it to open the item in single item view. Cmd/Ctrl-click, or right-click and choose Open in new tab, to open it in a new browser tab.
The trace icon on the right. Hover it to read the relationship as a sentence, for example REQ-12 is verified by TEST-4.
Use the Filter traced items dropdown to show only some trace types and directions, or pick ALL. The filter is remembered for you. When the filter hides rows, a note such as 2 hidden traces appears with a Clear filter link.
Trace states
Traceability rules on the item type add three states to the list:
Missing - a required trace does not exist yet. The row shows a placeholder ID and the type name; see Creating a trace from a Missing row below.
Suspect - the traced item changed after the trace was created. Hover the short ID for See changes and Clear.
Invalid trace - the trace matches no rule and the item type does not allow traces outside its rules.
How rules produce these marks, and how to change them, is explained in Trace types and traceability rules.
Creating traces
Anyone with read access to both items can create or delete a trace. Parent/child traces are the exception: they change the tree, so you need write access to both the parent and the child. If you lack it, the is parent of and is child of options are not offered.
From the Traced to section
Click the + button in the Traced to header. A new row appears with a Select item search.
Type to search, or browse the tree, and click the item to trace to. Items you cannot read are grayed out. You can also create the target here: use New top level item, or hover an item in the tree and click its + to add a new item beneath it. A notification confirms the new item.
Pick the relationship. Use the Upstream, Downstream and Undirected buttons to filter the list, and hover an option to see the resulting sentence, for example REQ-12 is verified by TEST-4.
Click the relationship to create the trace.
From a Missing row
Hover a Missing row. The text changes to Trace to followed by the type name. Click it.
The sidebar switches to a screen headed Add followed by the relationship, for example Add is verified by. It lists Suggested items of the required type that are similar to the current item, and below that the full item tree.
Click a suggested item or a tree item to create the trace and return to the item details. To trace to something that does not exist yet, use New top level item or the + on a tree item; the new item is created and traced in one step.
From the item menu
Hover an item in the document view, table view or tree, click its ... button and choose Trace to. This works for several items at once when you select them and use the bulk Actions button. You need write access to the selected items for this menu entry.
The Create trace window has one row per trace: Select item and Relationship. Click + to add more rows, the bin icon to remove one, and Add to create all traces at once. The Current item list on the right shows which items the traces are created from.
Managing traces
Delete - hover a row in Traced to, click the bin icon and confirm Delete trace?.
Reverse or change the type - in the sidebar, delete the trace and create it again. The Traceability matrix cell popover offers Reverse trace direction and Change trace type in one click.
Suggested traces - below the list, Trace.Space can propose similar items to link. See AI Suggested traces.