--- title: Closing the Gap: Bringing Sidecar-Level Tracing to... description: Istio 1.29 and Kiali 2.25 bring tracing in ambient mode to full parity with sidecar mode. Previously, ambient mode lacked the node_id attribute used in sidecar... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/closing-the-gap-bringing-sidecar-level-tracing-to-istio-s-ambient-mode-with-kiali-ujg6sbn0y twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Closing the Gap: Bringing Sidecar-Level Tracing to Istio's Ambient Mode with Kiali | daily.dev og:description: Istio 1.29 and Kiali 2.25 bring tracing in ambient mode to full parity with sidecar mode. Previously, ambient mode lacked the node_id attribute used in sidecar... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/closing-the-gap-bringing-sidecar-level-tracing-to-istio-s-ambient-mode-with-kiali-ujg6sbn0y og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/UJG6SBn0Y.png og:image:alt: Closing the Gap: Bringing Sidecar-Level Tracing to Istio's Ambient Mode with Kiali og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Closing the Gap: Bringing Sidecar-Level Tracing to Istio's Ambient Mode with Kiali **[Istio](https://daily.dev/sources/istio)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Istio 1.29 and Kiali 2.25 bring tracing in ambient mode to full parity with sidecar mode. Previously, ambient mode lacked the node_id attribute used in sidecar mode to pinpoint which specific workload version handled a request. Istio 1.29 adds istio.source_workload and istio.destination_workload attributes via the waypoint proxy, restoring that workload-level visibility. Kiali's Trace Overlay now uses these attributes to highlight both services and specific workloads in the versioned app graph, and its tracing identity mapping can be tuned via the use_waypoint_name config option. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How do I get workload-level tracing visibility in Istio ambient mode like I have with sidecars? Upgrade to Istio 1.29, which introduces istio.source_workload and istio.destination_workload span attributes generated by the waypoint proxy. These close the gap left by the missing node_id attribute in ambient mode, letting you identify exactly which workload version (v1, v2, v3) processed a request, matching the granularity sidecar mode already provided. _daily.dev helps engineers debugging ambient mesh traces keep up with Istio's tracing attribute changes._ ### Why does my Istio waypoint proxy trace show the destination service name instead of the waypoint? This is expected behavior introduced in Istio 1.28, which attributes traces directly to the destination service rather than the waypoint name, and it persisted through 1.29. Istio 1.30 later refined this so the span's operation name reflects the destination service while infrastructure metadata correctly points to the waypoint itself. _teams tracking waypoint tracing behavior across Istio versions can follow these changes on daily.dev._ ### How does Kiali find traces hidden under a waypoint's name in Istio ambient mode? Kiali automatically correlates traces in the Workload Details view by identifying the waypoint associated with a workload, querying the tracing provider, and filtering results for you. By default it looks up traces by service name, but this can be changed by setting the Kiali config external_services.tracing.use_waypoint_name to true. _engineers troubleshooting ambient mesh observability can track Kiali configuration changes like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Service Mesh Observability: Istio, Linkerd and Envoy Metrics](https://daily.dev/posts/service-mesh-observability-istio-linkerd-and-envoy-metrics-oxqcsr1dk) · Last9 · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Ambient multi-network multicluster support is now Beta](https://daily.dev/posts/ambient-multi-network-multicluster-support-is-now-beta-chnxpn00d) · Istio · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [How to observe your multi-cluster service mesh with Kiali](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-observe-your-multi-cluster-service-mesh-with-kiali-gb9spizhc) · Red Hat Developer · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#devops](https://daily.dev/tags/devops), [#observability](https://daily.dev/tags/observability), [#istio](https://daily.dev/tags/istio), [#service-mesh](https://daily.dev/tags/service-mesh) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/closing-the-gap-bringing-sidecar-level-tracing-to-istio-s-ambient-mode-with-kiali-ujg6sbn0y) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Closing the Gap: Bringing Sidecar-Level Tracing to Istio's Ambient Mode with Kiali","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/closing-the-gap-bringing-sidecar-level-tracing-to-istio-s-ambient-mode-with-kiali-ujg6sbn0y","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/closing-the-gap-bringing-sidecar-level-tracing-to-istio-s-ambient-mode-with-kiali-ujg6sbn0y"},"datePublished":"2026-10-26T18:39:33.578Z","dateModified":"2026-10-26T18:52:38.283Z","description":"Istio 1.29 and Kiali 2.25 bring tracing in ambient mode to full parity with sidecar mode. 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