Event Trace Waterfall
The waterfall view is a visual timeline that shows how an event flows through the pipeline — with timing bars that reveal latency at each step, parallel branches, and bottlenecks.
Overview
When an event is processed, each node in the pipeline records its start time and duration. The waterfall visualizes these as horizontal bars on a shared timeline, offset from the event's creation time. This lets you see at a glance which steps ran in parallel, which were sequential, and where time was spent.
Reading the waterfall
Each row in the waterfall represents a pipeline step. The bar's position and width show when the step started (relative to event creation) and how long it took.
Step information
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Node type | The kind of node (webhook, schemaValidator, delivery, etc.) |
| Name | The node's configured name |
| Status | Outcome of this step (success, failed, blocked, skipped) |
| Start time | Absolute timestamp when the step began |
| Duration | How long the step took in milliseconds |
| Offset | Milliseconds after event creation that this step started |
Parallel branches
When a node delivers to multiple targets, the waterfall shows each branch as a separate row. Overlapping bars indicate parallel execution. This is common when:
- A webhook delivers to multiple URLs simultaneously
- Schema validation runs while the primary delivery is queued
- Multiple chain branches execute in parallel
Example waterfall
Event created ──────────────────────────────────────────────►
time (ms)
0ms 50ms 100ms 150ms 200ms 250ms 300ms 350ms
├─ Schema Validator ─┤
│ "Payment Schema" │ (0-45ms, PASS)
│ │
├────── Delivery ─────────────────────────────┤
│ "Payment API" │ (48-320ms, SUCCESS) │
│ │ │
├── HTTP Action: Slack ──────────┤
│ (48-180ms, SUCCESS) │
│ │
├── HTTP Action: Analytics ─────────────┤
(48-210ms, SUCCESS) │Status colors
| Status | Color | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| SUCCESS | Green | Step completed successfully |
| FAILED | Red | Step failed (delivery error, validation failure) |
| BLOCKED | Amber | Step was blocked by an upstream node (e.g., schema validator) |
| SKIPPED | Gray | Step was skipped (e.g., filter did not match) |
| PENDING | Blue | Step is still in progress (live tail only) |
Debugging with the waterfall
- Large gap between steps: indicates queue wait time — the delivery worker may be under load.
- Long delivery bar: the downstream server is slow to respond. Check target server health.
- BLOCKED step followed by no delivery: a schema validator or filter rejected the event.
- Missing expected branch: check that the chain connection exists on the canvas.