In a distributed system like NewsCatcher, tracing requests across multiple services is essential for effective troubleshooting. This guide explains how correlation IDs work and how to use them to resolve issues quickly.

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What is a correlation ID?

A correlation ID is a unique identifier assigned to every request that enters our system. This ID follows the request through all microservices and appears in logs across our infrastructure, enabling end-to-end request tracing.

Think of a correlation ID as a tracking number for your API request - it lets you and our support team follow the request’s journey through our entire system.

In the NewsCatcher APIs, correlation IDs appear in:

  • HTTP response headers as correlation-id
  • Internal logs across our Kubernetes infrastructure
  • Error tracking systems

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Why correlation IDs matter

Faster support resolution

When reporting issues to our support team, including the correlation ID allows us to immediately locate all relevant logs and trace the exact path your request took through our systems. This dramatically speeds up troubleshooting and resolution times.

End-to-end request visibility

In complex operations that touch multiple services (search, filtering, aggregation, etc.), correlation IDs let us reconstruct the complete journey of your request and identify exactly where problems occurred.

Performance analysis

For requests with unexpected latency, correlation IDs help us analyze and optimize performance by measuring exactly how long each step in processing took.

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How to use correlation IDs

1

Find your correlation ID in response headers

Every response from the NewsCatcher API includes a correlation-id in the HTTP headers. You can view this:

  • In your HTTP client’s response headers
  • In programming language responses by accessing the headers collection
  • In Postman under the Headers tab of the response

Example correlation ID: a702576c-2007-4b23-9ba4-cad305c84275

2

Include your correlation IDs in support requests

When contacting our support team about an API issue, always include:

  • The complete correlation ID from the response headers
  • The approximate time the request was made
  • A brief description of the expected vs. actual behavior

This information lets us immediately locate the exact request in our logs and provide faster assistance.

Without the correlation ID, debugging process would require much more back-and-forth and manual searching through logs.

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Correlation IDs and support SLAs

Providing a correlation ID when reporting issues helps us meet our service level agreements (SLAs) for support response times. According to our Service Support Policy, we have defined target response times based on issue priority:

  • Priority 1 (Critical): 1 hour
  • Priority 2 (Significant): 4 hours
  • Priority 3 (Moderate): 12 hours
  • Priority 4 (Minor): 1 business day

Without a correlation ID, troubleshooting takes significantly longer, which may impact our ability to meet these response targets. For the fastest possible resolution, always include the correlation ID from the relevant API request when contacting support.

For Priority 1 issues (complete service unavailability), please contact support by phone at +33625707180 in addition to submitting a ticket with the correlation ID to ensure immediate attention.

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Best practices

Log correlation IDs

Always include correlation IDs in your own application logs when making requests to our APIs.

Report with correlation IDs

Always include correlation IDs when reporting issues to our support team.

Include in error reporting

Integrate correlation ID extraction into your application’s error handling logic.

Keep for later reference

Consider storing correlation IDs for important requests temporarily for easier troubleshooting.

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