> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.braintrust.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Review insights from Topics

> Find patterns in classified logs through topic distributions, trace classifications, and time-series trends, with snapshot and real-time views.

Once Topics has classified your logs, you can explore the patterns three ways: distributions of clusters across your logs, classifications on individual traces, and trends in topic volume over time.

## View topic distributions

Braintrust offers two ways to explore topic distributions. Use the [** Topics**](https://www.braintrust.dev/app/~/topics) page for a snapshot view of clusters from the last pipeline run. Use the [** Logs**](https://www.braintrust.dev/app/~/logs) page for real-time analysis across all traces, or for on-demand clustering of any filtered subset.

### Snapshot view

The [** Topics**](https://www.braintrust.dev/app/~/topics) page visualizes the discovered topics in one of two views. Each view is a snapshot from the most recent pipeline run, not a live feed of new traces.

Click **Expand** on any card for a full-page detail view.

* ** List** (default): Topics ranked by share. Expand a row to see keywords and sample summaries. Hover a row and click  **View logs with this topic** to open [** Logs**](https://www.braintrust.dev/app/~/logs) filtered to that topic and every topic nested under it. While classifications are still being applied, a spinner appears in place of the link with a note that the filtered view would be incomplete.

  ![List view](https://mintcdn.com/braintrust/r-GOPa0enk8M9w2j/images/topics/list-view.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=r-GOPa0enk8M9w2j\&q=85\&s=145db4163a4cc287a114e52c93d62eee)
* ** Scatterplot**: A plot of trace embeddings colored by topic. Hover a point to see the trace's facet summary, or click to open the trace in a side panel. The legend lists each topic with its share of classified traces and trace count. In the expanded view, toggle **3D view** to rotate and zoom through the plot.

  ![Scatterplot view](https://mintcdn.com/braintrust/r-GOPa0enk8M9w2j/images/topics/scatterplot-view.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=r-GOPa0enk8M9w2j\&q=85\&s=437b86e0fef7d7b4e42c3f898688564c)

### Real-time analysis

The [** Logs**](https://www.braintrust.dev/app/~/logs) page offers two ways to see topic distributions in real time as new traces are classified.

* **Live distribution view**: Select [** Topics**](https://www.braintrust.dev/app/~/logs?qs=topics) from the row type selector in the toolbar to see each topic as a card showing its percentage of the total and trace count.

* **On-demand clustering**: Filter to any subset (by user, time range, or any other attribute), then open the row type selector in the toolbar, choose  **Cluster by**, and select a facet to cluster that subset on demand. For example, filter to a specific user's conversations and cluster by Task to discover how they use your product. Each topic can be expanded to show keywords and sample summaries.

  Once a cluster is active, open the **** menu next to the applied filters to adjust the run:

  * ** View clustering query** — Inspect the underlying query that produced the clusters.
  * ** Run in query page** — Open that query on the [Query page](https://www.braintrust.dev/app/~/sql) to refine or extend it.
  * ** Clustering settings** — Tune how traces are grouped, including the clustering algorithm, distance threshold, embedding model, dimension reduction, and sample size.

## Examine specific traces

On the [** Logs**](https://www.braintrust.dev/app/~/logs) page, each trace in the logs table shows a **facet summary** (the short text the LLM extracts per facet) and **topic** the summary was matched to. If the LLM couldn't extract a meaningful summary for a facet, the summary will indicate no match and the trace won't have a summary for that facet. You can [filter by topic or facet](https://docs.braintrust.dev/observe/filter.md) and select rows to build datasets.

For a deeper look, open any trace. Facet summaries and matched topics are also visible in the [**Thread**](https://docs.braintrust.dev/observe/examine-traces.md#view-as-a-conversation) () layout and the [** Evaluators**](https://docs.braintrust.dev/observe/examine-traces.md#test-and-apply-evaluators) tab.

![Examine a single trace](https://mintcdn.com/braintrust/wnKh80ZxpSZ__gif/images/observe/examine-trace-topics.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=wnKh80ZxpSZ__gif\&q=85\&s=a1a879f477eb72743098cb843b6ed9b5)

## Track trends over time

When topics are active, a **Topics** chart automatically appears on [** Dashboards**](https://www.braintrust.dev/app/~/dashboards). This chart shows classified log volume over time. Click any data point to open [** Logs**](https://www.braintrust.dev/app/~/logs) in a new tab, filtered to the point's time range and to every trace classified under the clicked topic's facet, not only the topic you clicked. To filter Logs to a single topic instead, use  **View logs with this topic** in the [snapshot view](#snapshot-view).

![Topics chart](https://mintcdn.com/braintrust/Xph7wlO6esteYmUR/images/topics/topics-chart.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=Xph7wlO6esteYmUR\&q=85\&s=ddb546d163290fec044f2fcca17a125c)

## Next steps

* [Act on findings](https://docs.braintrust.dev/observe/topics/act-on-findings.md) to turn surfaced patterns into datasets, scorers, and review assignments.
* [Query classifications with SQL](https://docs.braintrust.dev/reference/sql/examples.md#query-by-classifications) for ad-hoc analysis.


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