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Use these constraints when evaluating or deploying LightShip.

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Supported field types

  • String, string-array, boolean, and number fields can be used for filtering.
  • String, string-array, and boolean fields can be used in policies. Number policies are not supported.
  • Structured payloads (nested JSON objects) are returned as trace data but cannot be used as marked fields for filtering or policies.

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Authentication

  • LightShip supports password-based sign-in and API-key authentication (Authorization: Bearer lsk_...).
  • External identity-provider integrations such as OIDC and SAML are not currently supported.

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Authorization and payload handling

  • Authorization is trace-wide. If any span in a trace matches a role policy, the response includes the complete trace, including unmatched spans and payloads.
  • LightShip does not currently redact or classify trace data.

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Query and analysis capabilities

  • There is no free-text search across traces or spans.
  • There is no custom sorting API; trace lists are ordered newest first.
  • There is no aggregate query API (for example, counting spans or grouping by attribute).
  • The local MCP companion can export authorized traces for ad hoc analysis. It returns a file path and counts rather than trace rows, but the exported JSONL still contains complete authorized payloads. See MCP clients.
  • A complete trace is buffered before it is returned. An unusually large trace can exhaust service memory.

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Schema compatibility

  • Physical-to-logical field compatibility and schema drift are not fully enforced.
  • lightship check compiles the stored access model but does not validate it against the live ClickHouse schema.

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Query performance

  • Query speed depends on the indexes defined in your ClickHouse trace table.
  • LightShip Setup reports recommended DDL for missing indexes but never changes the source schema. Review suggestions through the setup MCP tool lightship_optimizations or GET /schema/optimizations.

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Operational limits

  • Login and trace concurrency limits are per process, not per client or deployment.
  • Trace requests have a configurable deadline and maximum time window. LightShip does not provide distributed rate limiting; apply it at the edge.
  • See Deployment for access-model behavior across replicas.