Embodiments herein describe a retroactive tracer that retroactively generates traces using data stored in local caches. Rather than continually generating and collecting tracing data in a distributed system (which may requires massive amounts of storage and bandwidth), the embodiments herein store tracing data in local caches corresponding to nodes in the distributed system (e.g., a service, application, virtual machine, server, network device, etc.). When an error is detected when executing a task, the retroactive tracer can broadcast a request that the nodes send any trace data they may have corresponding to that task. The tracer can then retroactively generate the trace from the collected trace data. In contrast, if a task completes without an error, the nodes delete the trace data from their local caches (i.e., the trace data is not collected by the retroactive tracer).