Read the trace in its auction context.
Start with the request.
Choose the exchange context and inspect the opportunity's impressions.
Follow each candidate.
Read targeting misses, rejections and eligible pricing information.
Keep diagnosis separate.
No creative is rendered, no budget is reserved and no auction metrics are recorded.
An eligible candidate can still be passed over by final selection and pricing rules. A trace helps you inspect the decision instead of inferring a result from one check.
Replace guesswork with a decision trail.
Follow the real checks.
The trace includes the privacy, supply, pacing and cap interfaces used by the bidder, rather than a separate approximation.
Inspect exclusions as well as winners.
See targeting dimension misses, rejected candidates and eligible pricing information for each impression.
Keep diagnosis separate from spend.
Explain mode reserves no money, renders no creative and does not record auction metrics.
Can explain mode place an accidental bid?
Explain mode returns a diagnostic result to the operator. It does not emit an exchange bid response, reserve budget or generate delivery markup.