---
title: "Breadcrumbs"
description: "Learn more about what Sentry uses to create a trail of events (breadcrumbs) that happened prior to an issue."
url: https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/apple/guides/ios/enriching-events/breadcrumbs/
---

# Breadcrumbs | Sentry for iOS

##### Hey... did you mean Logs? Sentry has them now!

Manual breadcrumbs had a good run, but [Sentry's got logs](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/apple/guides/ios/logs.md). Structured, searchable, and way easier to alert or query on. Check them out!

Sentry uses *breadcrumbs* to create a trail of events that happened prior to an issue. These events are very similar to traditional logs, but can record more rich structured data.

This page provides an overview of manual breadcrumb recording and customization. Learn more about the information that displays on the **Issue Details** page and how you can filter breadcrumbs to quickly resolve issues in [Using Breadcrumbs](https://docs.sentry.io/product/error-monitoring/breadcrumbs.md).

##### Learn about SDK usage

Developers who want to modify the breadcrumbs interface can learn more in our [developer documentation about the Breadcrumbs Interface](https://develop.sentry.dev/sdk/foundations/transport/event-payloads/breadcrumbs/).

## [Manual Breadcrumbs](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/apple/guides/ios/enriching-events/breadcrumbs.md#manual-breadcrumbs)

You can manually add breadcrumbs whenever something interesting happens. For example, you might manually record a breadcrumb if the user authenticates or another state change occurs.

Manually record a breadcrumb:

```swift
import Sentry

let crumb = Breadcrumb()
crumb.level = SentryLevel.info
crumb.category = "auth"
crumb.message = "Authenticated user \(user.email)"
SentrySDK.addBreadcrumb(crumb: crumb)
```

## [Automatic Breadcrumbs](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/apple/guides/ios/enriching-events/breadcrumbs.md#automatic-breadcrumbs)

The Cocoa SDK captures breadcrumbs automatically for:

* Application lifecycle events (`didBecomeActive`, `didEnterBackground`, `viewDidAppear`)
* UIControl events (with the exception of UITextField `.editingChanged`)
* System events (battery level or state changed, memory warnings, device orientation changed, keyboard did show and did hide, screenshot taken, time zone changed or significant time change)
* Outgoing HTTP requests

## [Customize Breadcrumbs](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/apple/guides/ios/enriching-events/breadcrumbs.md#customize-breadcrumbs)

SDKs allow you to customize breadcrumbs through the `beforeBreadcrumb` hook.

This hook is passed an already assembled breadcrumb and, in some SDKs, an optional hint. The function can modify the breadcrumb or decide to discard it entirely by returning `nil`:

```swift
import Sentry

SentrySDK.start { options in
    options.beforeBreadcrumb = { crumb in
        return crumb
    }
}
```