---
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/dart/guides/flutter/enriching-events/breadcrumbs/
---

# Breadcrumbs | Sentry for Flutter

##### 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/dart/guides/flutter/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/dart/guides/flutter/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:

```dart
import 'package:sentry/sentry.dart';

Sentry.addBreadcrumb(Breadcrumb(message: 'Authenticated user'));
```

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

The Flutter SDK already captures breadcrumbs automatically via the Native SDKs for Android, iOS, and macOS.

* [Automatic Breadcrumbs for Android](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/android/enriching-events/breadcrumbs.md#automatic-breadcrumbs)

* [Automatic Breadcrumbs for iOS and macOS](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/apple/integrations/default.md#sentryautobreadcrumbtrackingintegration)

* For platforms where a native SDK is not available, the Flutter SDK automatically uses a [WidgetsBindingObserver](https://api.flutter.dev/flutter/widgets/WidgetsBindingObserver-class.html) to record automatic breadcrumbs.

* For additional navigation breadcrumbs for Flutter apps, add the [`SentryNavigatorObserver`](https://pub.dev/documentation/sentry_flutter/latest/sentry_flutter/SentryNavigatorObserver-class.html) to your `MaterialApp`, `WidgetsApp` or `CupertinoApp`.

```dart
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:sentry_flutter/sentry_flutter.dart';

MaterialApp(
  navigatorObservers: [
    SentryNavigatorObserver(),
  ],
  // other parameters
)
```

To track automatic Breadcrumbs for `HTTP` requests, check out the [SentryHttpClient](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/dart/enriching-events/breadcrumbs.md#automatic-breadcrumbs) Wrapper for the [http](https://pub.dev/packages/http) library.

## [Customize Breadcrumbs](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/dart/guides/flutter/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 `null`:

```dart
await SentryFlutter.init((options) {
  options.beforeBreadcrumb = (breadcrumb, hint) {

    return 'a.spammy.Logger' == breadcrumb.category ? null : breadcrumb;

  };
});
```

For information about what can be done with the hint, see [Filtering Events](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/dart/guides/flutter/configuration/filtering.md#using-hints).