To trace an activity through multiple components or applications that may be involved in the performance of the activity, an activity identifier can be generated and utilized by the various components or applications. Each can generate its own activity identifier to minimize changes to existing interfaces. When logging of events has been activated, each application or component can provide, to an event store, an indication of the activity identifier it is using for a given activity. If a preceding or subsequent component utilizes a different activity identifier for aspects of the same activity, a link between the two activity identifiers can be communicated to the event store. Subsequently, examination of the event store can filter out irrelevant entries based on the activity identifiers. A graph linking the various related activity identifiers can be created and only those events associated with activity identifiers not in the graph can be filtered out.