Determining operating context of an executed instruction. At least some of the illustrative embodiments are a computer-readable medium storing a debug-trace program that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to display trace data on a display device (the trace data comprising a plurality of addresses of instructions executed by a target processor), enable a user of the debug-trace program to select an address of the plurality of addresses to create a selected address, and display data based on an operating context proximate in time to when the instruction of the selected address was executed on the target processor.