Modern application tracing techniques are described herein that enable dynamic logging of events declared in a static manifest. Various events for logging can be declared in a static manifest. The static manifest may then be compiled to translate the declared events into a library of corresponding functions that can be called by “modern” applications written using dynamic code. Calls made to these functions from dynamic code are converted to corresponding static events and forwarded to existing tracing application programming interfaces (APIs) designed to handle logging of static events for “legacy” applications that use compiled code. In this manner, static functions that are compatible with tracing APIs can be created and called dynamically from dynamic code. This can occur without requiring administrative rights to install the code and while preserving existing features for legacy applications, such that a tracing log can include events from both modern applications and legacy applications.