Embodiments describe techniques for reducing resource overhead in verbose trace operations by recursively pruning object data prior to string serialization. According to one embodiment, a trace operation is initiated. The trace operation generates a string and specifies one or more objects to serialize and append to the string. At least one object is a nested object. The trace operation recursively parses the nested object while generating the string. Data associated with one or more of the objects to prune from the serialization is determined based on a current prioritization level. The one or more objects is serialized into the string.