Merge pull request #223 from grafana/plugin-readme

src/README.md

@@ -4,7 +4,63 @@ Remove any remaining comments before publishing as these may be displayed on Gra
 
 # Explore Traces
 
-Query less exploration of trace data stored in tempo
+Distributed traces provide a way to monitor applications by tracking requests across services.
+Traces record the details of a request to help understand why an issue is or was happening.
+Tracing is best used for analyzing the performance of your system, identifying bottlenecks, monitoring latency, and providing a complete picture of how requests are processed.
+
+Explore Traces helps you make sense of your tracing data so you can automatically visualize insights from your Tempo traces data.
+Using the app, you can:
+
+* Use Rate, Errors, and Duration (RED) metrics derived from traces to investigate issues
+* Uncover related issues and monitor changes over time
+* Browse automatic visualizations of your data based on its characteristics
+* Do all of this without writing TraceQL queries
+
+![Root cause latency using Duration metrics](https://grafana.com/media/docs/explore-traces/explore-traces-duration-root-cause-latency.png)
+
+## Before you begin
+
+To use Explore Traces with Grafana Cloud, you need:
+
+- A Grafana Cloud account
+- A Grafana stack in Grafana Cloud with a configured [Tempo data source](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana-cloud/connect-externally-hosted/data-sources/tempo/configure-tempo-data-source/) receiving tracing data
+
+To use Explore Traces with self-hosted Grafana open source or Grafana Enterprise, you need:
+
+- Your own Grafana instance running 11.2 or newer
+- Tempo 2.6 or newer
+- A configured [Tempo data source](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/datasources/tempo/configure-tempo-data-source/) receiving tracing data
+
+## Getting started
+
+Refer to the [Explore Traces](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana-cloud/visualizations/simplified-exploration/traces/) documentation. 
+For instructions installing, refer to the [access and installation instructions](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana-cloud/visualizations/simplified-exploration/traces/).
+
+## Resources
+
+- [Documentation](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana-cloud/visualizations/simplified-exploration/traces/)
+- [CHANGELOG](https://github.com/grafana/explore-traces/releases)
+- [GITHUB](https://github.com/grafana/explore-traces/)
+
+## Contributing
+
+We love accepting contributions!
+If your change is minor, please feel free submit
+a [pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/about-pull-requests/).
+If your change is larger, or adds a feature, please file an issue beforehand so
+that we can discuss the change. You're welcome to file an implementation pull
+request immediately as well, although we generally lean towards discussing the
+change and then reviewing the implementation separately.
+
+### Bugs
+
+If your issue is a bug, please open one [here](https://github.com/grafana/explore-traces/issues/new).
+
+### Changes
+
+We do not have a formal proposal process for changes or feature requests. If you have a change you would like to see in
+Explore Traces, please [file an issue](https://github.com/grafana/explore-traces/issues/new) with the necessary details.
+
 
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