diff --git a/docs/victoriatraces/changelog/CHANGELOG.md b/docs/victoriatraces/changelog/CHANGELOG.md
index 7906db50a..1c16a4265 100644
--- a/docs/victoriatraces/changelog/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/docs/victoriatraces/changelog/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ The following `tip` changes can be tested by building VictoriaTraces components
 
 ## tip
 
+* BUGFIX: [Single-node VictoriaTraces](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victoriatraces/) and vtselect in [VictoriaTraces cluster](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victoriatraces/cluster/): support unscoped attributes in TraceQL queries for the Tempo search API. Previously such queries always returned empty results. See [this issue #198](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaTraces/issues/198).
+
 ## [v0.12.0](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaTraces/releases/tag/v0.12.0)
 
 Released at 2026-09-29
diff --git a/lib/traceql/filter_general.go b/lib/traceql/filter_general.go
index 8cb230072..74067cd96 100644
--- a/lib/traceql/filter_general.go
+++ b/lib/traceql/filter_general.go
@@ -111,6 +111,15 @@ func (fc *filterCommon) String() string {
 		return otelpb.ParentSpanIDField + `:=""`
 	}
 
+	// Unscoped attribute `.foo` reads the span attribute if the span has it, and the resource attribute otherwise,
+	// `.service.name` is mapped to the resource stream field below.
+	if attr, ok := strings.CutPrefix(fc.fieldName, "."); ok && fc.fieldName != ".service.name" {
+		spanFilter := filterCommon{fieldName: "span." + attr, op: fc.op, value: fc.value}
+		resourceFilter := filterCommon{fieldName: "resource." + attr, op: fc.op, value: fc.value}
+		spanField := quoteFieldNameIfNeeded(otelpb.SpanAttrPrefixField + attr)
+		return "(" + spanField + ":* and " + spanFilter.String() + " or " + spanField + `:"" and ` + resourceFilter.String() + ")"
+	}
+
 	// TraceQL's `attr = nil` / `attr != nil` map to LogsQL's empty-value and
 	// any-value filters respectively — the canonical forms per
 	// https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/logsql/#empty-value-filter
diff --git a/lib/traceql/parser_test.go b/lib/traceql/parser_test.go
index ca93a3707..f2557386a 100644
--- a/lib/traceql/parser_test.go
+++ b/lib/traceql/parser_test.go
@@ -107,6 +107,12 @@ func TestParseQuery(t *testing.T) {
 
 	// Regex match operator `=~` must become LogsQL `~` (not `=~`).
 	f(`{resource.host.name =~ "kimi-k2-a.*"}`, `"resource_attr:host.name":~"kimi-k2-a.*"`)
+
+	// unscoped attributes read the span attribute if present, and the resource attribute otherwise.
+	f(`{.istio.cluster_id = "c1"}`, `("span_attr:istio.cluster_id":* and "span_attr:istio.cluster_id":=c1 or "span_attr:istio.cluster_id":"" and "resource_attr:istio.cluster_id":=c1)`)
+	f(`{.service.name = "x" && .istio.cluster_id = "c1"}`, `{"resource_attr:service.name"=x} and ("span_attr:istio.cluster_id":* and "span_attr:istio.cluster_id":=c1 or "span_attr:istio.cluster_id":"" and "resource_attr:istio.cluster_id":=c1)`)
+	f(`{.foo !~ "a.*"}`, `("span_attr:foo":* and "span_attr:foo":!~"a.*" or "span_attr:foo":"" and "resource_attr:foo":!~"a.*")`)
+	f(`{.foo != nil}`, `("span_attr:foo":* and "span_attr:foo":* or "span_attr:foo":"" and "resource_attr:foo":*)`)
 }
 
 // TestParseQueryInvalid asserts that malformed inputs return an error