- Phoenix Tracing
- Comprehensive guide for instrumenting LLM applications with OpenInference tracing in Phoenix. Contains reference files covering setup, instrumentation, span types, and production deployment.
- When to Apply
- Reference these guidelines when:
- Setting up Phoenix tracing (Python or TypeScript)
- Creating custom spans for LLM operations
- Adding attributes following OpenInference conventions
- Deploying tracing to production
- Querying and analyzing trace data
- Reference Categories
- Priority
- Category
- Description
- Prefix
- 1
- Setup
- Installation and configuration
- setup-*
- 2
- Instrumentation
- Auto and manual tracing
- instrumentation-*
- 3
- Span Types
- 9 span kinds with attributes
- span-*
- 4
- Organization
- Projects and sessions
- projects-*
- ,
- sessions-*
- 5
- Enrichment
- Custom metadata
- metadata-*
- 6
- Production
- Batch processing, masking
- production-*
- 7
- Feedback
- Annotations and evaluation
- annotations-*
- Quick Reference
- 1. Setup (START HERE)
- setup-python
- - Install arize-phoenix-otel, configure endpoint
- setup-typescript
- - Install @arizeai/phoenix-otel, configure endpoint
- 2. Instrumentation
- instrumentation-auto-python
- - Auto-instrument OpenAI, LangChain, etc.
- instrumentation-auto-typescript
- - Auto-instrument supported frameworks
- instrumentation-manual-python
- - Custom spans with decorators
- instrumentation-manual-typescript
- - Custom spans with wrappers
- 3. Span Types (with full attribute schemas)
- span-llm
- - LLM API calls (model, tokens, messages, cost)
- span-chain
- - Multi-step workflows and pipelines
- span-retriever
- - Document retrieval (documents, scores)
- span-tool
- - Function/API calls (name, parameters)
- span-agent
- - Multi-step reasoning agents
- span-embedding
- - Vector generation
- span-reranker
- - Document re-ranking
- span-guardrail
- - Safety checks
- span-evaluator
- - LLM evaluation
- 4. Organization
- projects-python
- /
- projects-typescript
- - Group traces by application
- sessions-python
- /
- sessions-typescript
- - Track conversations
- 5. Enrichment
- metadata-python
- /
- metadata-typescript
- - Custom attributes
- 6. Production (CRITICAL)
- production-python
- /
- production-typescript
- - Batch processing, PII masking
- 7. Feedback
- annotations-overview
- - Feedback concepts
- annotations-python
- /
- annotations-typescript
- - Add feedback to spans
- Reference Files
- fundamentals-overview
- - Traces, spans, attributes basics
- fundamentals-required-attributes
- - Required fields per span type
- fundamentals-universal-attributes
- - Common attributes (user.id, session.id)
- fundamentals-flattening
- - JSON flattening rules
- attributes-messages
- - Chat message format
- attributes-metadata
- - Custom metadata schema
- attributes-graph
- - Agent workflow attributes
- attributes-exceptions
- - Error tracking
- Common Workflows
- Quick Start
-
- setup-{lang} → instrumentation-auto-{lang} → Check Phoenix
- Custom Spans
-
- setup-{lang} → instrumentation-manual-{lang} → span-{type}
- Session Tracking
-
- sessions-{lang} for conversation grouping patterns
- Production
- production-{lang} for batching, masking, and deployment How to Use This Skill Navigation Patterns:
By category prefix
references/setup-*
Installation and configuration
references/instrumentation-*
Auto and manual tracing
references/span-*
Span type specifications
references/sessions-*
Session tracking
references/production-*
Production deployment
references/fundamentals-*
Core concepts
references/attributes-*
Attribute specifications
By language
references/*-python.md
Python implementations
references/*-typescript.md
TypeScript implementations
Reading Order: Start with setup-{lang} for your language Choose instrumentation-auto-{lang} OR instrumentation-manual-{lang} Reference span-{type} files as needed for specific operations See fundamentals-* files for attribute specifications References Phoenix Documentation: Phoenix Documentation OpenInference Spec Python API Documentation: Python OTEL Package - arize-phoenix-otel API reference Python Client Package - arize-phoenix-client API reference TypeScript API Documentation: TypeScript Packages - @arizeai/phoenix-otel , @arizeai/phoenix-client , and other TypeScript packages