Getting Started with Observability

Basalt Observability is built on OpenTelemetry and designed to be integrated into any Python application with minimal code changes.

1. Install the SDK

pip install basalt-sdk

2. Initialize Basalt

Set your API key as an environment variable:

export BASALT_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"

Initialize the client in your application:

import os
from basalt import Basalt

basalt = Basalt(api_key=os.environ["BASALT_API_KEY"])

3. Add Tracing to your Code

Use @start_observe for your entry points (like an API handler) and @observe for nested operations (like LLM calls or tool use).

from basalt.observability import start_observe, observe, ObserveKind

@observe(name="LLM Generation", kind=ObserveKind.GENERATION)
def call_llm(prompt: str):
    # Your LLM call logic here
    return "This is a generated response"

@start_observe(feature_slug="my-feature", name="Process Request")
def main():
    result = call_llm("Hello world")
    return result

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()
    basalt.shutdown() # Ensure all traces are sent

basalt.shutdown() permanently destroys the global OpenTelemetry TracerProvider. Call it exactly once, at process exit. Do not call it between loop iterations or between HTTP requests — subsequent traces would be silently dropped. See Core Concepts for full lifecycle guidance.

4. View your Traces

Run your script, then head over to the Basalt Dashboard to see your traces in real-time.

Next Steps

Core Concepts - Understand traces, spans, and context.
Auto-instrumentation - Automatically trace OpenAI, Anthropic, and more.
Identity Tracking - Attach users and organizations to your traces.

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Observability

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Getting Started

Getting Started with Observability

1. Install the SDK

2. Initialize Basalt

3. Add Tracing to your Code

4. View your Traces

Next Steps

​Getting Started with Observability

​1. Install the SDK

​2. Initialize Basalt

​3. Add Tracing to your Code

​4. View your Traces

​Next Steps

Getting Started with Observability

1. Install the SDK

2. Initialize Basalt

3. Add Tracing to your Code

4. View your Traces

Next Steps