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Getting Started with Observability

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

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1. Install the SDK

pip install basalt-sdk

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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"])

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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

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4. View your Traces

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

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Next Steps