Phoenix Tracing

DevOps & Security

phoenix-tracing

Phoenix Tracing is an Agent Skill for devops & security published in the Arize-ai/phoenix repository on GitHub: a SKILL.md instruction file an AI agent can load to do this task.

OpenInference semantic conventions and instrumentation for Phoenix AI observability. Use when implementing LLM tracing, creating custom spans, or deploying to production.

View on GitHub ↗

QUICK START

How to use this skill

Bring this guide into your coding agent with a prompt tailored to the tool you use.

Open your project in Codex.
Copy and paste the prompt below.
Review files and risks before approving any action.

Prompt to paste

Inspect the Agent Skill at https://github.com/Arize-ai/phoenix/blob/HEAD/.agents/skills/phoenix-tracing/SKILL.md and all supporting files. Report provenance, permissions, scripts, dependencies, and security risks. Propose an exact installation into .agents/skills/phoenix-tracing, but wait for my approval before writing files or running scripts.

Copying this prompt does not install or run the skill. Review third-party files before use.

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. (also covers OTel GenAI native instrumentation)
instrumentation-auto-typescript - Auto-instrument supported frameworks
instrumentation-manual-python - Custom spans with decorators
instrumentation-manual-typescript - Custom spans with wrappers
instrumentation-atif-python - Import ATIF agent trajectories (Claude Code, OpenHands, Codex, etc.)

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

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

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

# 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:

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

How to use this skill

Phoenix Tracing

When to Apply

Reference Categories

Quick Reference

1. Setup (START HERE)

2. Instrumentation

3. Span Types (with full attribute schemas)

4. Organization

5. Enrichment

6. Production (CRITICAL)

7. Feedback

Reference Files

Common Workflows

How to Use This Skill

References