Python

Opik Python SDK

How to send data to Opik using the Opik Python SDK
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Using the Opik Python SDK

This guide shows you how to directly instrument your Python applications with the Opik SDK to send trace data to Opik.

Use this approach when you are tracing your own code rather than a supported framework or provider. If you are using one of the supported integrations — LangChain, OpenAI, LiteLLM, and many others — prefer that integration instead: it captures inputs, outputs, token usage and cost for you with a single line of setup.

Installation

First, install the Opik package:

pip install opik

Configuration

Configure the SDK with your credentials, either by running opik configure once on the machine:

opik configure

Or by setting environment variables:

export OPIK_API_KEY="<YOUR_API_KEY>"
export OPIK_WORKSPACE="<YOUR_WORKSPACE>"

You can find your API key and workspace name in the Opik dashboard.

Set OPIK_PROJECT_NAME to control which project traces are logged to; it defaults to Default Project. See SDK configuration for the full list of options and precedence rules.

Full Example

Here’s a complete example that demonstrates how to instrument a chatbot application with the Opik SDK:

# Dependencies: opik
import time
import opik
from opik import opik_context
@opik.track(type="llm")
def llm_completion(user_request: str) -> str:
    """Simulates a call to an LLM provider."""
    llm_prompt = f"User question: {user_request}\n\nProvide a concise answer about the weather."
    # Simulate LLM thinking time
    time.sleep(0.5)
    chatbot_response = "It's sunny with a high of 75°F in your area today!"
    # Attach model, provider and token usage so Opik can compute cost
    opik_context.update_current_span(
        input={"prompt": llm_prompt},
        model="gpt-4",
        provider="openai",
        usage={
            "prompt_tokens": 10,
            "completion_tokens": 25,
            "total_tokens": 35,
        },
        metadata={"temperature": 0.7, "max_tokens": 100},
    )
    return chatbot_response
@opik.track(project_name="opik-sdk-example")
def chatbot_conversation(user_request: str) -> str:
    """The entrypoint: creates the trace that every nested span is attached to."""
    print(f"User request: {user_request}")
    # Group related traces into a single conversational thread, and tag the trace
    opik_context.update_current_trace(
        thread_id="user_12345",
        metadata={"conversation.id": "conv_12345", "conversation.type": "weather_inquiry"},
        tags=["chatbot", "weather"],
    )
    # Simulate initial processing
    time.sleep(0.2)
    print("Generating LLM response...")
    chatbot_response = llm_completion(user_request)
    print("LLM generation completed")
    print(f"Chatbot response: {chatbot_response}")
    return chatbot_response
if __name__ == "__main__":
    chatbot_conversation("What's the weather like today?")
    # Ensure all traces are flushed before the program exits
    opik.flush_tracker()
    print("\nTraces have been sent to Opik.")
    print("You can view them in your Opik project.")

The @opik.track decorator creates a span for every decorated function it wraps. The outermost decorated call also creates the trace, and nested calls are attached to it automatically — so llm_completion appears as a child span of chatbot_conversation without any manual ID passing. Inputs and outputs are captured from the function’s arguments and return value by default.

Using thread_id allows you to group related traces into a single conversational thread. Created threads can be used to evaluate multi-turn conversations as described in the Multi-turn conversations guide.

Span types

Set the type argument to tell Opik what kind of work a span represents. The supported values are general (the default), llm, tool and guardrail:

@opik.track(type="tool")
def search_weather(city: str) -> dict:
    return {"city": city, "forecast": "sunny"}

Marking a span as llm is what makes it eligible for token and cost accounting, so use it for any function that calls a model provider.

Tracking cost

Opik computes cost from the model, provider and usage fields on an llm span. Set them with update_current_span as in the example above, using the standard OpenAI token keys:

@opik.track(type="llm")
def llm_call(prompt: str) -> str:
    opik_context.update_current_span(
        model="gpt-4",
        provider="openai",
        usage={"prompt_tokens": 10, "completion_tokens": 25, "total_tokens": 35},
    )
    return "..."

For models Opik doesn’t price automatically, you can set total_cost directly. See Cost tracking for the details.

Tracing code you can’t decorate

When the code you want to trace isn’t a function you can decorate — a block inside a longer function, or a third-party call — use the start_as_current_span context manager instead. It creates the parent trace if one isn’t already active:

import opik
with opik.start_as_current_span(name="retrieve_documents", type="tool") as span:
    span.update(input={"query": "weather today"})
    documents = my_retriever("weather today")
    span.update(output={"documents": documents})

Flushing before exit

The SDK batches and sends data in the background, so a short-lived script can exit before everything is delivered. Call opik.flush_tracker() before the process ends, as in the example above, or pass flush=True to @opik.track on your entrypoint function:

@opik.track(flush=True)
def main():
    ...

Long-running services don’t need this — the background sender keeps up on its own.

Next steps