Basic Agent Tracing

Enable tracing and observability for agents.

Enable tracing for an agent to automatically capture all agent runs, model calls, and tool executions in your database.

1. Create a Python file

   basic_agent_tracing.py

   from agno.agent import Agent
   from agno.db.sqlite import SqliteDb
   from agno.models.openai import OpenAIResponses
   from agno.tools.hackernews import HackerNewsTools
   from agno.tracing import setup_tracing
   
   # Set up database for traces
   db = SqliteDb(db_file="tmp/traces.db")
   
   # Enable tracing (call once at startup)
   setup_tracing(db=db)
   
   # Create agent - automatically traced!
   agent = Agent(
       name="HackerNews Agent",
       model=OpenAIResponses(id="gpt-5.2"),
       tools=[HackerNewsTools()],
       instructions="You are a hacker news agent. Answer questions concisely.",
       markdown=True,
       db=db,
   )
   
   # Run the agent - traces are captured automatically
   agent.print_response("What's trending on HackerNews?")
   
   # Query traces from the database
   traces, count = db.get_traces(agent_id=agent.id, limit=10)
   print(f"\nFound {count} traces for agent '{agent.name}'")
   for trace in traces:
       print(f"  - {trace.name}: {trace.duration_ms}ms ({trace.status})")
   
2. Set up your virtual environment

   Mac

   uv venv --python 3.12
   source .venv/bin/activate
   

   uv venv --python 3.12
   .venv\Scripts\activate
   
3. Install dependencies

   uv pip install -U openai agno sqlalchemy opentelemetry-api opentelemetry-sdk openinference-instrumentation-agno
   
4. Export your OpenAI API key

   Mac/Linux

   export OPENAI_API_KEY="your_openai_api_key_here"
   

   $Env:OPENAI_API_KEY="your_openai_api_key_here"
   
5. Run the agent

   python basic_agent_tracing.py