Set Up AI Agent Monitoring

Monitor AI agents with token usage, latency, tool execution, and error tracking.

With Sentry AI Agent Monitoring, you can monitor and debug your AI systems with full-stack context. You'll be able to track key insights like token usage, latency, tool usage, and error rates. AI Agent Monitoring data will be fully connected to your other Sentry data like logs, errors, and traces.

Agent-Assisted Setup
Use curl to download, read and follow https://skills.sentry.dev/instrument to set up Sentry.
Your agent will set up Sentry automatically. Works with Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, and more.View docs ↗
Install the full plugin

Install the Sentry plugin to give your assistant every skill. See the installation docs for more details.

Copied
npx @sentry/ai install

Before setting up AI Agent Monitoring, ensure you have tracing enabled in your Sentry configuration.

The JavaScript SDK supports automatic instrumentation for AI libraries. Add the integration for your AI library to your Sentry configuration:

Copied
import * as Sentry from "___SDK_PACKAGE___";
import { openAIIntegration } from "___SDK_PACKAGE___";

Sentry.init({
  dsn: "___PUBLIC_DSN___",
  tracesSampleRate: 1.0,
  integrations: [openAIIntegration()],
});

All AI integrations support recordInputs and recordOutputs options to control whether prompts and responses are captured. Both default to true.

Set these to false if your prompts or responses contain sensitive data you don't want sent to Sentry.

Copied
import * as Sentry from "___SDK_PACKAGE___";
import { openAIIntegration } from "___SDK_PACKAGE___";

Sentry.init({
  dsn: "___PUBLIC_DSN___",
  tracesSampleRate: 1.0,
  integrations: [
    openAIIntegration({
      recordInputs: false, // Don't capture prompts
      recordOutputs: false, // Don't capture responses
    }),
  ],
});

gen_ai spans are sent as standalone envelope items instead of being bundled in the transaction by default (since SDK version 10.61.0). This prevents AI spans with large inputs and outputs from hitting transaction payload size limits and being dropped, and is required for Conversations to work.

To send gen_ai spans as part of the transaction instead, set streamGenAiSpans to false. Self-hosted Sentry users should set this to false, as standalone gen_ai spans may not be ingested by their Sentry instance.

Copied
import * as Sentry from "___SDK_PACKAGE___";

Sentry.init({
  dsn: "___PUBLIC_DSN___",
  tracesSampleRate: 1.0,
  streamGenAiSpans: false, // opt out of streaming gen_ai spans
});

When building AI applications with multi-turn conversations, you can use setConversationId() to link all AI spans from the same conversation together. This allows you to analyze entire conversation flows in Sentry.

The conversation ID is automatically applied as the gen_ai.conversation.id attribute to all AI-related spans within the current scope. To unset the conversation ID, pass null.

Copied
import * as Sentry from "___SDK_PACKAGE___";

// Set conversation ID at the start of a conversation
Sentry.setConversationId("conv_abc123");

// All subsequent AI calls will be linked to this conversation
await openai.chat.completions.create({
  model: "gpt-4",
  messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Hello" }],
});

// Later in the conversation
await openai.chat.completions.create({
  model: "gpt-4",
  messages: [
    { role: "user", content: "Hello" },
    { role: "assistant", content: "Hi there!" },
    { role: "user", content: "What's the weather?" },
  ],
});

// Both calls will have gen_ai.conversation.id: "conv_abc123"

// To unset it
Sentry.setConversationId(null);

The Conversations view includes a User column. To populate it, call setUser once per request or session, before any AI calls:

Copied
import * as Sentry from "___SDK_PACKAGE___";

Sentry.setUser({
  id: "user_123",
  email: "jane@example.com",
  username: "jane",
});

Any of id, email, or username is sufficient — Conversations displays whichever fields are present. See the setUser API reference for the full list of supported fields.

If you're using a library that Sentry does not automatically instrument, you can manually instrument your code to capture spans. For your AI agents data to show up in the AI Agents Dashboards, spans must have well-defined names and data attributes.

When instrumenting an agent loop, spans nest like this:

Copied
── invoke_agent My Agent          (gen_ai.invoke_agent)
   ├── chat gpt-4o                (gen_ai.chat)         ← 1st LLM call
   ├── execute_tool get_weather   (gen_ai.execute_tool)  ← tool run
   ├── chat gpt-4o                (gen_ai.chat)         ← 2nd LLM call
   └── ...

gen_ai.invoke_agent is the container. gen_ai.chat and gen_ai.execute_tool spans are its children (siblings of each other). A gen_ai.chat span can also appear without an agent parent for standalone LLM calls.

This span represents a request to an LLM model or service that generates a response based on the input prompt.

Key attributes:

  • gen_ai.operation.name — Required. Set to "chat" for chat completions
  • gen_ai.request.model — The model name (required)
  • gen_ai.input.messages — The prompts sent to the LLM
  • gen_ai.output.messages — The model's response
  • gen_ai.usage.input_tokens / output_tokens — Token counts
Copied
const messages = [
  { role: "user", parts: [{ type: "text", content: "Tell me a joke" }] },
];

await Sentry.startSpan(
  {
    op: "gen_ai.chat",
    name: "chat o3-mini",
    attributes: {
      "gen_ai.operation.name": "chat",
      "gen_ai.request.model": "o3-mini",
      "gen_ai.provider.name": "openai",
      "gen_ai.input.messages": JSON.stringify(messages),
    },
  },
  async (span) => {
    const result = await client.chat.completions.create({
      model: "o3-mini",
      messages,
    });

    span.setAttribute("gen_ai.response.model", result.model);
    span.setAttribute(
      "gen_ai.output.messages",
      JSON.stringify([
        {
          role: "assistant",
          parts: [
            { type: "text", content: result.choices[0].message.content },
          ],
        },
      ]),
    );
    span.setAttribute(
      "gen_ai.response.finish_reasons",
      JSON.stringify([result.choices[0].finish_reason]),
    );
    span.setAttribute(
      "gen_ai.usage.input_tokens",
      result.usage.prompt_tokens,
    );
    span.setAttribute(
      "gen_ai.usage.output_tokens",
      result.usage.completion_tokens,
    );
  },
);
AI Request span attributes
  • The span op MUST be "gen_ai.{gen_ai.operation.name}". (e.g. "gen_ai.chat")
  • The span name SHOULD be "{gen_ai.operation.name} {gen_ai.request.model}". (e.g. "chat o3-mini")
  • The gen_ai.operation.name attribute MUST be "chat", "embeddings", "generate_content" or "text_completion".
  • The gen_ai.provider.name attribute MUST be the Generative AI product as identified by the client or server instrumentation. (e.g. "openai")
  • The gen_ai.request.model attribute MUST be the requested model. (e.g. "o3-mini")
  • The gen_ai.response.model attribute MUST be the concrete model that responded. (e.g. "gpt-4o-2024-08-06")
  • If the request originates from an agent, gen_ai.agent.name SHOULD be set to the agent's name. (e.g. "Weather Agent")
  • If relevant, gen_ai.pipeline.name SHOULD be set to the name of the AI workflow or pipeline. (e.g. "weather-pipeline")

Data AttributeTypeRequirement LevelDescriptionExample
gen_ai.input.messagesstringoptionalList of message objects sent to the LLM. [0], [1]'[{"role": "user", "parts": [{"type": "text", "content": "..."}]}]'
gen_ai.tool.definitionsstringoptionalList of objects describing the available tools. [0]'[{"name": "random_number", "description": "..."}]'
gen_ai.system_instructionsstringoptionalThe system instructions passed to the model."You are a helpful assistant."
gen_ai.request.frequency_penaltyfloatoptionalModel configuration parameter.0.5
gen_ai.request.max_tokensintoptionalModel configuration parameter.500
gen_ai.request.seedstringoptionalSeed for reproducible outputs."12345"
gen_ai.request.temperaturefloatoptionalModel configuration parameter.0.1
gen_ai.request.top_kintoptionalLimits model to K most likely next tokens.40
gen_ai.request.top_pfloatoptionalModel configuration parameter.0.7
gen_ai.request.presence_penaltyfloatoptionalModel configuration parameter.0.5
gen_ai.request.reasoning.levelstringoptionalThe reasoning or thinking effort level requested for a GenAI model. Supported values vary by provider."medium"
gen_ai.request.messagesstringoptionalDeprecated. Use gen_ai.input.messages instead. List of message objects sent to the LLM. [0]'[{"role": "system", "content": "..."}]'
gen_ai.request.available_toolsstringoptionalDeprecated. Use gen_ai.tool.definitions instead. List of objects describing the available tools. [0]'[{"name": "random_number", "description": "..."}]'

Data AttributeTypeRequirement LevelDescriptionExample
gen_ai.response.modelstringrequiredThe concrete model that responded (may differ from gen_ai.request.model)."gpt-4o-2024-08-06"
gen_ai.output.messagesstringoptionalStringified array of message objects representing the model's output. [0], [1]'[{"role": "assistant", "parts": [{"type": "text", "content": "..."}]}]'
gen_ai.response.finish_reasonsstringoptionalStringified array of reasons the model stopped generating. [0]'["stop"]'
gen_ai.response.idstringoptionalUnique identifier for the completion."chatcmpl-abc123"
gen_ai.response.streamingbooleanoptionalWhether the response was streamed.true
gen_ai.response.time_to_first_tokendoubleoptionalSeconds until first response chunk in streaming.0.5
gen_ai.response.textstringoptionalDeprecated. Use gen_ai.output.messages instead. The text representation of the model's responses."The weather in Paris is rainy"
gen_ai.response.tool_callsstringoptionalDeprecated. Use gen_ai.output.messages instead. The tool calls in the model's response. [0]'[{"name": "random_number", "type": "function_call", "arguments": "..."}]'

Data AttributeTypeRequirement LevelDescriptionExample
gen_ai.usage.input_tokensintoptionalThe number of tokens used in the AI input (prompt), including cached tokens. [2]60
gen_ai.usage.input_tokens.cachedintoptionalThe number of cached tokens used in the AI input (prompt).50
gen_ai.usage.input_tokens.cache_writeintoptionalTokens written to cache when processing input.20
gen_ai.usage.output_tokensintoptionalThe number of tokens used in the AI output, including reasoning tokens. [3]130
gen_ai.usage.output_tokens.reasoningintoptionalThe number of tokens used for reasoning.30
gen_ai.usage.total_tokensintoptionalThe sum of gen_ai.usage.input_tokens and gen_ai.usage.output_tokens.190
  • [0]: Span attributes only allow primitive data types. This means you need to use a stringified version of a list of dictionaries. Do NOT set [{"foo": "bar"}] but rather the string '[{"foo": "bar"}]' (must be parsable JSON).
  • [1]: Messages use the format {role, parts} where parts is an array of typed objects: [{"role": "user", "parts": [{"type": "text", "content": "..."}]}]. The role must be "user", "assistant", "tool", or "system". Each part has a type; common types include "text" (user-visible content), "reasoning" (internal thinking/chain-of-thought), "tool_call", and "tool_call_response". Use {"type": "reasoning", "content": "..."} for the model's thinking output — Sentry surfaces it separately and filters it out of the user-facing Conversations view, so do not represent thinking content as a "text" part. For backwards compatibility, the legacy format {role, content} is also accepted.
  • [2]: Cached tokens are a subset of input tokens; gen_ai.usage.input_tokens includes gen_ai.usage.input_tokens.cached.
  • [3]: Reasoning tokens are a subset of output tokens; gen_ai.usage.output_tokens includes gen_ai.usage.output_tokens.reasoning.

This span represents the execution of an AI agent, capturing the full lifecycle from receiving a task to producing a final response.

Key attributes:

  • gen_ai.operation.name — Required. Set to "invoke_agent"
  • gen_ai.agent.name — The agent's name (e.g., "Weather Agent")
  • gen_ai.request.model — The underlying model used
  • gen_ai.output.messages — The agent's final output
  • gen_ai.usage.input_tokens / output_tokens — Total token counts
Copied
await Sentry.startSpan(
  {
    op: "gen_ai.invoke_agent",
    name: "invoke_agent Weather Agent",
    attributes: {
      "gen_ai.operation.name": "invoke_agent",
      "gen_ai.request.model": "o3-mini",
      "gen_ai.agent.name": "Weather Agent",
    },
  },
  async (span) => {
    const result = await myAgent.run();

    span.setAttribute(
      "gen_ai.output.messages",
      JSON.stringify([
        {
          role: "assistant",
          parts: [{ type: "text", content: result.output }],
        },
      ]),
    );
    span.setAttribute(
      "gen_ai.usage.input_tokens",
      result.usage.inputTokens,
    );
    span.setAttribute(
      "gen_ai.usage.output_tokens",
      result.usage.outputTokens,
    );
  },
);
Invoke Agent span attributes

Describes AI agent invocation.

  • The span op MUST be "gen_ai.invoke_agent".
  • The span name SHOULD be "invoke_agent {gen_ai.agent.name}".
  • The gen_ai.operation.name attribute MUST be "invoke_agent".
  • The gen_ai.agent.name attribute SHOULD be set to the agent's name. (e.g. "Weather Agent")
  • If relevant, gen_ai.pipeline.name SHOULD be set to the name of the AI workflow or pipeline the agent belongs to.

Additional attributes on the span:

Data AttributeTypeRequirement LevelDescriptionExample
gen_ai.input.messagesstringoptionalList of message objects given to the agent. [0], [1]'[{"role": "user", "parts": [{"type": "text", "content": "..."}]}]'
gen_ai.tool.definitionsstringoptionalList of objects describing the available tools. [0]'[{"name": "random_number", "description": "..."}]'
gen_ai.system_instructionsstringoptionalThe system instructions passed to the model."You are a helpful assistant."
gen_ai.pipeline.namestringoptionalThe name of the AI workflow or pipeline the agent belongs to."weather-pipeline"
gen_ai.request.messagesstringoptionalDeprecated. Use gen_ai.input.messages instead. List of message objects given to the agent. [0]'[{"role": "system", "content": "..."}]'
gen_ai.request.available_toolsstringoptionalDeprecated. Use gen_ai.tool.definitions instead. List of objects describing the available tools. [0]'[{"name": "random_number", "description": "..."}]'

Data AttributeTypeRequirement LevelDescriptionExample
gen_ai.output.messagesstringoptionalStringified array of message objects representing the agent's output. [0], [1]'[{"role": "assistant", "parts": [{"type": "text", "content": "..."}]}]'
gen_ai.response.textstringoptionalDeprecated. Use gen_ai.output.messages instead. The text representation of the agent's response."The weather in Paris is rainy"
gen_ai.response.tool_callsstringoptionalDeprecated. Use gen_ai.output.messages instead. The tool calls in the model's response. [0]'[{"name": "random_number", "type": "function_call", "arguments": "..."}]'

Data AttributeTypeRequirement LevelDescriptionExample
gen_ai.usage.input_tokensintoptionalThe number of tokens used in the AI input (prompt), including cached tokens. [2]60
gen_ai.usage.input_tokens.cachedintoptionalThe number of cached tokens used in the AI input (prompt).50
gen_ai.usage.input_tokens.cache_writeintoptionalTokens written to cache when processing input.20
gen_ai.usage.output_tokensintoptionalThe number of tokens used in the AI output, including reasoning tokens. [3]130
gen_ai.usage.output_tokens.reasoningintoptionalThe number of tokens used for reasoning.30
gen_ai.usage.total_tokensintoptionalThe sum of gen_ai.usage.input_tokens and gen_ai.usage.output_tokens.190
  • [0]: Span attributes only allow primitive data types. This means you need to use a stringified version of a list of dictionaries. Do NOT set [{"foo": "bar"}] but rather the string '[{"foo": "bar"}]' (must be parsable JSON).
  • [1]: Messages use the format {role, parts} where parts is an array of typed objects: [{"role": "user", "parts": [{"type": "text", "content": "..."}]}]. The role must be "user", "assistant", "tool", or "system". Each part has a type; common types include "text" (user-visible content), "reasoning" (internal thinking/chain-of-thought), "tool_call", and "tool_call_response". Use {"type": "reasoning", "content": "..."} for the model's thinking output — Sentry surfaces it separately and filters it out of the user-facing Conversations view, so do not represent thinking content as a "text" part. For backwards compatibility, the legacy format {role, content} is also accepted.
  • [2]: Cached tokens are a subset of input tokens; gen_ai.usage.input_tokens includes gen_ai.usage.input_tokens.cached.
  • [3]: Reasoning tokens are a subset of output tokens; gen_ai.usage.output_tokens includes gen_ai.usage.output_tokens.reasoning.

This span represents the execution of a tool or function that was requested by an AI model, including the input arguments and resulting output.

Key attributes:

  • gen_ai.operation.name — Required. Set to "execute_tool"
  • gen_ai.tool.name — The tool's name (e.g., "get_weather")
  • gen_ai.tool.call.arguments — The arguments passed to the tool
  • gen_ai.tool.call.result — The tool's return value
Copied
await Sentry.startSpan(
  {
    op: "gen_ai.execute_tool",
    name: "execute_tool get_weather",
    attributes: {
      "gen_ai.operation.name": "execute_tool",
      "gen_ai.tool.name": "get_weather",
      "gen_ai.tool.call.arguments": JSON.stringify({ location: "Paris" }),
    },
  },
  async (span) => {
    const result = await getWeather({ location: "Paris" });

    span.setAttribute("gen_ai.tool.call.result", JSON.stringify(result));
  },
);
Execute Tool span attributes

Describes a tool execution.

  • The span op MUST be "gen_ai.execute_tool".
  • The span name SHOULD be "execute_tool {gen_ai.tool.name}". (e.g. "execute_tool query_database")
  • The gen_ai.operation.name attribute MUST be "execute_tool".
  • The gen_ai.tool.name attribute SHOULD be set to the name of the tool. (e.g. "query_database")

Additional attributes on the span:

Data AttributeTypeRequirement LevelDescriptionExample
gen_ai.tool.namestringoptionalName of the tool executed."random_number"
gen_ai.tool.call.argumentsstringoptionalArguments of the tool call (stringified JSON)."{\"max\":10}"
gen_ai.tool.call.resultstringoptionalResult of the tool call (stringified)."7"
gen_ai.tool.descriptionstringoptionalDescription of the tool executed."Tool returning a random number"
gen_ai.tool.typestringoptionalThe type of the tools."function"; "extension"; "datastore"
gen_ai.tool.inputstringoptionalDeprecated. Use gen_ai.tool.call.arguments instead. Input given to the executed tool as string."{\"max\":10}"
gen_ai.tool.outputstringoptionalDeprecated. Use gen_ai.tool.call.result instead. The output from the tool."7"

When the LLM returns a stream, the span must outlive the initial callback. Use Sentry.startInactiveSpan to create the span, then end it when the stream finishes:

Copied
async function callLLMStreaming(model, messages) {
  const span = Sentry.startInactiveSpan({
    name: `chat ${model}`,
    op: "gen_ai.chat",
    attributes: {
      "gen_ai.operation.name": "chat",
      "gen_ai.request.model": model,
      "gen_ai.input.messages": JSON.stringify(messages),
    },
  });

  try {
    const stream = await Sentry.withActiveSpan(span, () =>
      yourLLMClient.stream({ model, messages }),
    );

    stream.on("end", (finalMessage) => {
      span.setAttribute(
        "gen_ai.output.messages",
        JSON.stringify([
          {
            role: "assistant",
            parts: [{ type: "text", content: finalMessage.text }],
          },
        ]),
      );
      span.setAttribute(
        "gen_ai.usage.input_tokens",
        finalMessage.usage.input,
      );
      span.setAttribute(
        "gen_ai.usage.output_tokens",
        finalMessage.usage.output,
      );
      span.setAttribute("gen_ai.response.model", finalMessage.model);
      span.setAttribute("gen_ai.response.streaming", true);
      span.end();
    });

    stream.on("error", () => span.end());
    return stream;
  } catch (error) {
    span.end();
    throw error;
  }
}

startInactiveSpan creates a span without automatically ending it. Sentry.withActiveSpan propagates context so any child spans nest correctly. Call span.end() when the stream completes or errors.

When manually setting token attributes, be aware of how Sentry uses them to calculate model costs.

Cached and reasoning tokens are subsets, not separate counts. gen_ai.usage.input_tokens is the total input token count that already includes any cached tokens. Similarly, gen_ai.usage.output_tokens already includes reasoning tokens. Sentry subtracts the cached/reasoning counts from the totals to compute the "raw" portion, so reporting them incorrectly can produce wrong or negative costs.

For example, say your LLM call uses 100 input tokens total, 90 of which were served from cache. Using a standard rate of $0.01 per token and a cached rate of $0.001 per token:

Correctinput_tokens is the total (includes cached):

  • gen_ai.usage.input_tokens = 100
  • gen_ai.usage.input_tokens.cached = 90
  • Sentry calculates: (100 - 90) × $0.01 + 90 × $0.001 = $0.10 + $0.09 = $0.19

Wronginput_tokens set to only the non-cached tokens, making cached larger than total:

  • gen_ai.usage.input_tokens = 10
  • gen_ai.usage.input_tokens.cached = 90
  • Sentry calculates: (10 - 90) × $0.01 + 90 × $0.001 = −$0.80 + $0.09 = −$0.71

Because input_tokens.cached (90) is larger than input_tokens (10), the subtraction goes negative, resulting in a negative total cost.

The same applies to gen_ai.usage.output_tokens and gen_ai.usage.output_tokens.reasoning.

If you're using an AI framework with a Sentry exporter, you can send traces to Sentry:

If you're building MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers, Sentry can also track tool executions, prompt retrievals, and resource access. See Instrument MCP Servers for setup instructions.

Was this helpful?
Help improve this content
Our documentation is open source and available on GitHub. Your contributions are welcome, whether fixing a typo (drat!) or suggesting an update ("yeah, this would be better").