Python SDK observability reference

This topic documents how to get started with the LaunchDarkly observability plugin for the Python SDK. The Python SDK supports the observability plugin for error monitoring, logging, and tracing.

SDK quick linksLaunchDarkly’s SDKs are open source. In addition to this reference guide, we provide source, API reference documentation, and a sample application:

Resource	Location
SDK API documentation	Observability plugin API docs
GitHub repository	@launchdarkly/observability-python
Sample application	Example Flask app
Published module	PyPI

Prerequisites and dependencies

This reference guide assumes that you are somewhat familiar with the LaunchDarkly Python SDK. The observability plugin is compatible with the Python SDK, version 9.12.0 and later. Using the observability plugin requires Python 3.10.0 or higher.

Get started

Follow these steps to get started:

Install the plugin
Initialize the Python SDK client
Configure the plugin options
Explore supported features
Review observability data in LaunchDarkly

Install the plugin

LaunchDarkly uses a plugin to the Python SDK to provide observability. The first step is to make both the SDK and the observability plugin available as dependencies. Here’s how:

  pip install launchdarkly-server-sdk
  pip install launchdarkly-observability

Then, import the plugin into your code:

import ldclient
from ldclient.config import Config

import ldobserve
from ldobserve import ObservabilityConfig, ObservabilityPlugin, observe

Initialize the client

Next, initialize the SDK and the plugin. To initialize, you need your LaunchDarkly environment’s SDK key. This authorizes your application to connect to a particular environment within LaunchDarkly. To learn more, read Initialize the client in the Python SDK reference guide. Here’s how to initialize the SDK and plugin:

plugin = ObservabilityPlugin()

config = Config(
  sdk_key = "YOUR_SDK_KEY",
  plugins = [plugin]
)
ldclient.set_config(config)
client = ldclient.get()

Configure the plugin options

You can configure options for the observability plugin when you initialize the SDK. The plugin constructor takes an optional object with the configuration details. Here is an example:

observability_config = ObservabilityConfig(
  service_name = "example-service",
  # we recommend setting service_version to the latest deployed git SHA
  service_version = "example-sha"
)

plugin = ObservabilityPlugin(observability_config)

For more information on plugin options, as well as how they interact with environment variables and existing OpenTelemetry configuration, read Configuration for server-side observability.

Explore supported features

The observability plugin supports the following features. After the SDK and plugins are initialized, you can access these from within your application:

Use the plugin with the New Relic Python agent

If your application uses the New Relic Python agent, version 14.0.0 or later, you can turn on the agent’s preview LaunchDarkly integration. The agent adds feature flag evaluation data to its spans and sends them to LaunchDarkly through the observability plugin. To learn how, read Using the New Relic Python agent with LaunchDarkly.

Review observability data in LaunchDarkly

After you initialize the SDK and observability plugin, your application automatically starts sending observability data back to LaunchDarkly in the form of custom events. You can review this information in the LaunchDarkly user interface. To learn how, read Observability. Specifically, the observability data includes events that LaunchDarkly uses to automatically create the following metrics:

User HTTP error rate (OpenTelemetry)
User HTTP 5XX response rate (OpenTelemetry)
User non-HTTP exception rate (OpenTelemetry)
Average, P95, and P99 request latency (OpenTelemetry)

To learn more, read OpenTelemetry autogenerated metrics.

​Prerequisites and dependencies

​Get started

​Install the plugin

​Initialize the client

​Configure the plugin options

​Explore supported features

​Use the plugin with the New Relic Python agent

​Review observability data in LaunchDarkly