langfuse

Langfuse

Expert in Langfuse - the open-source LLM observability platform. Covers tracing, prompt management, evaluation, datasets, and integration with LangChain, LlamaIndex, and OpenAI. Essential for debugging, monitoring, and improving LLM applications in production.

Role: LLM Observability Architect

You are an expert in LLM observability and evaluation. You think in terms of traces, spans, and metrics. You know that LLM applications need monitoring just like traditional software - but with different dimensions (cost, quality, latency). You use data to drive prompt improvements and catch regressions.

Expertise

• Tracing architecture
• Prompt versioning
• Evaluation strategies
• Cost optimization
• Quality monitoring

Capabilities

• LLM tracing and observability
• Prompt management and versioning
• Evaluation and scoring
• Dataset management
• Cost tracking
• Performance monitoring
• A/B testing prompts

Prerequisites

• 0: LLM application basics
• 1: API integration experience
• 2: Understanding of tracing concepts
• Required skills: Python or TypeScript/JavaScript, Langfuse account (cloud or self-hosted), LLM API keys

Scope

• 0: Self-hosted requires infrastructure
• 1: High-volume may need optimization
• 2: Real-time dashboard has latency
• 3: Evaluation requires setup

Ecosystem

Primary

• Langfuse Cloud
• Langfuse Self-hosted
• Python SDK
• JS/TS SDK

Common_integrations

• LangChain
• LlamaIndex
• OpenAI SDK
• Anthropic SDK
• Vercel AI SDK

Platforms

• Any Python/JS backend
• Serverless functions
• Jupyter notebooks

Patterns

Basic Tracing Setup

Instrument LLM calls with Langfuse

When to use: Any LLM application

from langfuse import Langfuse

Initialize client

langfuse = Langfuse( public_key="pk-...", secret_key="sk-...", host="https://cloud.langfuse.com" # or self-hosted URL )

Create a trace for a user request

trace = langfuse.trace( name="chat-completion", user_id="user-123", session_id="session-456", # Groups related traces metadata={"feature": "customer-support"}, tags=["production", "v2"] )

Log a generation (LLM call)

generation = trace.generation( name="gpt-4o-response", model="gpt-4o", model_parameters={"temperature": 0.7}, input={"messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]}, metadata={"attempt": 1} )

Make actual LLM call

response = openai.chat.completions.create( model="gpt-4o", messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}] )

Complete the generation with output

generation.end( output=response.choices[0].message.content, usage={ "input": response.usage.prompt_tokens, "output": response.usage.completion_tokens } )

Score the trace

trace.score( name="user-feedback", value=1, # 1 = positive, 0 = negative comment="User clicked helpful" )

Flush before exit (important in serverless)

langfuse.flush()

OpenAI Integration

Automatic tracing with OpenAI SDK

When to use: OpenAI-based applications

from langfuse.openai import openai

Drop-in replacement for OpenAI client

All calls automatically traced

response = openai.chat.completions.create( model="gpt-4o", messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}], # Langfuse-specific parameters name="greeting", # Trace name session_id="session-123", user_id="user-456", tags=["test"], metadata={"feature": "chat"} )

Works with streaming

stream = openai.chat.completions.create( model="gpt-4o", messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Tell me a story"}], stream=True, name="story-generation" )

for chunk in stream: print(chunk.choices[0].delta.content, end="")

Works with async

import asyncio from langfuse.openai import AsyncOpenAI

async_client = AsyncOpenAI()

async def main(): response = await async_client.chat.completions.create( model="gpt-4o", messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}], name="async-greeting" )

LangChain Integration

Trace LangChain applications

When to use: LangChain-based applications

from langchain_openai import ChatOpenAI from langchain_core.prompts import ChatPromptTemplate from langfuse.callback import CallbackHandler

Create Langfuse callback handler

langfuse_handler = CallbackHandler( public_key="pk-...", secret_key="sk-...", host="https://cloud.langfuse.com", session_id="session-123", user_id="user-456" )

Use with any LangChain component

llm = ChatOpenAI(model="gpt-4o")

prompt = ChatPromptTemplate.from_messages([ ("system", "You are a helpful assistant."), ("user", "{input}") ])

chain = prompt | llm

Pass handler to invoke

response = chain.invoke( {"input": "Hello"}, config={"callbacks": [langfuse_handler]} )

Or set as default

import langchain langchain.callbacks.manager.set_handler(langfuse_handler)

Then all calls are traced

response = chain.invoke({"input": "Hello"})

Works with agents, retrievers, etc.

from langchain.agents import create_openai_tools_agent

agent = create_openai_tools_agent(llm, tools, prompt) agent_executor = AgentExecutor(agent=agent, tools=tools)

result = agent_executor.invoke( {"input": "What's the weather?"}, config={"callbacks": [langfuse_handler]} )

Prompt Management

Version and deploy prompts

When to use: Managing prompts across environments

from langfuse import Langfuse

langfuse = Langfuse()

Fetch prompt from Langfuse

(Create in UI or via API first)

prompt = langfuse.get_prompt("customer-support-v2")

Get compiled prompt with variables

compiled = prompt.compile( customer_name="John", issue="billing question" )

Use with OpenAI

response = openai.chat.completions.create( model=prompt.config.get("model", "gpt-4o"), messages=compiled, temperature=prompt.config.get("temperature", 0.7) )

Link generation to prompt version

trace = langfuse.trace(name="support-chat") generation = trace.generation( name="response", model="gpt-4o", prompt=prompt # Links to specific version )

Create/update prompts via API

langfuse.create_prompt( name="customer-support-v3", prompt=[ {"role": "system", "content": "You are a support agent..."}, {"role": "user", "content": "{{user_message}}"} ], config={ "model": "gpt-4o", "temperature": 0.7 }, labels=["production"] # or ["staging", "development"] )

Fetch specific label

prompt = langfuse.get_prompt( "customer-support-v3", label="production" # Gets latest with this label )

Evaluation and Scoring

Evaluate LLM outputs systematically

When to use: Quality assurance and improvement

from langfuse import Langfuse

langfuse = Langfuse()

Manual scoring in code

trace = langfuse.trace(name="qa-flow")

After getting response

trace.score( name="relevance", value=0.85, # 0-1 scale comment="Response addressed the question" )

trace.score( name="correctness", value=1, # Binary: 0 or 1 data_type="BOOLEAN" )

LLM-as-judge evaluation

def evaluate_response(question: str, response: str) -> float: eval_prompt = f""" Rate the response quality from 0 to 1.

Question: {question} Response: {response}

Output only a number between 0 and 1. """

result = openai.chat.completions.create( model="gpt-4o-mini", # Cheaper model for eval messages=[{"role": "user", "content": eval_prompt}] )

return float(result.choices[0].message.content.strip())

Score asynchronously

score = evaluate_response(question, response) trace.score( name="quality-llm-judge", value=score )

Create evaluation dataset

dataset = langfuse.create_dataset(name="support-qa-v1")

Add items to dataset

langfuse.create_dataset_item( dataset_name="support-qa-v1", input={"question": "How do I reset my password?"}, expected_output="Go to settings > security > reset password" )

Run evaluation