xAI Grok

xAI provides Grok models through an API that is compatible with the OpenAI SDK. Set the OpenAI client’s base_url to https://api.x.ai/v1 and use openinference-instrumentation-openai to send Grok traces to Arize AX.

This page instruments OpenAI SDK calls to xAI’s API. It is not a separate xAI-specific OpenInference instrumentor.

Prerequisites

Python 3.9+
An Arize AX account (sign up)
An XAI_API_KEY from xAI

Launch Arize

Sign in to your Arize AX account.
From Space Settings, copy your Space ID and API Key. You will set them as ARIZE_SPACE_ID and ARIZE_API_KEY below.

Install

pip install arize-otel openinference-instrumentation-openai openai

Configure credentials

export ARIZE_SPACE_ID="<your-space-id>"
export ARIZE_API_KEY="<your-api-key>"
export ARIZE_PROJECT_NAME="xai-grok-tracing-example"
export XAI_API_KEY="<your-xai-api-key>"

Setup tracing

# instrumentation.py
import os

from arize.otel import register
from openinference.instrumentation.openai import OpenAIInstrumentor

tracer_provider = register(
    space_id=os.environ["ARIZE_SPACE_ID"],
    api_key=os.environ["ARIZE_API_KEY"],
    project_name=os.environ["ARIZE_PROJECT_NAME"],
)

OpenAIInstrumentor().instrument(tracer_provider=tracer_provider)
print("Arize AX tracing initialized for xAI Grok.")

Run xAI Grok

# example.py

# Importing instrumentation first ensures tracing is set up
# before `openai` is imported.
from instrumentation import tracer_provider

import os

from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.x.ai/v1",
    api_key=os.environ["XAI_API_KEY"],
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="grok-4.6",
    messages=[
        {
            "role": "user",
            "content": "What can traces reveal about a failed AI agent run?",
        },
    ],
)

print(response.choices[0].message.content)

Expected output

Arize AX tracing initialized for xAI Grok.
Traces can reveal the prompt, model response, tool calls, retrieved context, latency, token usage, and errors that led to the failed agent run.

Verify in Arize

Open your Arize AX space and select project xai-grok-tracing-example.
You should see a new trace within ~30 seconds containing a ChatCompletion LLM span with prompt, response, model, token, and latency metadata.
If no traces appear, see Troubleshooting.

Check from the skill, CLI, or SDK

Confirm spans are actually reaching your Arize AX project. Use whichever fits your workflow — the skill and CLI work for any framework; the SDK check is shown for each language.

Arize skill (agent)
AX CLI
SDK

Install the Arize Skills plugin and let your coding agent check for you:

npx skills add Arize-ai/arize-skills

Then prompt your agent:

Use the arize-trace skill to export and analyze recent traces from my project. Confirm spans are arriving, and summarize any errors or latency issues.

Export recent spans for your project — any rows mean traces are landing:

ax spans export "$ARIZE_PROJECT_NAME" --space "$ARIZE_SPACE_ID" \
  --limit 5 --stdout | jq 'length'

A non-zero count confirms spans reached Arize AX. Run ax auth login first if you have not authenticated. See the ax spans reference.

Query the project’s spans and check that at least one came back.

import os
from arize import ArizeClient

client = ArizeClient(api_key=os.environ["ARIZE_API_KEY"])
resp = client.spans.list(
    project=os.environ["ARIZE_PROJECT_NAME"],
    space=os.environ["ARIZE_SPACE_ID"],
    limit=5,
)
count = len(resp.spans)
print(
    f"{count} span(s) found" if count else "No spans yet — recheck setup"
)

// Reads ARIZE_API_KEY from the environment.
import { listSpans } from "@arizeai/ax-client";

const { data: spans } = await listSpans({
  project: process.env.ARIZE_PROJECT_NAME!,
  space: process.env.ARIZE_SPACE_ID!,
  limit: 5,
});
const count = spans.length;
console.log(
  count ? `${count} span(s) found` : "No spans yet — recheck setup",
);

client, err := arize.NewClient(
    arize.Config{APIKey: os.Getenv("ARIZE_API_KEY")},
)
if err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
}
resp, err := client.Spans.List(ctx, spans.ListRequest{
    Project: os.Getenv("ARIZE_PROJECT_NAME"),
    Space:   os.Getenv("ARIZE_SPACE_ID"),
    Limit:   5,
})
if err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
}
fmt.Printf("%d span(s) found\n", len(resp.Spans))

SDK span references: Python · TypeScript · Go.

Troubleshooting

No traces in Arize. Confirm ARIZE_SPACE_ID and ARIZE_API_KEY are set in the same shell that runs example.py.
xAI spans missing but other spans present. OpenAIInstrumentor().instrument(...) must run before any import openai.
401 from xAI. Use your xAI API key, not your OpenAI or Arize API key.
Model not found. Replace grok-4.6 with a Grok model available in your xAI account.

OpenTelemetry

LLM Providers

Agent Frameworks

Coding Agents

Platforms

Orchestration

Evaluation

Prerequisites

Launch Arize

Install

Configure credentials

Setup tracing

Run xAI Grok

Expected output

Verify in Arize

Check from the skill, CLI, or SDK

Troubleshooting

Resources

xAI Quickstart

OpenInference OpenAI Instrumentor

LLM Evaluation Guide

Agent Evaluation Guide

​Prerequisites

​Launch Arize

​Install

​Configure credentials

​Setup tracing

​Run xAI Grok

​Expected output

​Verify in Arize

​Check from the skill, CLI, or SDK

​Troubleshooting

​Resources

xAI Quickstart

OpenInference OpenAI Instrumentor

LLM Evaluation Guide

Agent Evaluation Guide

Prerequisites

Launch Arize

Install

Configure credentials

Setup tracing

Run xAI Grok

Expected output

Verify in Arize

Check from the skill, CLI, or SDK

Troubleshooting

Resources