Vercel AI SDK v7

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Prerequisites

• Node.js 22+ (required by @arizeai/openinference-vercel@3 and @ai-sdk/otel)
• An Arize AX account (sign up)
• An OPENAI_API_KEY from the OpenAI Platform
• Vercel AI SDK 7 (ai@^7)

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Launch Arize AX

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

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Install

npm install ai@^7 @ai-sdk/openai@^4 @ai-sdk/otel \
  @arizeai/openinference-vercel@^3 \
  @opentelemetry/api \
  @opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-proto \
  @opentelemetry/resources \
  @opentelemetry/sdk-trace-node

npm install ai@^7 @ai-sdk/openai@^4 @ai-sdk/otel \
  @arizeai/openinference-vercel@^3 \
  @vercel/otel \
  @opentelemetry/api \
  @opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-proto

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Configure credentials

export ARIZE_SPACE_ID="<your-space-id>"
export ARIZE_API_KEY="<your-api-key>"
export ARIZE_PROJECT_NAME="vercel-ai-sdk-v7-tracing-example"
export OPENAI_API_KEY="<your-openai-api-key>"

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Setup tracing

// instrumentation.ts
import { OTLPTraceExporter } from "@opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-proto";
import { resourceFromAttributes } from "@opentelemetry/resources";
import { NodeTracerProvider } from "@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-node";
import {
  isOpenInferenceSpan,
  OpenInferenceSimpleSpanProcessor,
} from "@arizeai/openinference-vercel";
import { registerTelemetry } from "ai";
import { OpenTelemetry } from "@ai-sdk/otel";

const projectName =
  process.env.ARIZE_PROJECT_NAME ?? "vercel-ai-sdk-v7-tracing-example";

export const provider = new NodeTracerProvider({
  resource: resourceFromAttributes({
    model_id: projectName,
    model_version: "1.0.0",
  }),
  spanProcessors: [
    new OpenInferenceSimpleSpanProcessor({
      exporter: new OTLPTraceExporter({
        url: "https://otlp.arize.com/v1/traces",
        headers: {
          "arize-space-id": process.env.ARIZE_SPACE_ID ?? "",
          "arize-api-key": process.env.ARIZE_API_KEY ?? "",
        },
      }),
      spanFilter: isOpenInferenceSpan,
      reparentOrphanedSpans: true,
    }),
  ],
});

provider.register();

// v7: bridge the AI SDK's telemetry events to OpenTelemetry spans. Register
// once, globally — `experimental_telemetry: { isEnabled: true }` on each call
// is then all that's needed.
registerTelemetry(new OpenTelemetry());

console.log("Arize AX tracing initialized for Vercel AI SDK v7.");

// instrumentation.ts (project root)
import { registerOTel } from "@vercel/otel";
import {
  isOpenInferenceSpan,
  OpenInferenceSimpleSpanProcessor,
} from "@arizeai/openinference-vercel";
import { OTLPTraceExporter } from "@opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-proto";
import { registerTelemetry } from "ai";
import { OpenTelemetry } from "@ai-sdk/otel";

export function register() {
  registerOTel({
    serviceName:
      process.env.ARIZE_PROJECT_NAME ?? "vercel-ai-sdk-v7-tracing-example",
    spanProcessors: [
      new OpenInferenceSimpleSpanProcessor({
        exporter: new OTLPTraceExporter({
          url: "https://otlp.arize.com/v1/traces",
          headers: {
            "arize-space-id": process.env.ARIZE_SPACE_ID ?? "",
            "arize-api-key": process.env.ARIZE_API_KEY ?? "",
          },
        }),
        spanFilter: isOpenInferenceSpan,
        reparentOrphanedSpans: true,
      }),
    ],
  });

  // v7: bridge the AI SDK's telemetry events to OpenTelemetry spans.
  registerTelemetry(new OpenTelemetry());
}

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Run Vercel AI SDK

// example.ts

// Importing instrumentation first ensures the OTel provider and the
// @ai-sdk/otel integration are registered before the AI SDK is used.
import { provider } from "./instrumentation";

import { generateText } from "ai";
import { openai } from "@ai-sdk/openai";

// `experimental_telemetry: { isEnabled: true }` opts this call into the AI
// SDK's telemetry; the integration registered in instrumentation.ts turns
// those events into OpenTelemetry spans.
const { text } = await generateText({
  model: openai("gpt-5.5"),
  prompt: "Why is the ocean salty? Answer in two sentences.",
  experimental_telemetry: { isEnabled: true },
});

console.log(text);

// Flush any pending spans before the process exits.
await provider.forceFlush();

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Expected output

Arize AX tracing initialized for Vercel AI SDK v7.
The ocean is salty because rivers continuously dissolve mineral salts from rocks and soil and carry them to the sea, where they accumulate over millions of years. Water leaves the ocean through evaporation but the salts remain, steadily concentrating until reaching today's roughly 3.5% salinity.

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Verify in Arize AX

1. Open your Arize AX space and select project vercel-ai-sdk-v7-tracing-example.
2. Within ~30 seconds you should see a trace for the call. v7 names its spans with the GenAI convention rather than the v6 ai.generateText names — the OpenInference processor classifies them by span kind, which is what you read in the UI:

invoke_agent gpt-5.5   [agent]        the generateText call
  └─ step 1            [llm]          the step
       └─ chat gpt-5.5  [llm]         model request (prompt, response, tokens)

1. If no traces appear, see Troubleshooting.

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Span filter

• spanFilter: isOpenInferenceSpan keeps only the AI spans and drops the rest — the raw HTTP/fetch spans those other instrumentations emit.
• reparentOrphanedSpans: true re-roots any AI span left orphaned when the filter drops its parent, so the top-level call span becomes a clean trace root instead of pointing at a parent that was never exported.

new OpenInferenceSimpleSpanProcessor({
  exporter,
  spanFilter: isOpenInferenceSpan,
  reparentOrphanedSpans: true, // default: false
});

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Troubleshooting

• No traces in Arize AX. v7 emits no spans unless a telemetry integration is registered — confirm @ai-sdk/otel is installed and registerTelemetry(new OpenTelemetry()) runs in your instrumentation.ts. Each call also needs experimental_telemetry: { isEnabled: true }. Confirm ARIZE_SPACE_ID and ARIZE_API_KEY are set in the same shell, and enable debug logs with export OTEL_LOG_LEVEL=debug.
• 401 from OpenAI. Verify OPENAI_API_KEY is set and has access to gpt-5.5. Swap openai("gpt-5.5") for a model your key can call.
• Process exits before spans flush. Always await provider.forceFlush() (or provider.shutdown()) before the process exits, otherwise trailing spans are dropped.
• Next.js / Vercel runtime. Use @vercel/otel’s registerOTel(...) instead of NodeTracerProvider, and pin versions: @vercel/otel@1.x requires @opentelemetry/* 1.x; @vercel/otel@2.x requires 2.x. Mismatches surface as silent missing traces.
• AI SDK spans orphaned on the Traces tab. Set reparentOrphanedSpans: true on the processor as shown in Span filter, and confirm @arizeai/openinference-vercel is 3.0.0 or later — stable v7 telemetry support (and the v7-aware reparenting) landed in the v3 major.
• You want the v6 span names. @ai-sdk/otel also exports a LegacyOpenTelemetry integration that emits the older ai.generateText / ai.generateText.doGenerate span names; register it in place of OpenTelemetry if you have dashboards or evaluators keyed on those names.

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