CrewAI Tracing

Instrument multi-agent applications using CrewAI

Google Colab

Launch Phoenix

Phoenix Cloud

Sign up for Phoenix:

1. Sign up for an Arize Phoenix account at https://app.phoenix.arize.com/login

2. Click Create Space, then follow the prompts to create and launch your space.

Install packages:

pip install arize-phoenix-otel

Set your Phoenix endpoint and API Key:

From your new Phoenix Space

1. Create your API key from the Settings page

2. Copy your Hostname from the Settings page

3. In your code, set your endpoint and API key:

import os

os.environ["PHOENIX_API_KEY"] = "ADD YOUR PHOENIX API KEY"
os.environ["PHOENIX_COLLECTOR_ENDPOINT"] = "ADD YOUR PHOENIX HOSTNAME"

# If you created your Phoenix Cloud instance before June 24th, 2025,
# you also need to set the API key as a header:
# os.environ["PHOENIX_CLIENT_HEADERS"] = f"api_key={os.getenv('PHOENIX_API_KEY')}"

Having trouble finding your endpoint? Check out Finding your Phoenix Endpoint

Command Line

Launch your local Phoenix instance:

pip install arize-phoenix
phoenix serve

For details on customizing a local terminal deployment, see Terminal Setup.

Install packages:

pip install arize-phoenix-otel

Set your Phoenix endpoint:

import os

os.environ["PHOENIX_COLLECTOR_ENDPOINT"] = "http://localhost:6006"

See Terminal for more details.

Docker

Pull latest Phoenix image from Docker Hub:

docker pull arizephoenix/phoenix:latest

Run your containerized instance:

docker run -p 6006:6006 arizephoenix/phoenix:latest

This will expose the Phoenix on localhost:6006

Install packages:

pip install arize-phoenix-otel

Set your Phoenix endpoint:

import os

os.environ["PHOENIX_COLLECTOR_ENDPOINT"] = "http://localhost:6006"

For more info on using Phoenix with Docker, see Docker.

Notebook

Install packages:

pip install arize-phoenix

Launch Phoenix:

import phoenix as px
px.launch_app()

By default, notebook instances do not have persistent storage, so your traces will disappear after the notebook is closed. See self-hosting or use one of the other deployment options to retain traces.

Install

pip install openinference-instrumentation-crewai crewai crewai-tools

CrewAI uses either Langchain or LiteLLM under the hood to call models, depending on the version.

If you're using CrewAI<0.63.0, we recommend installing our openinference-instrumentation-langchain library to get visibility of LLM calls.

If you're using CrewAI>= 0.63.0, we recommend instead adding our openinference-instrumentation-litellm library to get visibility of LLM calls.

Setup

Connect to your Phoenix instance using the register function.

from phoenix.otel import register

# configure the Phoenix tracer
tracer_provider = register(
  project_name="my-llm-app", # Default is 'default'
  auto_instrument=True # Auto-instrument your app based on installed OI dependencies
)

Run CrewAI

From here, you can run CrewAI as normal

import os
from crewai import Agent, Task, Crew, Process
from crewai_tools import SerperDevTool

os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"] = "YOUR_OPENAI_API_KEY"
os.environ["SERPER_API_KEY"] = "YOUR_SERPER_API_KEY"
search_tool = SerperDevTool()

# Define your agents with roles and goals
researcher = Agent(
  role='Senior Research Analyst',
  goal='Uncover cutting-edge developments in AI and data science',
  backstory="""You work at a leading tech think tank.
  Your expertise lies in identifying emerging trends.
  You have a knack for dissecting complex data and presenting actionable insights.""",
  verbose=True,
  allow_delegation=False,
  # You can pass an optional llm attribute specifying what model you wanna use.
  # llm=ChatOpenAI(model_name="gpt-3.5", temperature=0.7),
  tools=[search_tool]
)
writer = Agent(
  role='Tech Content Strategist',
  goal='Craft compelling content on tech advancements',
  backstory="""You are a renowned Content Strategist, known for your insightful and engaging articles.
  You transform complex concepts into compelling narratives.""",
  verbose=True,
  allow_delegation=True
)

# Create tasks for your agents
task1 = Task(
  description="""Conduct a comprehensive analysis of the latest advancements in AI in 2024.
  Identify key trends, breakthrough technologies, and potential industry impacts.""",
  expected_output="Full analysis report in bullet points",
  agent=researcher
)

task2 = Task(
  description="""Using the insights provided, develop an engaging blog
  post that highlights the most significant AI advancements.
  Your post should be informative yet accessible, catering to a tech-savvy audience.
  Make it sound cool, avoid complex words so it doesn't sound like AI.""",
  expected_output="Full blog post of at least 4 paragraphs",
  agent=writer
)

# Instantiate your crew with a sequential process
crew = Crew(
  agents=[researcher, writer],
  tasks=[task1, task2],
  verbose=2, # You can set it to 1 or 2 to different logging levels
  process = Process.sequential
)

# Get your crew to work!
result = crew.kickoff()

print("######################")
print(result)

Observe

Now that you have tracing setup, all calls to your Crew will be streamed to your running Phoenix for observability and evaluation.

Resources

• OpenInference package

• Example Notebook