Docs/Getting Started/Quick Start

Quick Start

This guide takes you from a new account to your first trace in ANTS Platform.

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Want a walkthrough? Watch: How to Set Up the ANTS Platform

Before you start

Access to an ANTS Platform deployment. Your host is shown as https://<your-ants-host> on this page. Use the address you sign in to, or the API host your administrator gives you.
Python 3.9 or later, or Node.js 20 or later. For OpenTelemetry, any language with an OTLP/HTTP exporter.
An application that calls an LLM, or the example below.

The setup wizard walks you through:

Organization: name your organization.
Team: invite members by email and choose their role. You can skip this and invite people later from Organization Settings > Members. See Members & Roles.
Project: create your first project.
Plan & billing: shown only where billing applies. New organizations on ANTS-hosted plans start with trial credits. See Credit System.
Monitoring method: choose SDK & API to trace your own applications. (Device agents sets up Discover AI on employee devices; see Shadow AI.)
Connect: create an API key and copy the setup code.
Verify: the wizard waits until your first trace arrives.

Create an API key

In the Connect step, or later under Project Settings > API Keys, create a key pair. Copy the Secret Key, Public Key and Host and store them safely.

bash

export ANTS_PLATFORM_PUBLIC_KEY="pk-ap-..." export ANTS_PLATFORM_SECRET_KEY="sk-ap-..." export ANTS_PLATFORM_HOST="https://<your-ants-host>" # Python SDK export ANTS_PLATFORM_BASE_URL="https://<your-ants-host>" # JS/TS SDK

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Keep the secret key out of source control. It grants write access to the project. See Authentication.

Always set the host explicitly. The SDKs default to https://api.agenticants.ai, which may not be your deployment.

Install and send a trace

bash

pip install ants-platform openai

python

from ants_platform import AntsPlatform from ants_platform.openai import openai # traced drop-in for the OpenAI SDK ants = AntsPlatform() # reads the ANTS_PLATFORM_* variables def answer(question: str) -> str: with ants.start_as_current_span( name="support-request", agent_name="support_agent", input={"question": question}, ) as span: ants.update_current_trace(user_id="user-123", session_id="session-1") response = openai.chat.completions.create( model="gpt-4o-mini", messages=[{"role": "user", "content": question}], ) text = response.choices[0].message.content span.update(output={"answer": text}) return text print(answer("How do I reset my password?")) ants.flush()

The OpenAI call is recorded as a generation with model, tokens and cost. The Python SDK needs an agent_name on the outermost span. See Understanding AI Agents.

See your trace

Open Discover AI > Tracing. Your trace appears within a few seconds. Click it to see the observation tree, input and output, latency, tokens and cost. The wizard's Verify step also turns green when the first trace arrives.

Other ways to send data

You use	Start here
LangChain or LangGraph	LangChain & LangGraph
CrewAI	CrewAI
Java	Java SDK
Agents in AWS Bedrock or Google Vertex AI	Trace Connectors
The Budget AI gateway	Budget AI. Gateway requests are traced automatically.

Common issues

Symptom	What to check
`401` or "Invalid credentials"	Public and secret key belong to the same project, with no extra spaces. In Python, `ants.auth_check()` returns `True` when the keys work.
Nothing arrives, no error	The host. Set `ANTS_PLATFORM_HOST` (Python) or `ANTS_PLATFORM_BASE_URL` (JS/TS) to your deployment. Also make sure the process flushes before it exits.
`ValueError: agent_name is required` (Python)	Pass `agent_name=` to the outermost `start_as_current_span` or `start_as_current_observation`.
`402 Payment Required`	Ingestion is blocked for billing reasons. See Credit System.
Trace is listed but will not open	Your role can list traces but not read their content. See Who can see traces.
Wrong environment	Environments must be lowercase. Set `ANTS_PLATFORM_TRACING_ENVIRONMENT=production`, for example.

Next steps

Core Concepts

Tracing Fundamentals

Traces & Observations

Integrations