To get started with the ABV Python SDK you need to install the SDK and initialize the client.

Installation

To install the SDK, run:

pip install abvdev

Initialize Client

Begin by initializing the ABV client. You must provide your ABV api key. These can be passed as constructor arguments or set as environment variables (recommended).If you are using a data region other than the US default (e.g., EU: https://eu.app.abv.dev), ensure you configure the host argument or the ABV_HOST environment variable (recommended).via Environment Variables (recommended)

.env

ABV_API_KEY="sk-abv-..."
ABV_HOST="https://app.abv.dev" # US region
# ABV_HOST="https://eu.app.abv.dev" # EU region

via Constructor Arguments

from abvdev import ABV

# Initialize with constructor arguments
abv = ABV(
    api_key="YOUR_API_KEY",
    host="https://app.abv.dev" # US region
    # host="https://eu.app.abv.dev" # EU region
)

If you are reinstantiating the ABV client with different constructor arguments in the same process, the new configuration will be used for all subsequent calls.

Show Verify connection with abv.auth_check()

You can also verify your connection to the ABV server using abv.auth_check(). We do not recommend using this in production as this adds latency to your application.

from abvdev import get_client

abv = get_client()

# Verify connection, do not use in production as this is a synchronous call
if abv.auth_check():
    print("ABV client is authenticated and ready!")
else:
    print("Authentication failed. Please check your credentials and host.")

Key configuration options:

Constructor Argument	Environment Variable	Description	Default value
`api_key`	`ABV_API_KEY`	Your ABV project’s secret API key. Required.
`host`	`ABV_HOST`	The API host for your ABV instance.	`"https://app.abv.dev"`
`timeout`	`ABV_TIMEOUT`	Timeout in seconds for API requests.	`5`
`httpx_client`	-	Custom `httpx.Client` for making non-tracing HTTP requests.
`debug`	`ABV_DEBUG`	Enables debug mode for more verbose logging. Set to `True` or `"True"`.	`False`
`tracing_enabled`	`ABV_TRACING_ENABLED`	Enables or disables the ABV client. If `False`, all observability calls become no-ops.	`True`
`flush_at`	`ABV_FLUSH_AT`	Number of spans to batch before sending to the API.	`512`
`flush_interval`	`ABV_FLUSH_INTERVAL`	Time in seconds between batch flushes.	`5`
`environment`	`ABV_TRACING_ENVIRONMENT`	Environment name for tracing (e.g., “development”, “staging”, “production”). Must be lowercase alphanumeric with hyphens/underscores.	`"default"`
`release`	`ABV_RELEASE`	Release version/hash of your application. Used for grouping analytics.
`media_upload_thread_count`	`ABV_MEDIA_UPLOAD_THREAD_COUNT`	Number of background threads for handling media uploads.	`1`
`sample_rate`	`ABV_SAMPLE_RATE`	Sampling rate for traces (float between 0.0 and 1.0). `1.0` means 100% of traces are sampled.	`1.0`
`mask`	-	A function `(data: Any) -> Any` to mask sensitive data in traces before sending to the API.
	`ABV_MEDIA_UPLOAD_ENABLED`	Whether to upload media files to ABV S3.	`True`

Accessing the Client Globally

The ABV client is a singleton. It can be accessed anywhere in your application using the get_client function. Optionally, you can initialize the client via ABV() to pass in configuration options (see above). Otherwise, it is created automatically when you call get_client() based on environment variables.

from abvdev import get_client

# Optionally, initialize the client with configuration options
# abv = ABV(api_key="sk-abv-...")

# Get the default client
client = get_client()

Getting Started

Basic Features

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Python SDK - Setup

Accessing the Client Globally

Getting Started

Basic Features

LLM Gateway

Guardrails

Evaluations

Prompt Management

Cookbook

SDKs

Platform

Support

​Accessing the Client Globally

Accessing the Client Globally