Agentic Ledger
Runtime observability for AI agents — see exactly what your agent did, why it did it, and what it cost.
Website: agentic-ledger.dev
The numbers are meant to match your provider bill. If they don't, that's a bug we want.
Works with any agent framework, any LLM provider, any model gateway. Zero code changes required. Point your agent at the proxy and everything is captured automatically.
How it works
Agentic Ledger runs as a transparent proxy between your agent and the LLM provider. It intercepts every request and response, assigns it an action_id, stores it, and returns the upstream response unmodified. Your agent never knows the proxy is there.
Your Agent → Agentic Ledger Proxy → OpenAI / Anthropic / LiteLLM / any LLM
↓
SQLite or Postgres
↓
Live Dashboard + API
Quick Start
Step 1 — Start the proxy
One config file, three commands, no terminal held hostage:
pip install -U agentic-ledger
agenticledger init # writes a commented agenticledger.toml — edit it
agenticledger start # runs in the background; terminal freed
agenticledger start prints the dashboard URL and gives your terminal
back — closing the window doesn't stop it. agenticledger status tells
you it's up and healthy, agenticledger logs shows what it's doing,
agenticledger stop shuts it down. See Configuration
for what goes in the file.
Or with Docker (no Python required):
docker run -p 8000:8000 \
-e AGENTICLEDGER_UPSTREAM_URL=https://api.openai.com \
-v $(pwd)/data:/data \
ghcr.io/shekharbhardwaj/agentic-ledger:latest
The image is multi-arch (amd64/arm64), runs as a non-root user, and every release is signed with Sigstore and ships an SBOM. Hardening a shared deployment (TLS, auth keys, redaction, verification)? See the deployment guide.
Using Anthropic / Claude? Set the upstream to Anthropic instead (
upstream_urlin the config file, orAGENTICLEDGER_UPSTREAM_URL=https://api.anthropic.com). The proxy fronts one provider at a time — run a second instance on another port to cover both. Any OpenAI-compatible gateway URL (LiteLLM, OpenRouter, ...) works the same way.
Or with docker compose (SQLite by default — see docker-compose.yml):
AGENTICLEDGER_UPSTREAM_URL=https://api.openai.com docker compose up
With uv:
uv add agentic-ledger
AGENTICLEDGER_UPSTREAM_URL=https://api.openai.com uv run python -m agenticledger.proxy
With pip:
python -m venv venv && source venv/bin/activate
pip install -U agentic-ledger
AGENTICLEDGER_UPSTREAM_URL=https://api.openai.com ./venv/bin/python -m agenticledger.proxy
Postgres? Install the extra and set
AGENTICLEDGER_DSN:pip install "agentic-ledger[postgres]" AGENTICLEDGER_DSN=postgresql://user:password@localhost/agenticledgerNote: the Docker image uses SQLite only. For Postgres with Docker, install via
pipinstead.
OpenTelemetry? Install the extra and set
AGENTICLEDGER_OTEL_ENDPOINT:pip install "agentic-ledger[otel]" AGENTICLEDGER_OTEL_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4318
Proxy starts on http://localhost:8000. Traces are saved to agenticledger.db in the current folder (or /data/agenticledger.db in Docker).
Step 2 — Point your agent at the proxy
For Claude Code, BMAD, or OpenClaw, one command writes the config for you (backed up, merged, Docker-aware):
agenticledger connect claude-code # or: bmad, openclaw
For everything else, two changes: set base_url to the proxy and add a session ID header to group calls into a run. Everything else — your API key, model, messages — stays exactly the same.
OpenAI:
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
base_url="http://localhost:8000/v1", # ← proxy
api_key="your-openai-key",
default_headers={"x-agenticledger-session-id": "run-1"},
)
response = client.chat.completions.create(
model="gpt-4o",
messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Research the top 3 AI trends in 2026"}],
)
Anthropic (start the proxy with AGENTICLEDGER_UPSTREAM_URL=https://api.anthropic.com):
import anthropic
client = anthropic.Anthropic(
base_url="http://localhost:8000", # ← proxy
api_key="your-anthropic-key",
default_headers={"x-agenticledger-session-id": "run-1"},
)
LiteLLM / OpenRouter / any gateway:
# Point Agentic Ledger at your gateway
AGENTICLEDGER_UPSTREAM_URL=http://localhost:4000 uv run python -m agenticledger.proxy
# Then point your agent at Agentic Ledger
client = OpenAI(base_url="http://localhost:8000/v1", ...)
Step 3 — Open the dashboard
http://localhost:8000
The web app updates live via WebSocket as calls come in. No refresh needed.
-
Loop Lens — every loop run with status (
running/flagged/complete), a cost-per-iteration chart, per-iteration breakdowns, and plain-English explanations of every flag. Pick any two runs with ⇆ to diff them side by side — cost, iterations, calls, flags, duration with signed deltas, plus a prompt drift diff showing exactly what changed in the system prompt and opening instruction between the runs. -
Sessions — every session with three views: expandable call cards (response, thinking, tool calls, cache tokens, interaction badges), a Flow DAG of agent handoffs, and a Trace waterfall with real parent links from the loop engine. Session cards say whose they are and how they're doing at a glance: team badge, red "N failed" for real errors, amber "N blocked" for budget walls, purple tiles for replays. Hover a card for one-click delete.
-
Replay the whole run — the question that decides a model switch isn't "how did it handle one call?" but "would my loop have survived?" Pick a run or session, pick a destination (a local model is free), and every step re-runs with its original inputs. You get a report card, not homework: "34 / 40 moments matched", the fumbles named ("dropped the tools"), and the cost both ways. Each step is a real captured moment replayed honestly — after step one a different model would have steered a different conversation, so the ledger compares moments, not fairy tales.
-
Names, pins, projects — call it "the overnight auth fix" instead of
cc-73a26366, ★ pin what matters to the top, file work under a project and filter every list by it. -
Settings — the ⚙ shows what the proxy is actually running with: config file in effect, upstream, budgets, replay targets, each row labeled file / env / default. Read-only, secrets hidden.
-
Replay & what-if — open any call and ↻ Replay it: pick a destination (the panel lists what your local server actually has loaded), and the exact captured prompt re-executes there — same provider, the other one, or a free local model via LM Studio; tool calls, schemas, and system prompts are translated between the Anthropic and OpenAI wire formats automatically. Works even on calls your own budget blocked — the wall can say no and you can still see what would have happened, for $0. Replays tie back to their original with ↩ Open original. The what-if box answers the cheaper question first: reprice any run or session on another model with pure math, no API calls. (Configure
AGENTICLEDGER_REPLAY_API_KEYand/or the per-providerAGENTICLEDGER_REPLAY_*_KEYtargets.) -
Reports — where the money goes: spend per day, model mix with latency p50/p95/p99, per-agent totals, a by-team table with each team's spend against its card's daily allowance ("who ran dry?" in one glance), and cache savings — what your prompt-cache traffic would have cost at full input rates versus what it actually cost. Errors and blocks are counted apart everywhere: red = something broke, amber = the ledger refused on purpose — a healthy wall never makes a healthy agent look sick
-
Search — full-text across prompts, outputs, and agents
-
Search — full-text search across all sessions by prompt, output, agent name, or user ID
Configuration
agenticledger init writes agenticledger.toml with every option
commented. Uncomment what you need — a working setup looks like this:
[proxy]
port = 8000
upstream_url = "https://api.anthropic.com"
db = "sqlite:///agenticledger.db"
[keys]
# Prefer *_file: the file's contents are the key, so no secret lives in
# this file or your shell history (chmod 600 the key file).
api_key_file = "~/.agenticledger/api.key" # dashboard/admin access
ingest_key_file = "~/.agenticledger/ingest.key" # closes the open relay
[budgets]
daily = 25.0 # whole-ledger daily ceiling, USD
session = 5.0 # per-session ceiling
[replay]
# Free local replay via LM Studio (any key works there):
openai_url = "http://localhost:1234"
openai_key = "lm-studio"
Three rules:
- The file is found in this order:
AGENTICLEDGER_CONFIG, then./agenticledger.toml(the folder you start from), then~/.agenticledger/config.toml. First match wins; the startup banner names the file in effect. - Anything typed in the command beats the file. Env vars override
per-setting (
AGENTICLEDGER_PORT=9000 agenticledger startuses 9000 for that run without touching the file) — which is also why Docker and CI setups configured by env vars are unaffected. - Changes apply on restart (
agenticledger stopthenstart).
Every setting in the environment-variable reference
below has a config-file home; an [env] section passes any other
AGENTICLEDGER_* variable through verbatim.
Coding agents — Claude Code, Ralph loops & friends
Claude Code (and most coding agents) can be pointed at the proxy with a single environment variable — no headers, no code changes:
AGENTICLEDGER_UPSTREAM_URL=https://api.anthropic.com uv run python -m agenticledger.proxy
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8000
claude
Agentic Ledger fingerprints Claude Code traffic automatically: every call is
tagged framework=claude-code, and instead of one undifferentiated bucket,
each Claude Code session appears under its real session UUID (the same id
claude --resume shows), with prompt-cache reads/writes captured and priced
correctly — cache traffic is where most of a coding agent's real spend lives.
Running an overnight loop (Ralph-style while :; do cat PROMPT.md | claude -p; done)?
Use the built-in loop runner — it re-executes your command each iteration,
attributes every call to the run (via the base URL, no headers needed), and
stops on a completion promise, a budget ceiling, or the iteration cap:
AGENTICLEDGER_UPSTREAM_URL=https://api.anthropic.com \
AGENTICLEDGER_COMPLETION_PROMISE="ALL TASKS COMPLETE" \
uv run python -m agenticledger.proxy
agenticledger run --max-iterations 50 --budget 25 -- \
claude -p "$(cat PROMPT.md)" --dangerously-skip-permissions
Each iteration shows up as iteration N of the run in /api/runs; when the
agent prints the completion promise in a response, run status flips to
complete and the loop exits with a cost/token summary. Any existing loop
script works too — poll GET /api/runs/{run_id} yourself, or let the proxy's
budgets (AGENTICLEDGER_BUDGET_DAILY=25.00) hard-stop a runaway loop.
Iterating on the prompt? Rerun and use ⇆ compare in the Loop Lens to diff the two runs — cost, iterations, calls, and flags side by side — so "did the new prompt actually help" gets a number instead of a feeling.
The same recipe works for any client with a base-URL override (Codex CLI,
opencode, OpenClaw, LiteLLM-based stacks) — set the OpenAI/Anthropic base URL
to the proxy and traffic is captured; add x-agenticledger-* headers when you
want explicit attribution.
OTel-native tools (Gemini CLI, Codex [otel], AutoGen/AG2, Pydantic AI,
Vercel AI SDK) don't need the proxy at all — point their OTLP exporter at the
ledger and GenAI spans are ingested directly:
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:8000
Both OTLP/HTTP encodings are accepted: JSON always, protobuf when the
[otel] extra is installed (the Docker image includes it). gRPC exporters
should switch to HTTP: OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=http/protobuf.
Framework guides — one per integration in docs/integrations: Claude Code, Codex CLI, opencode, OpenClaw, BMAD-METHOD, LangGraph/LangChain, CrewAI, OpenAI Agents SDK, Gemini CLI, AutoGen/AG2, Pydantic AI, Vercel AI SDK, LiteLLM, OpenRouter, and LM Studio (fully offline: local model, local ledger).
Production deployment — TLS termination, auth keys, redaction, image signature/SBOM verification, enterprise mirrors, and scaling guidance in docs/deployment.md.
What gets captured
Every LLM call is stored with:
| Field | What it contains |
|---|---|
action_id | UUID assigned at interception time |
session_id | Run grouping (from header) |
timestamp | When the call was made |
model_id | Model used |
provider | openai or anthropic |
messages | Full message history sent to the model |
system_prompt | Extracted system prompt |
tools | Tool definitions available to the model |
tool_calls | Tools the model decided to call |
tool_results | What the tools returned (from next call's messages) |
content | Model's text output |
stop_reason | Why the model stopped |
tokens_in / tokens_out | Token usage |
cache_read_tokens / cache_write_tokens | Prompt-cache usage — reads and writes are priced correctly per provider |
thinking | Extended-thinking output (Anthropic), captured separately from content |
cost_usd | Estimated cost based on model pricing |
latency_ms | End-to-end response time |
status_code | HTTP status from upstream — errors are captured too |
error_detail | Upstream error message for non-200 responses |
agent_name | From x-agenticledger-agent-name header, or auto-detected (e.g. claude-code) |
framework | From x-agenticledger-framework header, or fingerprint-detected (e.g. claude-code, litellm) |
user_id | From x-agenticledger-user-id header |
app_id | From x-agenticledger-app-id header |
environment | From x-agenticledger-environment header |
parent_action_id | Parent call in a nested agent graph |
handoff_from / handoff_to | Agent handoff tracking for the Flow DAG |
API reference
| Method | Endpoint | Description |
|---|---|---|
GET | /health | Liveness — {"status":"ok","version":"..."}. No auth, never touches the store. |
GET | /readyz | Readiness — pings the store; 503 when unreachable. Also reports capture_dropped. |
GET | /metrics | Prometheus metrics (captures persisted/dropped, queue depth). |
GET | /api/audit | Audit trail of sensitive actions (admin). |
DELETE | /api/users/{user_id} | Right-to-erasure: delete all of a user's captured calls (admin). |
GET | / | Live dashboard |
WS | /ws | WebSocket stream — powers live dashboard updates |
GET | /api/sessions | List recent sessions with aggregated stats |
GET | /api/runs | List loop runs (explicit or auto-inferred) with iterations, cost, status, and flagged-call counts |
GET | /api/runs/{run_id} | One run's status (running / flagged / complete) — poll this from loop scripts |
GET | /api/sessions/{session_id}/tools | Derived tool executions — each tool call paired with its result, latency, and error status |
DELETE | /api/sessions/{session_id} | Delete a session and all its calls |
GET | /api/reports?days=30 | Spend insights: daily trend, model mix with signed cache savings, latency percentiles, per-agent and per-team totals |
GET | /api/whatif?model=...&run_id=... | Reprice a run/session/call's captured tokens on another model — pure math, zero API calls |
POST | /api/tokens | Mint scoped API tokens — including role: ingest team cards with budget_daily |
GET | /api/calls/{action_id} | One call by id — follow a replay's parent back to its original |
GET | /api/replay/targets | Configured replay destinations (feeds the dashboard's dropdown) |
GET | /api/replay/models | Models a replay target actually serves (?provider=) |
GET | /api/whoami | What is the key I'm holding? Name, role, and team (for team cards) — the dashboard's ⚿ panel uses this |
POST | /api/replay/batch | Replay a whole run or session on another model — returns a job id |
GET | /api/replay/jobs/{job_id} | Batch progress and the report card |
PUT | /api/labels/{scope}/{ref_id} | Name, pin, or file a session/run under a project |
GET | /api/projects | Project names in use |
GET | /api/settings | What the proxy is running with (admin; secrets masked) |
POST | /api/replay | Re-execute a captured call — same provider or translated to the other one (model + optional provider); result stored linked to the original |
GET | /api/search?q=... | Full-text search across all captured calls |
GET | /session/{session_id} | All calls in a session, ordered by time |
GET | /explain/{action_id} | Single call by action ID |
GET | /export/{session_id} | JSON compliance export with SHA-256 integrity hash |
GET | /export/{session_id}/report | Printable HTML audit report |
POST | /mcp | MCP tool server — list_sessions, explain, get_session, search, list_runs, get_run_status |
POST | /v1/traces | OTLP/HTTP JSON ingest — GenAI spans from OTel-native tools become ledger calls (/v1/logs, /v1/metrics acked) |
Examples:
# All calls in a session
curl http://localhost:8000/session/run-1
# Search across all sessions
curl "http://localhost:8000/api/search?q=failed+to+connect"
# Download JSON audit trail (includes an integrity tag; keyed HMAC when configured)
curl http://localhost:8000/export/run-1 -o audit-run-1.json
# Printable HTML report — open in browser, print to PDF
open http://localhost:8000/export/run-1/report
MCP server
Agentic Ledger exposes its captured data as an MCP (Model Context Protocol) tool server at POST /mcp. Point Claude Desktop, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible client at it to query traces directly from your AI assistant.
Tools available:
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
list_sessions | List recent sessions with cost, token, and call count summaries |
explain(action_id) | Full trace for a single LLM call — prompt, tool calls, output, tokens, cost |
get_session(session_id) | All calls in a session in chronological order |
search(query) | Full-text search across all captured calls |
list_runs | Loop runs with iterations, cost, and status |
get_run_status(run_id) | One run's status — lets an agent inspect its own loop and decide whether to continue |
Configure in claude_desktop_config.json (HTTP, against a running proxy):
{
"mcpServers": {
"agenticledger": {
"url": "http://localhost:8000/mcp"
}
}
}
Or as a stdio subprocess — for clients that launch servers as commands (no running proxy required; reads the same database):
{
"mcpServers": {
"agenticledger": {
"command": "agenticledger",
"args": ["mcp"],
"env": { "AGENTICLEDGER_DSN": "sqlite:////absolute/path/to/agenticledger.db" }
}
}
}
If AGENTICLEDGER_API_KEY is set, pass it as a header:
{
"mcpServers": {
"agenticledger": {
"url": "http://localhost:8000/mcp",
"headers": { "x-agenticledger-api-key": "your-key" }
}
}
}
Once connected, you can ask your assistant things like:
- "What did the SearchAgent do in the last session?"
- "Show me all calls that mentioned rate limit errors"
- "What was the total cost of session run-abc123?"
Configuration reference
Every variable below can also live in agenticledger.toml — see
Configuration for the file, the search order, and the
env-always-wins rule.
Environment variables
Core:
| Variable | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
AGENTICLEDGER_UPSTREAM_URL | Yes | https://api.openai.com | LLM endpoint to forward requests to. Accepts OpenAI, Anthropic, LiteLLM, OpenRouter, or any OpenAI-compatible URL. |
AGENTICLEDGER_DSN | No | sqlite:///agenticledger.db (Docker: sqlite:////data/agenticledger.db) | Database. SQLite for local dev, Postgres URL for production. |
AGENTICLEDGER_HOST | No | 0.0.0.0 | Host to bind to. Use 127.0.0.1 to restrict to localhost only. |
AGENTICLEDGER_PORT | No | 8000 | Port to run on. |
AGENTICLEDGER_API_KEY | No | (none) | Master admin key. When set, the dashboard, read, and management endpoints require authentication; the key grants the admin role and bootstraps API tokens (below). Skip for local dev; set when the proxy is on a server — you choose the value. |
AGENTICLEDGER_INGEST_KEY | No | (none) | When set, the proxy forwards a request only if it carries a matching x-agenticledger-ingest-key header — closing the open relay. Off by default; a loud startup warning fires when unset. |
AGENTICLEDGER_REPLAY_API_KEY | No | (none) | Key for same-provider replay through the proxy's own upstream — the proxy never stores agent credentials, so re-execution needs its own. |
AGENTICLEDGER_REPLAY_OPENAI_KEY / _URL | No | (none) / provider API | Cross-provider replay target: replay any capture on OpenAI-format models. Point _URL at LM Studio (http://localhost:1234, any key) and replaying your captured Claude calls on a local model is free. |
AGENTICLEDGER_REPLAY_ANTHROPIC_KEY / _URL | No | (none) / provider API | Cross-provider replay target for Claude models. |
AGENTICLEDGER_*_KEY_FILE | No | (none) | Every key above also reads from a file named by its _FILE variant — the Docker-secrets pattern; keeps keys out of shell history. |
AGENTICLEDGER_EXPORT_HMAC_KEY | No | (none) | When set, compliance exports carry a tamper-evident keyed hmac-sha256 integrity tag instead of a plain sha256 checksum. |
AGENTICLEDGER_EXTRA_PATHS | No | (none) | Comma-separated additional request paths to capture, e.g. v1/responses,v1/custom. Built-in paths (v1/chat/completions, v1/messages, v1/responses, plus v1/messages/count_tokens recorded as a free call) are always captured. |
AGENTICLEDGER_ASYNC_CAPTURE | No | off | Persist captures on a background worker so storage never adds latency to the agent's call. Trade-off: reads become eventually consistent (a just-captured call may not be queryable for a brief moment). Recommended for high throughput. |
AGENTICLEDGER_CAPTURE_QUEUE_MAX | No | 10000 | Max captures buffered in async mode before load is shed (drops are counted in /metrics). |
AGENTICLEDGER_CAPTURE_LEVEL | No | full | full stores everything; metadata stores only metrics/metadata (model, tokens, cost, latency, agent, status) and drops prompts, responses, and tools. |
AGENTICLEDGER_REDACT | No | (off) | Redact PII/secrets in stored data: all, or a comma list of email,ssn,credit_card,ip,api_key. Replaces matches with [REDACTED:<label>]. Only the stored copy is affected — the agent's response is untouched. |
AGENTICLEDGER_REDACT_PATTERNS | No | (none) | Extra redaction regexes as JSON: {"label": "regex", ...} or ["regex", ...]. |
AGENTICLEDGER_RETENTION_DAYS | No | (keep forever) | Delete captured calls older than N days via a background purge worker. |
AGENTICLEDGER_AUDIT_LOG | No | on | Record an audit trail of who viewed/exported/deleted what plus token/erasure actions. Set 0 to disable. |
Cost budgets — block calls that exceed a spend limit (returns HTTP 429):
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
AGENTICLEDGER_BUDGET_SESSION | (none) | Max USD per session_id across its lifetime. |
AGENTICLEDGER_BUDGET_AGENT | (none) | Max USD per agent_name per calendar day (UTC). |
AGENTICLEDGER_BUDGET_DAILY | (none) | Max USD total across all calls per calendar day (UTC). |
AGENTICLEDGER_BUDGET_USER | (none) | Max USD per user_id per calendar day (UTC) — follows the user across sessions. |
AGENTICLEDGER_BUDGET_STATUS | 429 | HTTP status for budget blocks. 429 ships with an honest Retry-After (seconds until the UTC-midnight window reset); set 402 if your clients retry 429s aggressively — nothing retries Payment Required. |
AGENTICLEDGER_BUDGET_ACTION | block | What happens when a budget is exceeded: block returns HTTP 429 (call never reaches the LLM), warn lets the call through and fires a webhook alert, both blocks and fires the webhook. |
Rate limits — block calls that exceed request frequency (returns HTTP 429, sliding 60-second window):
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
AGENTICLEDGER_RATE_LIMIT_RPM | (none) | Max requests per minute globally. |
AGENTICLEDGER_RATE_LIMIT_SESSION_RPM | (none) | Max requests per minute per session_id. |
AGENTICLEDGER_RATE_LIMIT_AGENT_RPM | (none) | Max requests per minute per agent_name. |
AGENTICLEDGER_RATE_LIMIT_USER_RPM | (none) | Max requests per minute per user_id. |
Loop engine — every call is stitched into ReAct threads (thread_id, step_index, prev_action_id) and fresh-context loop iterations are grouped into runs, with stuck-loop detection:
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
AGENTICLEDGER_LOOP_ACTION | warn | warn records loop_flags and fires a loop_flag webhook alert; block additionally returns HTTP 429 (loop_detected) for a session that tripped a guard; off disables inference. |
AGENTICLEDGER_LOOP_REPEAT_THRESHOLD | 3 | Consecutive identical tool calls (same tool, same arguments) before a thread is flagged stuck. |
AGENTICLEDGER_LOOP_MAX_STEPS | (none) | Flag (and in block mode, stop) threads that exceed this many ReAct steps. |
AGENTICLEDGER_LOOP_RUN_GAP_SECONDS | 900 | Max gap between fresh-context spawns (same system prompt) that still count as iterations of one run. |
AGENTICLEDGER_COMPLETION_PROMISE | (none) | Regex matched against response text. On match the call is flagged completion_promise and the run's status becomes complete — loop runners poll GET /api/runs/{run_id} and stop. |
Alerts — POST to your webhook when a threshold is breached (does not block calls — see Alerts):
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
AGENTICLEDGER_ALERT_WEBHOOK_URL | (none) | URL to POST alert payloads to. Required for any alerts to fire. |
AGENTICLEDGER_DIGEST_HOUR | (off) | UTC hour (0–23) to POST a daily spend digest — last 24h totals, cache savings, top models/agents — to the alert webhook. Slack-incoming-webhook friendly (text). |
AGENTICLEDGER_ALERT_COST_PER_CALL | (none) | Alert when a single call costs more than $X. |
AGENTICLEDGER_ALERT_LATENCY_MS | (none) | Alert when a single call takes longer than Xms. |
AGENTICLEDGER_ALERT_ERROR_RATE | (none) | Alert when session error rate exceeds X (e.g. 0.5 = 50%). |
AGENTICLEDGER_ALERT_DAILY_SPEND | (none) | Alert when daily spend crosses $X. Unlike budgets, this does not block calls. |
OpenTelemetry — emit spans to any OTLP-compatible collector (requires pip install "agentic-ledger[otel]" — see OpenTelemetry export):
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
AGENTICLEDGER_OTEL_ENDPOINT | (none) | OTLP/HTTP base URL, e.g. http://localhost:4318. OTel export is disabled when not set. |
AGENTICLEDGER_OTEL_SERVICE_NAME | agenticledger | Value of service.name reported to the collector. |
AGENTICLEDGER_OTEL_HEADERS | (none) | Comma-separated key=value auth headers, e.g. x-honeycomb-team=abc123. |
Pricing overrides — override or extend the built-in per-token pricing table (merged at startup):
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
AGENTICLEDGER_PRICING | (none) | Inline JSON map of model → [input_per_million, output_per_million] USD. E.g. '{"gpt-4o": [2.50, 10.00], "my-model": [1.00, 2.00]}'. |
AGENTICLEDGER_PRICING_FILE | (none) | Path to a JSON file with the same format. Applied after AGENTICLEDGER_PRICING. |
Common startup examples
# Local dev — OpenAI (default)
AGENTICLEDGER_UPSTREAM_URL=https://api.openai.com uv run python -m agenticledger.proxy
# Local dev — Anthropic
AGENTICLEDGER_UPSTREAM_URL=https://api.anthropic.com uv run python -m agenticledger.proxy
# Local dev — LiteLLM gateway (any model)
AGENTICLEDGER_UPSTREAM_URL=http://localhost:4000 uv run python -m agenticledger.proxy
# Production — Postgres + auth + budgets + rate limits + alerts
AGENTICLEDGER_UPSTREAM_URL=https://api.openai.com \
AGENTICLEDGER_DSN=postgresql://user:password@localhost/agenticledger \
AGENTICLEDGER_API_KEY=my-secret \
AGENTICLEDGER_BUDGET_DAILY=20.00 \
AGENTICLEDGER_BUDGET_SESSION=2.00 \
AGENTICLEDGER_RATE_LIMIT_SESSION_RPM=20 \
AGENTICLEDGER_RATE_LIMIT_USER_RPM=60 \
AGENTICLEDGER_ALERT_WEBHOOK_URL=https://hooks.slack.com/services/xxx/yyy/zzz \
AGENTICLEDGER_ALERT_COST_PER_CALL=0.50 \
AGENTICLEDGER_ALERT_DAILY_SPEND=15.00 \
uv run python -m agenticledger.proxy
When AGENTICLEDGER_API_KEY is set, pass it to access protected endpoints:
# Header
curl -H "x-agenticledger-api-key: my-secret" http://localhost:8000/session/run-1
# Query param (browser)
http://localhost:8000?api_key=my-secret
Scoped API tokens (RBAC)
The master key is convenient but coarse. For team access, mint scoped, revocable tokens with roles instead of sharing the master secret. Tokens are random secrets shown once at creation; only their SHA-256 hash is stored.
Roles are hierarchical:
| Role | Can |
|---|---|
viewer | read captured data — dashboard, API, export, MCP |
editor | viewer + delete sessions |
admin | editor + manage API tokens |
# Mint a viewer token (admin only — use the master key to bootstrap)
curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/tokens \
-H "x-agenticledger-api-key: my-secret" \
-H "content-type: application/json" \
-d '{"name": "grafana-readonly", "role": "viewer", "expires_in_days": 90}'
# → {"token_id": "...", "token": "agl_…", "role": "viewer", ...} (token shown once)
# Use it (Bearer header, x-agenticledger-token, or ?token=)
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer agl_…" http://localhost:8000/api/sessions
# List and revoke
curl -H "x-agenticledger-api-key: my-secret" http://localhost:8000/api/tokens
curl -X DELETE -H "x-agenticledger-api-key: my-secret" http://localhost:8000/api/tokens/<token_id>
Auth is enforced only when
AGENTICLEDGER_API_KEYis set; the master key is the admin bootstrap for minting tokens. The live/wsfeed accepts the same credentials (?api_key=,?token=,Authorization: Bearer, orx-agenticledger-token) and rejects unauthenticated connects with close code 1008 — the dashboard forwards its page credential to the socket automatically.
Request headers
Pass these from your agent on each LLM call. All optional. They enrich captured data, power the Flow tab, and enable per-dimension budgets and rate limits.
| Header | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
x-agenticledger-session-id | (none) | Groups all calls in a run. Use a consistent ID per agent execution (e.g. a UUID or "run-1"). Without this, calls are stored but not grouped in the dashboard. |
x-agenticledger-user-id | (none) | End user who triggered this run. Enables per-user rate limiting and auditing. |
x-agenticledger-agent-name | (none) | Name of the agent making this call (e.g. "orchestrator", "researcher"). Powers the Flow tab DAG and agent-level budgets and rate limits. |
x-agenticledger-app-id | (none) | Application name or ID. Useful when multiple apps share one proxy. |
x-agenticledger-parent-action-id | (none) | The action_id of the call that spawned this one. When set, the Trace tab draws explicit parent→child connectors. Without it, the Trace tab infers relationships from timestamps automatically. |
x-agenticledger-environment | development | production, staging, or development. Shown in the dashboard. |
x-agenticledger-handoff-from | (none) | Agent handing off control (e.g. "orchestrator"). Renders as a directed edge in the Flow DAG. |
x-agenticledger-handoff-to | (none) | Agent receiving control (e.g. "researcher"). Renders as a directed edge in the Flow DAG. |
x-agenticledger-framework | (auto-detected) | Framework/tool making the call (e.g. "langgraph", "bmad"). When absent, well-known clients are fingerprinted automatically (Claude Code, LiteLLM). |
x-agenticledger-run-id | (auto-inferred) | Groups sessions into a loop run (e.g. a Ralph overnight run). When absent, fresh-context sessions sharing a system prompt within AGENTICLEDGER_LOOP_RUN_GAP_SECONDS are grouped automatically. |
x-agenticledger-iteration | (auto-inferred) | Iteration number within the run. |
Single agent — fully annotated:
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
base_url="http://localhost:8000/v1",
api_key="your-openai-key",
default_headers={
"x-agenticledger-session-id": "run-abc123",
"x-agenticledger-user-id": "user-42",
"x-agenticledger-agent-name": "researcher",
"x-agenticledger-app-id": "my-app",
"x-agenticledger-environment": "production",
},
)
Multi-agent system — tracking handoffs:
from openai import OpenAI
# Orchestrator
orchestrator_client = OpenAI(
base_url="http://localhost:8000/v1",
api_key="your-openai-key",
default_headers={
"x-agenticledger-session-id": "run-abc123",
"x-agenticledger-agent-name": "orchestrator",
},
)
# Researcher (receives handoff from orchestrator)
researcher_client = OpenAI(
base_url="http://localhost:8000/v1",
api_key="your-openai-key",
default_headers={
"x-agenticledger-session-id": "run-abc123",
"x-agenticledger-agent-name": "researcher",
"x-agenticledger-handoff-from": "orchestrator",
"x-agenticledger-handoff-to": "researcher",
},
)
The Flow tab renders orchestrator → researcher as a DAG with cost and latency on each node.
OpenAI Agents SDK (openai-agents) — per-agent clients:
The openai-agents SDK uses its own internal OpenAI client. To pass Agentic Ledger headers you need to create a client per agent using OpenAIResponsesModel and set it as the agent's model.
import uuid
import os
from openai import AsyncOpenAI
from agents import Agent
from agents.models.openai_responses import OpenAIResponsesModel
SESSION_ID = f"run-{uuid.uuid4().hex[:8]}" # one per execution
BASE_URL = os.getenv("OPENAI_BASE_URL") # e.g. http://localhost:8000/v1
def al_model(agent_name: str, model: str = "gpt-4o-mini",
handoff_from: str | None = None, handoff_to: str | None = None):
"""Create a model instance that sends Agentic Ledger metadata headers."""
if not BASE_URL:
return model # proxy not configured — use default client
headers = {
"x-agenticledger-session-id": SESSION_ID,
"x-agenticledger-agent-name": agent_name,
}
if handoff_from:
headers["x-agenticledger-handoff-from"] = handoff_from
if handoff_to:
headers["x-agenticledger-handoff-to"] = handoff_to
client = AsyncOpenAI(base_url=BASE_URL, api_key=os.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY", ""),
default_headers=headers)
return OpenAIResponsesModel(model=model, openai_client=client)
planner = Agent(name="PlannerAgent", model=al_model("PlannerAgent", handoff_to="SearchAgent"), ...)
searcher = Agent(name="SearchAgent", model=al_model("SearchAgent", handoff_from="PlannerAgent", handoff_to="WriterAgent"), ...)
writer = Agent(name="WriterAgent", model=al_model("WriterAgent", handoff_from="SearchAgent", handoff_to="EmailAgent"), ...)
emailer = Agent(name="EmailAgent", model=al_model("EmailAgent", handoff_from="WriterAgent"), ...)
Each agent's calls are tagged with its name and pipeline position. The Flow tab renders the full PlannerAgent → SearchAgent → WriterAgent → EmailAgent DAG automatically.
Why per-agent clients?
set_default_openai_client()sets a single global client — fine for single-agent apps, but it can't carry differentagent_nameorhandoff_*headers per agent in a multi-agent system. Per-agentOpenAIResponsesModelinstances are the correct approach.
Alerts
Agentic Ledger fires a POST to your webhook URL when a threshold is breached. You connect it to whatever you already use — Slack, PagerDuty, Discord, email, or a custom endpoint. Agentic Ledger sends the payload; the integration is on your side.
Payload format:
{
"type": "high_cost",
"message": "Single call cost $0.1842 exceeded threshold $0.10",
"value": 0.1842,
"threshold": 0.10,
"action_id": "a1b2c3d4-...",
"session_id": "run-1",
"agent_name": "researcher",
"timestamp": "2026-04-03T12:00:00+00:00"
}
Alert types:
| Type | Triggered when |
|---|---|
high_cost | A single call exceeds AGENTICLEDGER_ALERT_COST_PER_CALL |
high_latency | A single call takes longer than AGENTICLEDGER_ALERT_LATENCY_MS |
high_error_rate | Session error rate exceeds AGENTICLEDGER_ALERT_ERROR_RATE |
daily_spend | Daily total spend crosses AGENTICLEDGER_ALERT_DAILY_SPEND |
budget_exceeded | A budget limit is hit and AGENTICLEDGER_BUDGET_ACTION is warn or both |
loop_flag | The loop engine raised flags on a call (repeat_tool_call, step_budget_exceeded, completion_promise) |
run_complete | A run's completion promise was seen — the payload carries the full run summary (iterations, cost, tokens, flagged calls) |
Team cards — one proxy, many teams
Think allowance cards: you keep the one real provider key, and hand each
team a card of its own. Each card opens the proxy, stamps every call with
the team's name, and can carry its own daily budget — when marketing hits
$10, only marketing gets blocked (with an honest Retry-After).
curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/tokens \
-H "x-agenticledger-api-key: $ADMIN_KEY" -H 'content-type: application/json' \
-d '{"name": "marketing", "role": "ingest", "budget_daily": 10.00}'
The response shows the card once — the ledger stores only its hash. The
team puts it in x-agenticledger-ingest-key instead of the shared key;
Reports gains a by-team table with errors, blocks, and spend-today against
each card's allowance. Revoke a card with DELETE /api/tokens/{token_id}
and only that team is affected — from that instant the card gets a final
403 ("the answer is no"), which agents accept without retry storms.
Paste a card into the dashboard's ⚿ panel by mistake and it tells you, in
plain words, that cards open the relay, not the dashboard.
Budgets vs alerts:
- Budgets (
AGENTICLEDGER_BUDGET_*) — block the call before it reaches the LLM. Agent gets HTTP 429. - Alerts (
AGENTICLEDGER_ALERT_*) — the call goes through, you get notified after.
Slack — create an Incoming Webhook and point AGENTICLEDGER_ALERT_WEBHOOK_URL at it. Add AGENTICLEDGER_DIGEST_HOUR=8 and the same webhook also gets a daily good-morning digest: last-24h spend, cache savings, and the top models and agents.
PagerDuty — use the Events API v2 URL or a thin adapter that maps type → PagerDuty severity.
Discord — use a Discord channel webhook URL directly.
Custom — any HTTP endpoint that accepts a JSON POST.
OpenTelemetry export
Agentic Ledger can emit every intercepted LLM call as an OTel span to any OTLP-compatible collector: Grafana Tempo, Jaeger, Honeycomb, Datadog, Dynatrace, or any vendor that supports OTLP/HTTP.
Install the extra (Docker image includes OTel — no extra step needed when using Docker):
pip install "agentic-ledger[otel]"
# or
uv add "agentic-ledger[otel]"
Configure:
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
AGENTICLEDGER_OTEL_ENDPOINT | (none) | OTLP/HTTP base URL, e.g. http://localhost:4318. OTel export is disabled when not set. |
AGENTICLEDGER_OTEL_SERVICE_NAME | agenticledger | Value of service.name in the emitted resource. |
AGENTICLEDGER_OTEL_HEADERS | (none) | Comma-separated key=value pairs for auth headers, e.g. x-honeycomb-team=abc123,x-honeycomb-dataset=llm. |
Example — Grafana Tempo:
AGENTICLEDGER_UPSTREAM_URL=https://api.openai.com \
AGENTICLEDGER_OTEL_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4318 \
AGENTICLEDGER_OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=my-agent \
uv run python -m agenticledger.proxy
Example — Honeycomb:
AGENTICLEDGER_OTEL_ENDPOINT=https://api.honeycomb.io \
AGENTICLEDGER_OTEL_HEADERS=x-honeycomb-team=YOUR_API_KEY,x-honeycomb-dataset=llm-traces \
uv run python -m agenticledger.proxy
Span attributes emitted (GenAI semantic conventions):
| Attribute | Source |
|---|---|
gen_ai.system | Provider (openai / anthropic) |
gen_ai.operation.name | Always chat |
gen_ai.request.model | Model ID |
gen_ai.request.temperature | If set |
gen_ai.request.max_tokens | If set |
gen_ai.usage.input_tokens | Tokens in |
gen_ai.usage.output_tokens | Tokens out |
gen_ai.response.finish_reasons | Stop reason |
agenticledger.action_id | Unique call ID |
agenticledger.session_id | Run grouping |
agenticledger.agent_name | From header |
agenticledger.user_id | From header |
agenticledger.cost_usd | Estimated cost |
agenticledger.latency_ms | End-to-end latency |
agenticledger.environment | From header |
agenticledger.handoff_from / agenticledger.handoff_to | Agent handoffs |
http.status_code | HTTP status from upstream |
Spans are grouped into traces by session_id — all calls in a session appear as one trace in your backend. Parent-child relationships follow x-agenticledger-parent-action-id. Error spans (status_code != 200) are marked with StatusCode.ERROR.
Compliance export
Every session can be exported as an integrity-tagged audit trail — useful for regulated industries, internal audits, or passing traces to external tools.
# Machine-readable JSON with an integrity tag over the calls array
curl http://localhost:8000/export/run-1 -o audit-run-1.json
# Printable HTML — open in browser and print to PDF
open http://localhost:8000/export/run-1/report
The JSON export carries an integrity tag over the calls array. By default this is a sha256 checksum — it catches accidental corruption but is not a signature (anyone who edits the calls can recompute it). Set AGENTICLEDGER_EXPORT_HMAC_KEY to switch to a keyed hmac-sha256 tag, which is tamper-evident: a recipient holding the key can detect any modification, and the tag cannot be forged without the key.
Releasing
Tagging a version triggers the full release pipeline automatically:
git tag v0.2.0
git push origin v0.2.0
This runs three jobs:
- Docker — builds
ghcr.io/shekharbhardwaj/agentic-ledger:{version}and:latestfor linux/amd64 + linux/arm64, pushes with SBOM + provenance attestations, signs the digest with Sigstore cosign (keyless), and mirrors to Docker Hub when theDOCKERHUB_USERNAME/DOCKERHUB_TOKENsecrets are configured - PyPI — builds and publishes
agentic-ledger=={version}to PyPI using trusted publishing (no API token needed), with PEP 740 attestations - GitHub Release — creates a release with auto-generated changelog and attaches the image SBOM (SPDX)
First-time PyPI setup (one time only):
- Go to pypi.org/manage/account/publishing
- Add a new pending publisher:
PyPI project name: agentic-ledger Owner: ShekharBhardwaj Repository: AgenticLedger Workflow name: release.yml Environment name: pypi - Create a
pypienvironment in GitHub: repo → Settings → Environments → New environment → name itpypi - That's it — no secrets needed
Troubleshooting
Old version / commands or env vars named agentledger (no "ic") —
you're running a pre-0.4 release, most likely from a venv that already had
the package installed: plain pip install agentic-ledger says "requirement
already satisfied" and does NOT upgrade. Run pip install -U agentic-ledger
and restart. The proxy prints its version on the first line at startup, and
curl localhost:8000/health reports it too. Since 0.4.0 everything is named
agenticledger — see the migration notes in the CHANGELOG.
Replay fails with 401 "invalid x-api-key" — AGENTICLEDGER_REPLAY_API_KEY
needs a real provider API key from console.anthropic.com
(or platform.openai.com). A Claude Code subscription login is not an API
key and cannot be used. No key? Replay for free against a local model — see
the LM Studio guide.
incompatible architecture (have 'arm64', need 'x86_64') on macOS — your
terminal is running under Rosetta, so Python picks its x86_64 slice while pip
installed arm64 native wheels. Check with arch (should print arm64 on
Apple Silicon). Quick fix: prefix the command with arch -arm64. Permanent
fix: uncheck "Open using Rosetta" on your terminal app, use an Apple Silicon
build of your editor, and restart any long-lived tmux server.
module 'httpx' has no attribute 'AsyncClient' — fixed in
0.3.0-alpha.2; upgrade with pip install --upgrade agentic-ledger.
Port 8000 already in use — another proxy instance (or app) is running;
stop it or set AGENTICLEDGER_PORT.
401 OAuth access token has expired from Claude Code — the proxy passed
Anthropic's answer through unmodified; re-authenticate with claude →
/login. Errored calls are still captured, so you'll see the 401 in the
dashboard.
/ answers 404 "Web app not built" — you're running from a source
checkout without the web-app build. cd dashboard-app && npm ci && npm run build and restart. PyPI and Docker installs always include the app.
License
MIT
mcp-name: io.github.ShekharBhardwaj/agentic-ledger