OrcaRouter Tracing

Phoenix provides auto-instrumentation for OrcaRouter through the OpenAI Python Library since OrcaRouter provides a fully OpenAI-compatible API endpoint.

Install

pip install openinference-instrumentation-openai openai

Setup

Add your OrcaRouter API key as an environment variable:

export ORCAROUTER_API_KEY='your_orcarouter_api_key'

Use the register function to connect your application to Phoenix:

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 dependencies
)

Run OrcaRouter

import os
import openai

client = openai.OpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.orcarouter.ai/v1",
    api_key=os.environ["ORCAROUTER_API_KEY"]
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="orcarouter/auto",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Write a haiku about observability."}],
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)

orcarouter/auto selects an upstream provider per request. You can also target a specific provider model using <provider>/<model> format (e.g. openai/gpt-4.1-mini, anthropic/claude-haiku-4-5). To test without a funded account, use a free model such as deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash-free.

Observe

Now that you have tracing set up, all invocations of the OpenAI client pointed at OrcaRouter will be streamed to your running Phoenix for observability and evaluation.

What Gets Traced

All OrcaRouter model calls are automatically traced and include:

• Request/response data and timing
• Model name — the resolved upstream model name (e.g. deepseek-v4-flash-202505), not the virtual orcarouter/auto identifier
• Token usage and cost data
• Error handling and debugging information

Common Issues

• API Key: Use your OrcaRouter API key (sk-orca-...), not an OpenAI key
• Model Names: Use orcarouter/auto for adaptive routing, or <provider>/<model> for a specific upstream. See OrcaRouter’s documentation for available models
• Insufficient balance: orcarouter/auto routes to paid upstream models and requires a funded OrcaRouter wallet. Use deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash-free to test without balance
• Base URL: Ensure you’re using https://api.orcarouter.ai/v1 as the base URL

Resources

OrcaRouter Documentation

OpenInference OpenAI Instrumentation