Analytics Instrumentation

Analytics Instrumentation

Event Naming

All events MUST be prefixed with opik_. Segment routes opik_* events to PostHog. The tooling enforces this automatically, but event names defined in code should already include the prefix.

Examples: opik_onboarding_agent_name_submitted, opik_eval_suite_created, opik_optimization_created

Frontend Events

Files

• Tracking utility: apps/opik-frontend/src/lib/analytics/tracking.ts (mode-agnostic; safe to import from any project code)
• Segment init: apps/opik-frontend/src/plugins/comet/analytics/index.ts (comet-only)
• Plugin init: apps/opik-frontend/src/plugins/comet/init.tsx (comet-only)

Adding a new event

1. Add the event name to the OpikEvent const in tracking.ts:

export const OpikEvent = {
  ONBOARDING_AGENT_NAME_SUBMITTED: "opik_onboarding_agent_name_submitted",
} as const;

2. Call trackEvent from the component or hook where the action happens:

import { trackEvent, OpikEvent } from "@/lib/analytics/tracking";

trackEvent(OpikEvent.ONBOARDING_AGENT_NAME_SUBMITTED, {
  agent_name: agentName,
});

How it works

• trackEvent() safely no-ops when Segment isn't loaded (OSS mode)
• opik_ prefix is enforced at runtime as a safety net
• OPIK_ANALYTICS_ENVIRONMENT is injected into event properties automatically by trackEvent()
• Frontend custom events flow through Segment (same pipeline as backend): Segment → PostHog
• PostHog still handles automatic pageviews, user identification, and feature flags directly

Backend Events

Files

• Service: apps/opik-backend/src/main/java/com/comet/opik/infrastructure/bi/AnalyticsService.java
• Config: apps/opik-backend/src/main/java/com/comet/opik/infrastructure/AnalyticsConfig.java
• YAML config: apps/opik-backend/config.yml (under analytics:)

API

AnalyticsService exposes two overloads:

void trackEvent(String eventType, Map<String, String> properties);
void trackEvent(String eventType, Map<String, String> properties, String identity);

• 2-arg resolves identity from the current request scope via RequestContext.
• 3-arg takes an explicit identity — use it any time the call executes outside a request scope (reactive schedulers, background threads, event listeners).

How it works

• trackEvent() no-ops when OPIK_ANALYTICS_ENABLED is false (default).
• opik_ prefix is auto-prepended if missing — but keep the prefix in code for grep-ability.
• environment property is auto-injected from OPIK_ANALYTICS_ENVIRONMENT.
• Events flow: Backend → comet-stats → Segment → PostHog.
• AnalyticsService.sendEvent wraps the body in catch (RuntimeException) — callers must not add their own try/catch.

From a synchronous request handler

Inject and call inline. The 2-arg overload resolves identity from RequestContext.

private final @NonNull AnalyticsService analyticsService;

analyticsService.trackEvent("opik_onboarding_first_trace",
        Map.of("trace_id", traceId, "project_id", projectId));

From a reactive chain (doOnSuccess, doOnNext, etc.)

Two things are required: offload with Schedulers.boundedElastic() and pass identity explicitly.

Why offload: when identity is absent AnalyticsService.resolveIdentity() falls back to UsageReportService.getAnonymousId(), which is a synchronous JDBC read. Inside a doOnSuccess lambda that runs on the reactor event loop, that read blocks a scheduler-critical thread.

Why explicit identity: RequestContext is bound to the request thread via a Guice scope — inside the scheduler's lambda it throws ProvisionException, and you silently degrade to the anonymous-ID fallback, losing user attribution.

Capture userName up front from the reactor context alongside workspaceId, then pass both into the scheduled call:

return Mono.deferContextual(ctx -> {
    String workspaceId = ctx.get(RequestContext.WORKSPACE_ID);
    // Use getOrDefault on paths that internal/system callers reach without seeding USER_NAME
    // (e.g. a self-triggered cancellation written only with WORKSPACE_ID in the context).
    String userName = ctx.getOrDefault(RequestContext.USER_NAME, null);

    return someDao.write(...)
            .doOnSuccess(__ -> Schedulers.boundedElastic().schedule(
                    () -> analyticsService.trackEvent("opik_thing_happened",
                            Map.of(
                                    "thing_id", thing.id().toString(),
                                    "workspace_id", workspaceId),
                            userName)));
});

If you already depend on a Schedulers.boundedElastic().schedule(() -> { ... }) block that does other non-reactive work (e.g. a blocking datasetService.getById like ExperimentService.trackEvalSuiteRunIfApplicable), add the trackEvent call inside that existing lambda instead of nesting another.

Don'ts

• Don't add try/catch around trackEvent — sendEvent catches RuntimeException internally. Extra catches are noise and diverge from the codebase pattern.
• Don't add helper methods that only delegate to trackEvent — inline the call at the entry point. Wrap in a helper only when it encapsulates real logic (e.g. applicability check + enrichment + tracking).
• Don't re-fetch ClickHouse rows to get "fresh" values for analytics payloads — a write and a read-after-write can land on different replicas, so you may see a stale snapshot or even a spurious NotFound. Use the pre-write snapshot; some analytics drift is acceptable, a failed user-facing request is not.
• Don't add unit tests that verify(analyticsService)... — the codebase convention is for existing integration tests to exercise these paths organically. Sister analytics PRs (#6326 eval suite, #6333 onboarding, #6338 agent config) ship without emission assertions.
• Don't assume trackEvent is fully non-blocking — the Javadoc contract is aspirational; the identity-fallback path is synchronous JDBC today. Offload from reactive chains as shown above.

Environment Variables

Analytics is disabled by default. OSS installations are unaffected.

Event Flow

Frontend custom events:  Browser → Segment → PostHog
Backend events:          Java → comet-stats → Segment → PostHog
PostHog native:          Browser → posthog-js → PostHog (pageviews, feature flags, identification)

Event Property Conventions

• Consistent typing per property: A given property key should always carry the same kind of value. Don't pass a UUID in one code path and a human-readable name in another for the same key.
• Separate ID and name properties: When both a UUID and a display name exist, use distinct keys (e.g. blueprint_id for the UUID, blueprint_name for the display name). If one is unavailable in a code path, omit the key or send an empty string — don't repurpose the other key.
• Include workspace_id: All backend analytics events should include the workspace ID for segmentation.

Deciding Frontend vs Backend

• Frontend: UI interactions (button clicks, wizard steps, form submissions, page visits)
• Backend: SDK-triggered actions (trace creation, test suite runs), server-side computations, events that happen without the user being on the page

Source: comet-ml/opik — distributed by TomeVault.