---
title: OpenAI Assistants API
description: Instrument OpenAI Assistants API calls and send traces to OpenObserve via OpenTelemetry.
---

# **OpenAI Assistants API → OpenObserve**

Automatically capture thread creation, message handling, and run execution for every OpenAI Assistants API workflow in your Python application using the standard OpenAI instrumentor.

:::note[Note]
The Assistants API is deprecated by OpenAI in favour of the Responses API. It continues to function and is fully instrumented by the OpenAI instrumentor.
:::

## **Prerequisites**

* Python 3.8+
* An [OpenObserve](https://openobserve.ai/) account (cloud or self-hosted)
* Your OpenObserve **organisation ID** and **Base64-encoded auth token**
* An OpenAI API key

## **Installation**

```shell
pip install openobserve-telemetry-sdk openinference-instrumentation-openai openai python-dotenv
```

## **Configuration**

Create a `.env` file in your project root:

```
OPENOBSERVE_URL=https://api.openobserve.ai/
OPENOBSERVE_ORG=your_org_id
OPENOBSERVE_AUTH_TOKEN=Basic <your_base64_token>
OPENAI_API_KEY=your-openai-api-key
```

## **Instrumentation**

Call `OpenAIInstrumentor().instrument()` **before** importing or instantiating the OpenAI client.

```python
import time
from dotenv import load_dotenv
load_dotenv()

from openinference.instrumentation.openai import OpenAIInstrumentor
from openobserve import openobserve_init

OpenAIInstrumentor().instrument()
openobserve_init()

import os
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(api_key=os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"])

assistant = client.beta.assistants.create(
    name="Observability Assistant",
    instructions="Answer questions about observability concisely in one sentence.",
    model="gpt-4o-mini",
)

thread = client.beta.threads.create()
client.beta.threads.messages.create(
    thread_id=thread.id,
    role="user",
    content="What is OpenTelemetry?",
)

run = client.beta.threads.runs.create(
    thread_id=thread.id,
    assistant_id=assistant.id,
)

while run.status in ("queued", "in_progress"):
    time.sleep(0.5)
    run = client.beta.threads.runs.retrieve(thread_id=thread.id, run_id=run.id)

messages = client.beta.threads.messages.list(thread_id=thread.id)
print(messages.data[0].content[0].text.value)

client.beta.assistants.delete(assistant.id)
```

## **What Gets Captured**

Each Assistants API workflow produces multiple spans — one per API call (thread creation, message creation, run creation, run retrieval, message listing).

| Attribute | Description |
| ----- | ----- |
| `openinference_span_kind` | `LLM` |
| `operation_name` | API resource called (e.g. `Thread`, `Run`) |
| `llm_provider` | `openai` |
| `llm_system` | `openai` |
| `llm_observation_type` | `GENERATION` |
| `llm_usage_tokens_input` | Input tokens consumed |
| `llm_usage_tokens_output` | Output tokens generated |
| `llm_usage_tokens_total` | Total tokens consumed |
| `llm_invocation_parameters` | Request parameters sent to the API |
| `input_mime_type` | `application/json` |
| `output_mime_type` | `application/json` |
| `duration` | Span latency |
| `span_status` | `OK` on success, `ERROR` on failure |

## **Viewing Traces**

1. Log in to OpenObserve and navigate to **Traces** in the left sidebar
2. Each assistant interaction appears as a group of spans covering thread setup, run execution, and message retrieval
3. Filter by `llm_provider = openai` and `openinference_span_kind = LLM` to isolate Assistants API spans
4. Click any span to inspect token counts and run status

![OpenAI Assistants API trace in OpenObserve](../../../images/integration/ai/opneai-assistant.png)

## **Next Steps**

With the Assistants API instrumented, every thread run is recorded in OpenObserve. From here you can track token usage per assistant, monitor run latency across threads, and set alerts on failed runs.

## **Read More**

- [OpenAI (Python)](openai.md)
- [LLM Observability Overview](../llm-applications.md)
- [Traces Ingestion with Python](../../../ingestion/traces/python.md)
- [Exploring Traces in OpenObserve](../../../user-guide/data-exploration/traces/index.md)