Understanding OPENAI_API_KEY for OpenAI Agents SDK Tracing

Zhuyi X. · 2025-12-03 08:28:09.938441+00

is OPENAI_API_KEY required for tracing openai-agents-sdk with https://arize.com/docs/phoenix/tracing/integrations-tracing/openai-agents-sdk? I wonder what's the relationship between the tracing provided by the agents sdk and the tracing in phoenix?

Understanding OPENAI_API_KEY for OpenAI Agents SDK Tracing | Arize AI Community

RunLLM
APP
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Yes, setting the OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable is required for tracing with the OpenAI Agents SDK as described in the integration guide. The documentation explicitly instructs users to set OPENAI_API_KEY before running agent code and connecting to Phoenix for tracing purposes. However, if you are using Azure Active Directory authentication with Azure OpenAI, the API key is not required, and the SDK will use the provided token instead. This exception is noted in recent updates and release notes for Phoenix and its evaluation modules. Would you like more detail on Azure AD authentication or other edge cases?Sources: - OpenAI Agents SDK Tracing | Phoenix Docs
💡 Hint: Mention RunLLM in the thread for followups.

Zhuyi X.

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Thanks. I'm trying to disable the tracing to openai sdk using set_tracing_disabled(disabled=True), will this affect tracing to phoenix? more context: I'm using azure api with agents sdk, e.g.


client = AsyncAzureOpenAI(
    api_key=API_KEY,
    api_version="2024-10-21",
    azure_endpoint=BASE_URL,
    azure_deployment=MODEL_NAME,
)

_MODEL = OpenAIChatCompletionsModel(model=MODEL_NAME, openai_client=client)

math_tutor_agent = Agent(
    name="Math Tutor",
    handoff_description="Specialist agent for math questions",
    instructions="You provide help with math problems. Explain your reasoning at each step and include examples",
    model=_MODEL,
)

following https://github.com/openai/openai-agents-python/blob/main/examples/model_providers/custom_example_agent.py, so I'm not querying openai directly.

Zhuyi X.
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set_tracing_disabled will not affect Phoenix tracing.
thank you!
Zhuyi X.
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when I manually instrument with with tracer.start_as_current_span("hello_world"):, the trace shows up. But the auto instrumented traces aren't ....
Zhuyi X.
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is there version requirement for openai-agents? I'm using 0.0.19
Zhuyi X.
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or could it because I'm using AsyncAzureOpenAI
Zhuyi X.
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Thank you! After adding openinference-instrumentation-openai, I do see traces, but I'm trying to learn what traces openinference-instrumentation-openai-agent can add.
Zhuyi X.
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do you have a screenshot of what the traces look like?
Zhuyi X.
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btw, shouldn't the endpoint include the path v1/traces?
Zhuyi X.
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it doesn't work without /v1/traces in my experience. I'm following the doc at https://arize.com/docs/phoenix/tracing/llm-traces-1/quickstart-tracing-python
Zhuyi X.
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ah, I used register.
Zhuyi X.
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hmm, I adopted your code, just replacing api key and base for azure client, no traces show up
Zhuyi X.
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looks like has to be some version issue, just adding uv add openinference-instrumentation-openai would make some traces show up

Zhuyi X.

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my deps are

dependencies = [
    "arize-phoenix-otel>=0.11.0",
    "dotenv>=0.9.9",
    "openai>=1.90.0",
    "openai-agents==0.0.8",
    "openinference-instrumentation-openai-agents>=0.1.14",
    "streamlit>=1.46.0",
]

upgrading "openai-agents==0.0.8", to 0.0.19 doesn't help

Zhuyi X.
·
hmm, I looked at https://github.com/Arize-ai/openinference/blob/main/python/instrumentation/openinf[…]nts/src/openinference/instrumentation/openai_agents/__init__.py, surprised your example still works after
set_tracing_disabled(disabled=True)
I commented out this line and tried setting the process manually, basically
# set_tracing_disabled(disabled=True) ... set_trace_processors([OpenInferenceTracingProcessor(cast(Tracer, tracer))])
then the traces show up

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