OrcaRouter Tracing

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'

Connect your application to Phoenix with the register function:

from phoenix.otel import register# configure the Phoenix tracertracer_provider = register(project_name="my-llm-app", # Default is 'default'auto_instrument=True # Auto-instrument your app based on installed OI dependencies)

Run OrcaRouter#

import osimport openaiclient = 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#