---
title: "Arconia Tracing"
description: "How to use OpenInference instrumentation for Spring AI with Arconia and export traces to Arize Phoenix."
---

import LaunchPhoenixTerminal from "../../../../snippets/launch-phoenix-terminal.mdx";
import LaunchPhoenixDocker from "../../../../snippets/launch-phoenix-docker.mdx";

## Prerequisites

* Java 21 or higher
* (Optional) Phoenix API key if your Phoenix instance has authentication enabled
* (Optional) Docker or Podman if using the Arconia Phoenix Dev Service

### Add Dependencies

<Tabs>
<Tab title="Gradle">

Add the dependencies to your `build.gradle`:

```groovy expandable
dependencies {
    implementation 'io.arconia:arconia-openinference-ai-semantic-conventions'
    implementation 'io.arconia:arconia-opentelemetry-spring-boot-starter'

    implementation 'org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-web'
    implementation 'org.springframework.ai:spring-ai-starter-model-mistral-ai'

    testAndDevelopmentOnly 'io.arconia:arconia-dev-services-phoenix'
}
```
</Tab>

<Tab title="Maven">

Add the dependencies to your `pom.xml`:

```xml expandable
<dependencies>
  <dependency>
      <groupId>io.arconia</groupId>
      <artifactId>arconia-openinference-ai-semantic-conventions</artifactId>
  </dependency>
  <dependency>
      <groupId>io.arconia</groupId>
      <artifactId>arconia-opentelemetry-spring-boot-starter</artifactId>
  </dependency>
  <dependency>
      <groupId>org.springframework.ai</groupId>
      <artifactId>spring-ai-starter-model-mistral-ai</artifactId>
  </dependency>
  <dependency>
      <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
      <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-webmvc</artifactId>
  </dependency>
  <dependency>
    <groupId>io.arconia</groupId>
    <artifactId>arconia-dev-services-phoenix</artifactId>
    <scope>runtime</scope>
    <optional>true</optional>
  </dependency>
</dependencies>
```
</Tab>
</Tabs>

## **Setup Phoenix**

<Tabs>
<Tab title="Phoenix Dev Service">

If you included the Arconia Phoenix Dev Service dependency as instructed in the previous step,
your Spring Boot application will automatically provision a Phoenix service at startup time
and connect to it. No extra code or configuration needed.

The application logs will show you the URL where you can access the Phoenix AI observability platform
in your development environment.

```logs
...Phoenix UI: http://localhost:<port>
```

By default, traces are exported via OTLP using the HTTP/Protobuf format.

For more info on using Phoenix with Arconia, see [Phoenix Dev Service](https://docs.arconia.io/arconia/latest/dev-services/phoenix/).
</Tab>

<Tab title="Docker">
  <LaunchPhoenixDocker />
</Tab>

<Tab title="Command Line">
  <LaunchPhoenixTerminal />
</Tab>
</Tabs>

<Warning>
Unless you are using the Phoenix Dev Service (which wires itself up automatically), you must point Arconia at your Phoenix instance — its default OTLP HTTP/Protobuf target is `http://localhost:4318`, which is *not* where Phoenix listens. Set `arconia.otel.exporter.otlp.endpoint=${PHOENIX_COLLECTOR_ENDPOINT}` (e.g. `http://localhost:6006` for a local Phoenix) and, if your instance has authentication enabled, `arconia.otel.exporter.otlp.headers=Authorization=Bearer ${PHOENIX_API_KEY}`. Alternatively, you can use the canonical OpenTelemetry Environment Variables: `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT` and `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS`.
</Warning>

## Run Spring AI with Arconia

By instrumenting your application with Arconia, spans are automatically created whenever your AI models via Spring AI are invoked and sent to the Phoenix server for collection. Arconia plugs into Spring Boot and Spring AI without any code or configuration changes.

```java expandable
package io.arconia.demo;

import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
import org.springframework.ai.chat.client.ChatClient;
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;

@SpringBootApplication
public class ArconiaTracingApplication {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(ArconiaTracingApplication.class, args);
    }
}

@RestController
class ChatController {

    private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(ChatController.class);
    private final ChatClient chatClient;

    ChatController(ChatClient.Builder chatClientBuilder) {
        this.chatClient = chatClientBuilder.clone().build();
    }

    @GetMapping("/chat")
    String chat(String question) {
        logger.info("Received question: {}", question);
        return chatClient
                .prompt(question)
                .call()
                .content();
    }
}
```

<Check>
Full example: [https://github.com/arconia-io/arconia-examples/tree/main/arconia-openinference](https://github.com/arconia-io/arconia-examples/tree/main/arconia-openinference)
</Check>

## Observe

Once configured, your OpenInference traces will be automatically sent to Phoenix where you can:

* **Monitor Performance**: Track latency, throughput, and error rates
* **Analyze Usage**: View token usage, model performance, and cost metrics
* **Debug Issues**: Trace request flows and identify bottlenecks
* **Evaluate Quality**: Run evaluations on your LLM outputs

## Resources

<CardGroup>
  <Card title="Full Example" href="https://github.com/arconia-io/arconia-examples/tree/main/arconia-openinference" icon="github" horizontal description="Complete tracing example"/>
  <Card title="Arconia OpenInference Semantic Conventions (docs)" href="https://docs.arconia.io/arconia/latest/observability/semantic-conventions/openinference/" icon="box" horizontal description="Arconia OpenInference Semantic Conventions (docs)"/>
</CardGroup>
