Principle:Wandb Weave Client Initialization
| Knowledge Sources | |
|---|---|
| Domains | Observability, LLM_Operations |
| Last Updated | 2026-02-14 00:00 GMT |
Overview
A session initialization mechanism that establishes an authenticated connection between a client application and a remote tracing backend.
Description
Client Initialization is the foundational step in any observability pipeline. It authenticates the user, resolves the target project, creates a client instance, and enables automatic instrumentation of downstream operations. Without initialization, no tracing data is captured or transmitted.
In the context of LLM application monitoring, client initialization also triggers automatic patching of LLM provider SDKs (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic) so that their API calls are transparently traced.
Usage
Use this principle when beginning any tracing session. It must be the first operation before any traced function calls, evaluations, or object publishing. Initialization is typically called once at application startup.
Theoretical Basis
Client initialization follows a standard pattern in distributed tracing systems:
- Authentication: Verify user identity against the backend (e.g., W&B API key).
- Project Resolution: Map a project identifier to a specific backend storage location.
- Client Construction: Create a stateful client object that manages the connection, batches requests, and maintains a call stack.
- Instrumentation Setup: Enable automatic tracing of supported libraries through monkey-patching or import hooks.
This pattern ensures that all subsequent operations in the session are captured with consistent metadata (project, entity, trace IDs).