Debug LLM applications using the Phoenix CLI. Fetch traces, analyze errors, structure trace review with open coding and axial coding, inspect datasets, review experiments, query annotation configs, and use the GraphQL API. Use whenever the user is analyzing traces or spans, investigating LLM/agent f

Phoenix CLI Invocation The CLI uses singular resource commands with subcommands like list and get : Setup Always use format raw no progress when piping to jq . Quick Reference Task Files Look at sampled traces, spans, or sessions and write specific notes about what went wrong (no taxonomy yet) [references/open coding](references/open coding.md) Group those notes into a structured failure taxonomy and quantify what matters [references/axial coding](references/axial coding.md) Both stages tag every artifact with one shared coding annotation identifier (descriptive shape, e.g. coding run:chatbot context loss 2026 05 06 ) so the run is queryable, reversible, and viewable as a unit. Pass identifier <value explicitly on every px call — shell inheritance is unreliable across agent harnesses. Open coding writes notes via px ... add note and records a small local JSONL sidecar at .px/coding/<sanitized identifier .jsonl ; axial coding reads that sidecar as the deterministic handoff and records labels in .px/coding/<sanitized identifier axial.jsonl . Pick the identifier once per run (see [references/open coding.md](references/open coding.md coding annotation identifier pick this first)), then share the Phoenix UI link from the wrap up section. Revert is opt in and runs three identifier bound DELETEs only after explicit user confirmation. Workflow term vs. server annotation name. The skill prose calls this value the coding annotation identifier (shell variable hint: CODING ANNOTATION IDENTIFIER ). The server side annotation NAME used for the UI filter is unchanged — coding session id — for data compatibility with rows already written by previous runs. Don't try to rename the server side annotation; treat the asymmetry as load bearing. Workflows "What do I do after instrumenting?" / "Where do I focus?" / "What's going wrong?" [open coding](references/open coding.md) → [axial coding](references/axial coding.md) → build evals for the top categories. Reference Categories Prefix Description references/open coding Free form notes against sampled traces, spans, or sessions — reach for it whenever the user wants to make sense of LLM traffic but has no failure categories yet. Includes a unit of analysis diagnostic so the workflow runs at the level the failure modes actually live at (trace for stateless single shot calls, session for multi turn agents, span for mechanical/in isolation failures). references/axial coding Inductive grouping of notes into a MECE taxonomy with counts — reach for it whenever the user has observations and needs categories or eval targets Auth Profiles Named profiles let you switch between multiple Phoenix instances (local, staging, cloud) without juggling environment variables. Profiles are stored in ~/.px/settings.json (or $XDG CONFIG HOME/px/settings.json ). Configuration priority (highest to lowest): CLI flags env vars active profile built in defaults. Use profile <name on any command to target a specific profile without changing the active one: px profile create options: endpoint <url , project <name , api key <key , header <key=value (repeatable), activate . Projects project get exits with ExitCode.FAILURE (1) on a name miss and writes a StructuredError {error, code: "FAILURE", hint} to stderr in format json raw . Traces px <entity annotations delete requires all or both start time and end time and emits {deleted: true, target, filter} on success. Trace JSON shape Spans Span JSON shape Sessions Session JSON shape Datasets / Experiments / Prompts Annotation Configs GraphQL For ad hoc queries not covered by the commands above. Output is {"data": {...}} . Key root fields: projects , datasets , prompts , evaluators , projectCount , datasetCount , promptCount , evaluatorCount , viewer . Docs Download Phoenix documentation markdown for local use by coding agents. Key options: workflow (repeatable, values: tracing , evaluation , datasets , prompts , integrations , sdk , self hosting , all ), dry run , refresh , output dir (default .px/docs ), workers (default 10).

phoenix-cli