feat(traces): wire tracing into the client

[turnipdabeets]

💡 Motivation and Context

Makes tracing usable. Adds the traces client option (tracing stays off until it is set), Client.start_span / get_active_span and their posthog module-level counterparts, with the active span scoped per client so two clients never parent to each other's spans.

• flush() drains spans alongside events within the same budget.
• shutdown() gives queued spans a final flush of up to 30 s and warns about any it discards.
• An exit flush bounded by the existing exit deadline covers scripts that never call shutdown(), and a forked child drops the parent's spans.

Export failures, limits and the hook are documented on the option. Includes the changeset.

Stack (PR 9 of 9, based on traces/08-before-span-send):

1. feat(traces): W3C trace context ids and traceparent parsing #949 traces/01-ids-traceparent
2. feat(traces): OTLP span encoding and client-side validity #950 traces/02-otlp-encoding
3. feat(traces): span handles #951 traces/03-span-handles
4. feat(traces): span batch transport #952 traces/04-transport
5. feat(traces): span pipeline #953 traces/05-pipeline
6. feat(traces): span export queue with retries #954 traces/06-export
7. feat(traces): per-span limits and exception stacktraces #955 traces/07-span-limits
8. feat(traces): before_span_send hook #956 traces/08-before-span-send
9. feat(traces): wire tracing into the client #957 traces/09-client-wiring ← this PR

💚 How did you test it?

Unit tests in posthog/test/tracing/test_client_traces.py cover the option, the client and module APIs, per-client active spans, flush, shutdown, exit flush and fork. The whole posthog/test/tracing suite was run on the rebased stack tip.

📝 Checklist

• I reviewed the submitted code.
• I added tests to verify the changes.
• I updated the docs if needed.
• No breaking change or entry added to the changelog.

If releasing new changes

• Ran sampo add to generate a changeset file

🤖 Agent context

Autonomy: Human-driven (agent-assisted)

Implemented with Claude Code (Claude Opus 5) against the traces spec, one commit per slice so each PR reviews on its own. Rebased onto main and opened as a stacked draft in a later Claude Code session (Claude Fable 5.1).

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

https://claude.ai/code/session_012o7CtHLfcypjmXL7g9ZGRC

[github-actions]

posthog-python Compliance Report

Date: 2026-09-15 22:09:37 UTC
Duration: 256400ms

✅ All Tests Passed!

111/111 tests passed

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Capture_V1 Tests

✅ 94/94 tests passed

View Details

Test	Status	Duration
Endpoint And Method.Targets V1 Endpoint	✅	517ms
Endpoint And Method.Does Not Use Legacy Endpoints	✅	510ms
Required Headers.Has Authorization Bearer Header	✅	510ms
Required Headers.Has Content Type Json	✅	511ms
Required Headers.Has Posthog Sdk Info Format	✅	510ms
Required Headers.Has Posthog Attempt Header	✅	510ms
Required Headers.Has Posthog Request Id	✅	510ms
Required Headers.Has Posthog Request Timestamp	✅	512ms
Required Headers.Has User Agent	✅	510ms
Body Format.Body Has Created At And Batch	✅	511ms
Body Format.No Api Key In Body	✅	510ms
Body Format.No Sent At In Body	✅	510ms
Event Format.Event Has Required Root Fields	✅	510ms
Event Format.Event Uuid Is Valid	✅	510ms
Event Format.Event Timestamp Is Rfc3339	✅	510ms
Event Format.Distinct Id Is String	✅	510ms
Event Format.Distinct Id At Root Not Properties	✅	510ms
Event Format.Custom Properties Preserved	✅	510ms
Event Format.Set Properties Preserved	✅	510ms
Event Format.Set Once Properties Preserved	✅	510ms
Event Format.Groups Properties Preserved	✅	510ms
Event Format.Sdk Generates Uuid If Not Provided	✅	510ms
Event Format.Event Has Required Root Fields Batch	✅	514ms
Event Format.Event Uuid Is Valid Batch	✅	513ms
Event Format.Event Timestamp Is Rfc3339 Batch	✅	513ms
Event Format.Distinct Id Is String Batch	✅	514ms
Event Format.Distinct Id At Root Not Properties Batch	✅	513ms
Event Format.Custom Properties Preserved Batch	✅	513ms
Event Format.Set Properties Preserved Batch	✅	514ms
Event Format.Set Once Properties Preserved Batch	✅	514ms
Event Format.Groups Properties Preserved Batch	✅	513ms
Event Format.Sdk Generates Uuid If Not Provided Batch	✅	514ms
Batch Behavior.Multiple Events In Single Batch	✅	517ms
Batch Behavior.Batch Envelope Smoke	✅	515ms
Batch Behavior.Flush With No Events Sends Nothing	✅	506ms
Batch Behavior.Flush At Triggers Batch	✅	1011ms
Batch Behavior.Created At Reflects Batch Creation Time	✅	511ms
Deduplication.Generates Unique Uuids	✅	517ms
Deduplication.Different Events Same Content Different Uuids	✅	513ms
Deduplication.Preserves Uuid On Retry	✅	6519ms
Deduplication.Preserves Timestamp On Retry	✅	6520ms
Deduplication.Preserves Uuid And Timestamp On Batch Retry	✅	6519ms
Deduplication.No Duplicate Events In Batch	✅	519ms
Header Behavior On Retry.Attempt Header Starts At One	✅	510ms
Header Behavior On Retry.Attempt Header Increments On Retry	✅	13527ms
Header Behavior On Retry.Request Id Preserved On Retry	✅	6520ms
Header Behavior On Retry.Different Requests Have Different Request Ids	✅	3019ms
Header Behavior On Retry.Request Timestamp Changes On Retry	✅	6520ms
Response Format Validation.Success Response Has Uuid Keyed Results	✅	511ms
Response Format Validation.Success Response Has Ok For Each Event	✅	515ms
Response Format Validation.Success No Retry After When All Ok	✅	512ms
Response Format Validation.Success Retry After Present When Retry Events	✅	1516ms
Response Format Validation.Success No Retry After When Drop Only	✅	513ms
Response Format Validation.Response Echoes Request Id	✅	510ms
Retry Behavior.Retries On 408	✅	6515ms
Retry Behavior.Retries On 500	✅	6520ms
Retry Behavior.Retries On 503	✅	8520ms
Retry Behavior.Retries On 504	✅	6519ms
Retry Behavior.Retryable Errors Have Retry After	✅	3517ms
Retry Behavior.Respects Retry After On Retryable Error	✅	11523ms
Retry Behavior.Does Not Retry On 400	✅	2513ms
Retry Behavior.Does Not Retry On 401	✅	2514ms
Retry Behavior.Does Not Retry On 402	✅	2513ms
Retry Behavior.Does Not Retry On 413	✅	2513ms
Retry Behavior.Does Not Retry On 415	✅	2514ms
Retry Behavior.Non Retryable Errors Have No Retry After	✅	2512ms
Retry Behavior.Implements Backoff	✅	22525ms
Retry Behavior.Max Retries Respected	✅	22537ms
Partial Batch Handling.Handles 200 Full Success	✅	2512ms
Partial Batch Handling.Handles 200 With All Ok	✅	3517ms
Partial Batch Handling.Does Not Retry Dropped Events	✅	3514ms
Partial Batch Handling.Does Not Retry Limited Events	✅	3515ms
Partial Batch Handling.Prunes Ok Events On Partial Retry	✅	6521ms
Partial Batch Handling.Prunes Dropped Events On Partial Retry	✅	6520ms
Partial Batch Handling.Retries Only Retry Events From Partial	✅	6519ms
Partial Batch Handling.Partial Retry Preserves Uuids	✅	6517ms
Partial Batch Handling.Partial Retry Attempt Header Increments	✅	6521ms
Partial Batch Handling.Partial Retry Request Id Preserved	✅	6521ms
Partial Batch Handling.Respects Retry After On Partial	✅	8521ms
Partial Batch Handling.Unknown Result Treated As Terminal	✅	3516ms
Partial Batch Handling.Mixed Ok Drop Limited No Retry	✅	3517ms
Compression.Sends Gzip Content Encoding	✅	512ms
Compression.No Content Encoding When Disabled	✅	510ms
Compression.Compressed Body Is Decompressible	✅	510ms
Error Handling.Does Not Retry On Unknown 4Xx	✅	2513ms
Event Options.Cookieless Mode Override	✅	511ms
Event Options.Disable Skew Correction Override	✅	510ms
Event Options.Process Person Profile Override	✅	509ms
Event Options.Product Tour Id Override	✅	510ms
Event Options.Unset Options Omitted	✅	510ms
Event Options.Options Override In Batch	✅	513ms
Geoip And Historical Migration.Geoip Disable Injected Into Properties	✅	511ms
Geoip And Historical Migration.Historical Migration Set In Body	✅	510ms
Geoip And Historical Migration.Historical Migration Absent By Default	✅	510ms

Feature_Flags Tests

✅ 17/17 tests passed

View Details

Test	Status	Duration
Request Payload.Request With Person Properties Device Id	✅	11ms
Request Payload.Flags Request Uses V2 Query Param	✅	9ms
Request Payload.Flags Request Hits Flags Path Not Decide	✅	9ms
Request Payload.Flags Request Omits Authorization Header	✅	9ms
Request Payload.Token In Flags Body Matches Init	✅	9ms
Request Payload.Groups Round Trip	✅	9ms
Request Payload.Groups Default To Empty Object	✅	10ms
Request Payload.Disable Geoip False Propagates As Geoip Disable False	✅	9ms
Request Payload.Disable Geoip Omitted Defaults To False	✅	9ms
Request Payload.Flag Keys To Evaluate Contains Only Requested Key	✅	9ms
Request Lifecycle.No Flags Request On Init Alone	✅	3ms
Request Lifecycle.No Flags Request On Normal Capture	✅	510ms
Request Lifecycle.Two Flag Calls Produce Two Remote Requests	✅	13ms
Request Lifecycle.Mock Response Value Is Returned To Caller	✅	9ms
Retry Behavior.Retries Flags On 502	✅	313ms
Retry Behavior.Retries Flags On 504	✅	314ms
Side Effect Events.Get Feature Flag Captures Feature Flag Called Event	✅	512ms

[greptile-apps]

Prompt To Fix All With AI

### Issue 1
posthog/client.py:2685-2688
**Exit flush exceeds its deadline**

If thread creation is rejected during interpreter shutdown, this fallback runs the span flush synchronously. The exporter permits its first request even when no budget remains, and that request uses the client's timeout (15 seconds by default). Each client can therefore delay process exit well beyond the shared one-second deadline. Use a worker started before interpreter shutdown for exit flushing rather than falling back to synchronous network I/O, and test the rejected-thread path with a slow request.

### Issue 2
posthog/client.py:2514-2519
**Tracing initialization races with shutdown**

If shutdown runs after the initial state check but before the pipeline assignment, it sees `_traces is None` and completes without closing tracing. Initialization then publishes an open pipeline, and ending the span can start background exports after shutdown has returned. Subsequent shutdown calls skip cleanup because it is already marked complete. Coordinate pipeline initialization and shutdown with shared synchronization so shutdown cannot miss an in-progress initialization.

### Issue 3
posthog/client.py:2278-2281
**Fork cleanup restores inherited spans**

Setting the active ContextVar to `None` does not invalidate tokens held by inherited spans. When a process forks inside nested span blocks, exiting the inherited inner block in the child resets its old token and restores the parent process's outer span. Subsequent child spans then attach to that inherited span, violating fork isolation. Create a fresh active-span ContextVar in the child and rebind the pipeline to it, leaving inherited handles attached to the old variable. Add a nested-span fork test that checks parenting after the inner block exits.

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For each issue above, determine whether it is valid and should be fixed. If so, fix it directly.

_{Reviews (1): Last reviewed commit: "feat(traces): wire tracing into the clie..." | Re-trigger Greptile}