PostHog Python SDK

PostHog Python SDK - PostHog

PostHog

This is the SDK reference for the PostHog Python SDK. You can learn more about example usage in the Python SDK documentation. You can also follow Flask and Django guides to integrate PostHog into your project.

Initialization methods

`Client`public

Initialize a new PostHog client instance.

Parameters

Name	Type
`project_api_key?`	`str`
The project API key.
`host`	`any`
The host to use for the client.
`debug`	`bool`
Whether to enable debug mode.
`max_queue_size`	`int`
`send`	`bool`
`on_error`	`any`
`flush_at`	`int`
`flush_interval`	`float`
`gzip`	`bool`
`max_retries`	`int`
`sync_mode`	`bool`
`timeout`	`int`
`thread`	`int`
`poll_interval`	`int`
`personal_api_key`	`any`
`disabled`	`bool`
`disable_geoip`	`bool`
`historical_migration`	`bool`
`feature_flags_request_timeout_seconds`	`int`
`super_properties`	`any`
`enable_exception_autocapture`	`bool`
`log_captured_exceptions`	`bool`
`project_root`	`any`
`privacy_mode`	`bool`
`before_send`	`any`
`flag_fallback_cache_url`	`any`
`enable_local_evaluation`	`bool`
`capture_exception_code_variables`	`bool`
`code_variables_mask_patterns`	`any`
`code_variables_ignore_patterns`	`any`

Examples

Returns

Capture methods

Examples

Returns

Contexts methods

`new_context`public

Create a new context for managing shared state. Learn more about contexts.

Parameters

Name	Type
`fresh`	`bool`
Whether to create a fresh context that doesn't inherit from parent.
`capture_exceptions`	`bool`
Whether to automatically capture exceptions in this context.

Examples

Returns

Error Tracking methods

`capture_exception`public

Capture an exception for error tracking.

Parameters

Examples

Returns

Feature flags methods

`feature_enabled`public

Check if a feature flag is enabled for a user.

Parameters

Name	Type
`key?`	`any`
The feature flag key.
`distinct_id?`	`any`
The distinct ID of the user.
`groups`	`any`
A dictionary of group information.
`person_properties`	`any`
A dictionary of person properties.
`group_properties`	`any`
A dictionary of group properties.
`only_evaluate_locally`	`bool`
Whether to only evaluate locally.
`send_feature_flag_events`	`bool`
Whether to send feature flag events.
`disable_geoip`	`any`
Whether to disable GeoIP for this request.

Examples

Returns

`get_all_flags`public

Get all feature flags for a user.

Parameters

Name	Type
`distinct_id?`	`any`
The distinct ID of the user.
`groups`	`any`
A dictionary of group information.
`person_properties`	`any`
A dictionary of person properties.
`group_properties`	`any`
A dictionary of group properties.
`only_evaluate_locally`	`bool`
Whether to only evaluate locally.
`disable_geoip`	`any`
Whether to disable GeoIP for this request.
`flag_keys_to_evaluate?`	`list[str]`
A list of specific flag keys to evaluate. If provided, only these flags will be evaluated, improving performance.

Examples

Returns

Type
`Optional[dict[str, Union[bool, str]]]`

`get_all_flags_and_payloads`public

Get all feature flags and their payloads for a user.

Parameters

Name	Type
`distinct_id?`	`any`
The distinct ID of the user.
`groups`	`any`
A dictionary of group information.
`person_properties`	`any`
A dictionary of person properties.
`group_properties`	`any`
A dictionary of group properties.
`only_evaluate_locally`	`bool`
Whether to only evaluate locally.
`disable_geoip`	`any`
Whether to disable GeoIP for this request.
`flag_keys_to_evaluate?`	`list[str]`
A list of specific flag keys to evaluate. If provided, only these flags will be evaluated, improving performance.

Examples

Returns

`get_feature_flag`public

Get multivariate feature flag value for a user.

Parameters

Name	Type
`key?`	`any`
The feature flag key.
`distinct_id?`	`any`
The distinct ID of the user.
`groups`	`any`
A dictionary of group information.
`person_properties`	`any`
A dictionary of person properties.
`group_properties`	`any`
A dictionary of group properties.
`only_evaluate_locally`	`bool`
Whether to only evaluate locally.
`send_feature_flag_events`	`bool`
Whether to send feature flag events.
`disable_geoip`	`any`
Whether to disable GeoIP for this request.

Examples

Returns

Type
`Union[bool, str, any]`

`get_feature_flag_payload`public

Get the payload for a feature flag.

Parameters

Name	Type
`key?`	`any`
The feature flag key.
`distinct_id?`	`any`
The distinct ID of the user.
`match_value`	`bool`
The specific flag value to get payload for.
`groups`	`any`
A dictionary of group information.
`person_properties`	`any`
A dictionary of person properties.
`group_properties`	`any`
A dictionary of group properties.
`only_evaluate_locally`	`bool`
Whether to only evaluate locally.
`send_feature_flag_events`	`bool`
Whether to send feature flag events.
`disable_geoip`	`any`
Whether to disable GeoIP for this request.

Examples

Returns

`get_feature_flags_and_payloads`public

Get feature flags and payloads for a user by calling decide.

Parameters

Name	Type
`distinct_id?`	`any`
The distinct ID of the user.
`groups`	`any`
A dictionary of group information.
`person_properties`	`any`
A dictionary of person properties.
`group_properties`	`any`
A dictionary of group properties.
`disable_geoip`	`any`
Whether to disable GeoIP for this request.
`flag_keys_to_evaluate?`	`list[str]`
A list of specific flag keys to evaluate. If provided, only these flags will be evaluated, improving performance.

Examples

Returns

`get_feature_payloads`public

Get feature flag payloads for a user by calling decide.

Parameters

Name	Type
`distinct_id?`	`any`
The distinct ID of the user.
`groups`	`any`
A dictionary of group information.
`person_properties`	`any`
A dictionary of person properties.
`group_properties`	`any`
A dictionary of group properties.
`disable_geoip`	`any`
Whether to disable GeoIP for this request.
`flag_keys_to_evaluate?`	`list[str]`
A list of specific flag keys to evaluate. If provided, only these flags will be evaluated, improving performance.

Examples

Returns

`get_feature_variants`public

Get feature flag variants for a user by calling decide.

Parameters

Name	Type
`distinct_id?`	`any`
The distinct ID of the user.
`groups`	`any`
A dictionary of group information.
`person_properties`	`any`
A dictionary of person properties.
`group_properties`	`any`
A dictionary of group properties.
`disable_geoip`	`any`
Whether to disable GeoIP for this request.
`flag_keys_to_evaluate?`	`list[str]`
A list of specific flag keys to evaluate. If provided, only these flags will be evaluated, improving performance.

Returns

Type
`dict[str, Union[bool, str]]`

`get_flags_decision`public

Get feature flags decision.

Parameters

Name	Type
`distinct_id`	`Number`
The distinct ID of the user.
`groups?`	`dict`
A dictionary of group information.
`person_properties`	`any`
A dictionary of person properties.
`group_properties`	`any`
A dictionary of group properties.
`disable_geoip`	`any`
Whether to disable GeoIP for this request.
`flag_keys_to_evaluate?`	`list[str]`
A list of specific flag keys to evaluate. If provided, only these flags will be evaluated, improving performance.

Examples

Returns

`load_feature_flags`public

Load feature flags for local evaluation.

Examples

Returns

Identification methods

`alias`public

Create an alias between two distinct IDs.

Parameters

Name	Type
`previous_id?`	`str`
The previous distinct ID.
`distinct_id?`	`str`
The new distinct ID to alias to.
`timestamp`	`any`
The timestamp of the event.
`uuid`	`any`
A unique identifier for the event.
`disable_geoip`	`any`
Whether to disable GeoIP for this event.

Examples

Returns

`group_identify`public

Identify a group and set its properties.

Parameters

Name	Type
`group_type?`	`str`
The type of group (e.g., 'company', 'team').
`group_key?`	`str`
The unique identifier for the group.
`properties?`	`dict[str, Any]`
A dictionary of properties to set on the group.
`timestamp`	`datetime`
The timestamp of the event.
`uuid?`	`str`
A unique identifier for the event.
`disable_geoip?`	`bool`
Whether to disable GeoIP for this event.
`distinct_id`	`Number`
The distinct ID of the user performing the action.

Examples

Returns

`set`public

Set properties on a person profile.

Parameters

Examples

Returns

`set_once`public

Set properties on a person profile only if they haven't been set before.

Parameters

Examples

Returns

Other methods

`flush`public

Force a flush from the internal queue to the server. Do not use directly, call shutdown() instead.

Examples

Returns

`get_feature_flag_result`public

Get a FeatureFlagResult object which contains the flag result and payload for a key by evaluating locally or remotely depending on whether local evaluation is enabled and the flag can be locally evaluated. This also captures the $feature_flag_called event unless send_feature_flag_events is False.

Parameters

Name	Type
`key?`	`any`
The feature flag key.
`distinct_id?`	`any`
The distinct ID of the user.
`groups`	`any`
A dictionary of group information.
`person_properties`	`any`
A dictionary of person properties.
`group_properties`	`any`
A dictionary of group properties.
`only_evaluate_locally`	`bool`
Whether to only evaluate locally.
`send_feature_flag_events`	`bool`
Whether to send feature flag events.
`disable_geoip`	`any`
Whether to disable GeoIP for this request.

Examples

Returns

`join`public

End the consumer thread once the queue is empty. Do not use directly, call shutdown() instead.

Examples

Returns

`shutdown`public

Flush all messages and cleanly shutdown the client. Call this before the process ends in serverless environments to avoid data loss.

Examples

Returns

PostHog Module Functions

Global functions available in the PostHog module

Client management methods

`flush`public

Tell the client to flush all queued events.

Examples

Returns

`join`public

Block program until the client clears the queue. Used during program shutdown. You should use shutdown() directly in most cases.

Examples

Returns

`shutdown`public

Flush all messages and cleanly shutdown the client.

Examples

Returns

Contexts methods

`new_context`public

Create a new context scope that will be active for the duration of the with block.

Parameters

Name	Type
`fresh`	`bool`
Whether to start with a fresh context (default: False)
`capture_exceptions`	`bool`
Whether to capture exceptions raised within the context (default: True)
`client`	`any`
Optional Posthog client instance to use for this context (default: None)

Examples

Returns

`scoped`public

Decorator that creates a new context for the function.

Parameters

Name	Type
`fresh`	`bool`
Whether to start with a fresh context (default: False)
`capture_exceptions`	`bool`
Whether to capture and track exceptions with posthog error tracking (default: True)

Examples

Returns

`set_context_session`public

Set the session ID for the current context.

Parameters

Name	Type
`session_id?`	`str`
The session ID to associate with the current context and its children

Examples

Returns

`tag`public

Add a tag to the current context.

Parameters

Name	Type
`name?`	`str`
The tag key
`value?`	`Any`
The tag value

Examples

Returns

Events methods

`capture`public

Capture anything a user does within your system.

Notes:

Capture allows you to capture anything a user does within your system, which you can later use in PostHog to find patterns in usage, work out which features to improve or where people are giving up. A capture call requires an event name to specify the event. We recommend using [verb] [noun], like movie played or movie updated to easily identify what your events mean later on. Capture takes a number of optional arguments, which are defined by the OptionalCaptureArgs type.

Parameters

Name	Type
`event?`	`str`
The event name to specify the event **kwargs: Optional arguments including:
`kwargs?`	`Unpack[OptionalCaptureArgs]`

Examples

Returns

`capture_exception`public

Capture exceptions that happen in your code.

Notes:

Capture exception is idempotent - if it is called twice with the same exception instance, only a occurrence will be tracked in posthog. This is because, generally, contexts will cause exceptions to be captured automatically. However, to ensure you track an exception, if you catch and do not re-raise it, capturing it manually is recommended, unless you are certain it will have crossed a context boundary (e.g. by existing a with posthog.new_context(): block already). If the passed exception was raised and caught, the captured stack trace will consist of every frame between where the exception was raised and the point at which it is captured (the "traceback"). If the passed exception was never raised, e.g. if you call posthog.capture_exception(ValueError("Some Error")), the stack trace captured will be the full stack trace at the moment the exception was captured. Note that heavy use of contexts will lead to truncated stack traces, as the exception will be captured by the context entered most recently, which may not be the point you catch the exception for the final time in your code. It's recommended to use contexts sparingly, for this reason. capture_exception takes the same set of optional arguments as capture.

Parameters

Name	Type
`exception`	`BaseException`
The exception to capture. If not provided, the current exception is captured via `sys.exc_info()`
`kwargs?`	`Unpack[OptionalCaptureArgs]`

Examples

Returns

Feature flags methods

`feature_enabled`public

Use feature flags to enable or disable features for users.

Notes:

You can call posthog.load_feature_flags() before to make sure you're not doing unexpected requests.

Parameters

Name	Type
`key?`	`any`
The feature flag key
`distinct_id?`	`any`
The user's distinct ID
`groups`	`any`
Groups mapping
`person_properties`	`any`
Person properties
`group_properties`	`any`
Group properties
`only_evaluate_locally`	`bool`
Whether to evaluate only locally
`send_feature_flag_events`	`bool`
Whether to send feature flag events
`disable_geoip`	`any`
Whether to disable GeoIP lookup

Examples

Returns

`feature_flag_definitions`public

Returns loaded feature flags.

Notes:

Returns loaded feature flags, if any. Helpful for debugging what flag information you have loaded.

Examples

Returns

`get_all_flags`public

Get all flags for a given user.

Notes:

Flags are key-value pairs where the key is the flag key and the value is the flag variant, or True, or False.

Parameters

Name	Type
`distinct_id?`	`any`
The user's distinct ID
`groups`	`any`
Groups mapping
`person_properties`	`any`
Person properties
`group_properties`	`any`
Group properties
`only_evaluate_locally`	`bool`
Whether to evaluate only locally
`disable_geoip`	`any`
Whether to disable GeoIP lookup

Examples

Returns

`get_feature_flag`public

Get feature flag variant for users. Used with experiments.

Notes:

groups are a mapping from group type to group key. So, if you have a group type of "organization" and a group key of "5", you would pass groups={"organization": "5"}. group_properties take the format: { group_type_name: { group_properties } }. So, for example, if you have the group type "organization" and the group key "5", with the properties name, and employee count, you'll send these as: group_properties={"organization": {"name": "PostHog", "employees": 11}}.

Parameters

Name	Type
`key?`	`any`
The feature flag key
`distinct_id?`	`any`
The user's distinct ID
`groups`	`any`
Groups mapping from group type to group key
`person_properties`	`any`
Person properties
`group_properties`	`any`
Group properties in format { group_type_name: { group_properties } }
`only_evaluate_locally`	`bool`
Whether to evaluate only locally
`send_feature_flag_events`	`bool`
Whether to send feature flag events
`disable_geoip`	`any`
Whether to disable GeoIP lookup

Examples

Returns

`load_feature_flags`public

Load feature flag definitions from PostHog.

Examples

Returns

Identification methods

`alias`public

Associate user behaviour before and after they e.g. register, login, or perform some other identifying action.

Notes:

To marry up whatever a user does before they sign up or log in with what they do after you need to make an alias call. This will allow you to answer questions like "Which marketing channels leads to users churning after a month?" or "What do users do on our website before signing up?". Particularly useful for associating user behaviour before and after they e.g. register, login, or perform some other identifying action.

Parameters

Name	Type
`previous_id?`	`any`
The unique ID of the user before
`distinct_id?`	`any`
The current unique id
`timestamp`	`any`
Optional timestamp for the event
`uuid`	`any`
Optional UUID for the event
`disable_geoip`	`any`
Whether to disable GeoIP lookup

Examples

Returns

`group_identify`public

Set properties on a group.

Parameters

Name	Type
`group_type?`	`any`
Type of your group
`group_key?`	`any`
Unique identifier of the group
`properties`	`any`
Properties to set on the group
`timestamp`	`any`
Optional timestamp for the event
`uuid`	`any`
Optional UUID for the event
`disable_geoip`	`any`
Whether to disable GeoIP lookup

Examples

Returns

`identify_context`public

Identify the current context with a distinct ID.

Parameters

Name	Type
`distinct_id?`	`str`
The distinct ID to associate with the current context and its children

Examples

Returns

`set`public

Set properties on a user record.

Notes:

This will overwrite previous people property values. Generally operates similar to capture, with distinct_id being an optional argument, defaulting to the current context's distinct ID. If there is no context-level distinct ID, and no override distinct_id is passed, this function will do nothing. Context tags are folded into $set properties, so tagging the current context and then calling set will cause those tags to be set on the user (unlike capture, which causes them to just be set on the event).

Parameters

Examples

Returns

`set_once`public

Set properties on a user record, only if they do not yet exist.

Notes:

This will not overwrite previous people property values, unlike set. Otherwise, operates in an identical manner to set.

Parameters

Examples

Returns

Other methods

`get_feature_flag_result`public

Get a FeatureFlagResult object which contains the flag result and payload. This method evaluates a feature flag and returns a FeatureFlagResult object containing: - enabled: Whether the flag is enabled - variant: The variant value if the flag has variants - payload: The payload associated with the flag (automatically deserialized from JSON) - key: The flag key - reason: Why the flag was enabled/disabled Example: python result = posthog.get_feature_flag_result('beta-feature', 'distinct_id') if result and result.enabled: # Use the variant and payload print(f"Variant: {result.variant}") print(f"Payload: {result.payload}")

Parameters

Name	Type
`key?`	`any`
`distinct_id?`	`any`
`groups`	`any`
`person_properties`	`any`
`group_properties`	`any`
`only_evaluate_locally`	`bool`
`send_feature_flag_events`	`bool`
`disable_geoip`	`any`

Returns

`get_remote_config_payload`public

Get the payload for a remote config feature flag.

Parameters

Name	Type
`key?`	`any`
The key of the feature flag

Returns

`set_capture_exception_code_variables_context`public

Set whether code variables are captured for the current context.

Parameters

Returns

`set_code_variables_ignore_patterns_context`public

Variable names matching these patterns will be ignored completely when capturing code variables.

Parameters

Name	Type
`ignore_patterns?`	`list`

Returns

`set_code_variables_mask_patterns_context`public

Variable names matching these patterns will be masked with *** when capturing code variables.

Parameters

Name	Type
`mask_patterns?`	`list`

PostHog

Initialization methods

Clientpublic

Parameters

Examples

Returns

Capture methods

Examples

Returns

Contexts methods

new_contextpublic

Parameters

Examples

Returns

Error Tracking methods

capture_exceptionpublic

Parameters

Examples

Returns

Feature flags methods

feature_enabledpublic

Parameters

Examples

Returns

get_all_flagspublic

Parameters

Examples

Returns

get_all_flags_and_payloadspublic

Parameters

Examples

Returns

get_feature_flagpublic

Parameters

Examples

Returns

get_feature_flag_payloadpublic

Parameters

Examples

Returns

get_feature_flags_and_payloadspublic

Parameters

Examples

Returns

get_feature_payloadspublic

Parameters

Examples

Returns

get_feature_variantspublic

Parameters

Returns

get_flags_decisionpublic

Parameters

Examples

Returns

load_feature_flagspublic

Examples

Returns

Identification methods

aliaspublic

Parameters

Examples

Returns

group_identifypublic

Parameters

Examples

Returns

setpublic

Parameters

Examples

Returns

set_oncepublic

Parameters

Examples

Returns

Other methods

flushpublic

Examples

Returns

get_feature_flag_resultpublic

`Client`public

`new_context`public

`capture_exception`public

`feature_enabled`public

`get_all_flags`public

`get_all_flags_and_payloads`public

`get_feature_flag`public

`get_feature_flag_payload`public

`get_feature_flags_and_payloads`public

`get_feature_payloads`public

`get_feature_variants`public

`get_flags_decision`public

`load_feature_flags`public

`alias`public

`group_identify`public

`set`public

`set_once`public

`flush`public

`get_feature_flag_result`public

`join`public

`shutdown`public

`flush`public

`join`public

`shutdown`public

`new_context`public

`scoped`public

`set_context_session`public

`tag`public

`capture`public

`capture_exception`public

`feature_enabled`public

`feature_flag_definitions`public

`get_all_flags`public

`get_feature_flag`public

`load_feature_flags`public

`alias`public