PostHog Install & Auth

Overview

Set up PostHog SDK/CLI and configure authentication credentials.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ or Python 3.10+
• Package manager (npm, pnpm, or pip)
• PostHog account with API access
• API key from PostHog dashboard

Instructions

Step 1: Install SDK

# Node.js
npm install @posthog/sdk

# Python
pip install posthog

Step 2: Configure Authentication

# Set environment variable
export POSTHOG_API_KEY="your-api-key"

# Or create .env file
echo 'POSTHOG_API_KEY=your-api-key' >> .env

Step 3: Verify Connection

// Test connection code here

Output

• Installed SDK package in node_modules or site-packages
• Environment variable or .env file with API key
• Successful connection verification output

Error Handling

| Error | Cause | Solution | |-------|-------|----------| | Invalid API Key | Incorrect or expired key | Verify key in PostHog dashboard | | Rate Limited | Exceeded quota | Check quota at https://docs.posthog.com | | Network Error | Firewall blocking | Ensure outbound HTTPS allowed | | Module Not Found | Installation failed | Run npm install or pip install again |

Examples

TypeScript Setup

import { PostHogClient } from '@posthog/sdk';

const client = new PostHogClient({
  apiKey: process.env.POSTHOG_API_KEY,
});

Python Setup

from posthog import PostHogClient

client = PostHogClient(
    api_key=os.environ.get('POSTHOG_API_KEY')
)

Resources

• PostHog Documentation
• PostHog Dashboard
• PostHog Status

Next Steps

After successful auth, proceed to posthog-hello-world for your first API call.