Semantic Kernel

Available for: Python only.

Installation

pip install zespan semantic-kernel

Usage

Build your kernel, then call instrument_semantic_kernel(kernel, zespan.get_client()) to register Zespan’s tracing filters on it. This patches Semantic Kernel’s function-invocation and prompt-rendering filters to forward spans to Zespan — it takes both the Kernel instance and the active Zespan client explicitly, so call it after zespan.init() and after the kernel is constructed.

import asyncio
import zespan
from zespan import instrument_semantic_kernel
import semantic_kernel as sk
from semantic_kernel.connectors.ai.open_ai import OpenAIChatCompletion

zespan.init(api_key="zsp_your_api_key_here")

kernel = sk.Kernel()
kernel.add_service(OpenAIChatCompletion(
    service_id="chat",
    ai_model_id="gpt-4o",
))

instrument_semantic_kernel(kernel, zespan.get_client())

async def main():
    result = await kernel.invoke_prompt(
        "What is the capital of France?",
        service_id="chat",
    )
    print(result)

asyncio.run(main())

All kernel invocations, plugin function calls, and LLM completions are traced automatically after calling instrument_semantic_kernel().

What gets captured

Field	Details
Span kind	`llm` for prompt functions, `tool` for native/plugin functions
Model	The `ai_model_id` of the service backing the invoked function
Provider	Inferred from the model name (`openai`, `anthropic`, `google`, `mistralai`, `meta`, `deepseek`, or `unknown`)
Input tokens	From the invocation result’s `usage.prompt_tokens` metadata, when the connector reports it
Output tokens	From the invocation result’s `usage.completion_tokens` metadata, when the connector reports it
Latency	Duration of the function invocation
Rendered prompt	Captured when `store_prompts=True` (the default), redacted before storage

Semantic Kernel connectors vary in whether they populate token usage metadata on the invocation context. If input/output tokens show as 0, check whether your connector (e.g. OpenAIChatCompletion) surfaces usage on the result — this is a Semantic Kernel connector limitation, not something instrument_semantic_kernel() controls.

Overview

TypeScript SDK

Python SDK

Advanced SDK Configuration

Integrations

LLM Providers

Agent Frameworks

RAG Frameworks

Vector Databases

Custom / Other

Guides

Semantic Kernel

Installation

Usage

What gets captured

​Installation

​Usage

​What gets captured

Installation

Usage

What gets captured