# Ivy docs

Ivy traces AWS Lambda functions through a Lambda layer and shows the traces in a dashboard, an MCP server and an HTTP API. Most people start by pasting one prompt into their coding agent; everything it does is also documented here.

## Quick start

Paste this into your coding agent, in the repository that deploys your Lambda functions:

```
Set up Ivy for my AWS Lambda functions using https://ivytrace.dev/llms.txt
```

The agent follows [llms.txt](https://ivytrace.dev/llms.txt): it signs you up, creates a workspace and project, connects your AWS account through a CloudFormation stack, lets you choose which functions to trace, and checks that the first trace arrived. You approve the sign-in and the stack in your browser. Read [what it does, step by step](https://ivytrace.dev/docs/agent-setup).

## Guides

- [Agent setup](https://ivytrace.dev/docs/agent-setup): Paste one prompt and your coding agent sets up Ivy: OAuth device-flow sign-in, workspace and project, a CloudFormation role in your AWS account, auto-trace rules with a dry run, and a verified first trace.
- [Manual setup](https://ivytrace.dev/docs/manual-setup): Attach Ivy's Node.js Lambda layer yourself or in infrastructure code. The layer, the four environment variables, all optional settings, and how to get an ingest key.
- [Set up alerts](https://ivytrace.dev/docs/alerts): Connect Slack to get a message when a Lambda error group is first seen, tune the thresholds per project, and manage the weekly email digest. Self-hosted setup included.
- [MCP server](https://ivytrace.dev/docs/mcp): Add Ivy's remote MCP server to Claude Code, Claude, Cursor or VS Code. OAuth sign-in, read-only tools across all your workspaces, and interactive trace views with MCP Apps.
- [HTTP API](https://ivytrace.dev/docs/api): Ivy's HTTP API covers everything the dashboard does, described by an OpenAPI 3.1 spec. Authentication, workspace and project routes, and traces as compact text for LLMs.
- [Self-hosting](https://ivytrace.dev/docs/self-hosting): Run Ivy on your own server with docker compose. Services and ports, the environment variables that matter, OIDC sign-in, ingest keys, auto-trace and alerts.
- [Span conventions](https://ivytrace.dev/docs/span-conventions): The OpenTelemetry attributes Ivy's Lambda layer emits for invocations, AWS SDK and HTTP calls, logs, failures outside the handler and LLM spans, plus payload capping and redaction defaults.

## Concepts

- **Trace:** one Lambda invocation with everything it did. Billing counts traces.
- **Span:** one operation inside a trace: the invocation itself, an AWS SDK call, an HTTP request, an LLM call.
- **Workspace:** your team. It owns members, billing and connected AWS accounts.
- **Project:** one app or environment inside a workspace (`checkout-prod`, `checkout-staging`). Every function belongs to one project, and each project has its own ingest keys.
- **Auto-trace rule:** a saved choice of functions (by CloudFormation stack, name pattern or tag) and the project they trace into. New matching functions are traced automatically.
- **Error group:** failures with the same function, error type and normalized message.

## Reference

- [API reference](https://ivytrace.dev/api/docs) and [OpenAPI spec](https://ivytrace.dev/api/openapi.json)
- [Span conventions](https://ivytrace.dev/docs/span-conventions)
- [Layer environment variables](https://ivytrace.dev/docs/manual-setup#environment-variables)
- [Ivy agent skill](https://ivytrace.dev/skills/ivy/SKILL.md)
- [Source code on GitHub](https://github.com/ivytrace/ivy)

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Source: https://ivytrace.dev/docs · Updated 2026-11-14