---
title: "LangChain"
description: "Trace LangChain agent (create_agent) and LCEL pipelines with automatic span capture"
icon: "/assets/providers/langchain.svg"
---

### Installation

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="pip">
    ```bash
    pip install "pandaprobe[langchain]"
    ```
  </Tab>
  <Tab title="uv">
    ```bash
    uv add "pandaprobe[langchain]"
    ```
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

### Setup

```python
from pandaprobe.integrations.langchain import LangChainCallbackHandler

handler = LangChainCallbackHandler(
    session_id="conversation-123",
    user_id="user-abc",
    tags=["production"],
)
```

<Tip>
  We recommend using UUIDs for `session_id` and `user_id` so traces can be grouped reliably across runs.
</Tip>

### Usage

The handler works with both `langchain.agents.create_agent` and plain LCEL pipelines (`prompt | model | parser`). Pass it via LangChain's `config["callbacks"]`:

```python
from langchain.agents import create_agent

agent = create_agent(
    model="openai:gpt-5.4-nano",
    tools=[...],
)

result = agent.invoke(
    {"messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}]},
    config={"callbacks": [handler]},
)
```

<Warning>
  The handler must be passed in `config["callbacks"]` for each invocation. There is no global `instrument()` step.
</Warning>

### What gets traced

| LangChain Callback | Span Kind | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `on_chain_start` / `on_chain_end` | `CHAIN` (root) or `AGENT` (nested) | Root chain creates the trace boundary |
| `on_llm_start` / `on_chat_model_start` / `on_llm_end` | `LLM` | Model, parameters, token usage, reasoning |
| `on_tool_start` / `on_tool_end` | `TOOL` | Tool name, input, output |
| `on_retriever_start` / `on_retriever_end` | `RETRIEVER` | Retrieval queries and results |

### Trace name remapping

`create_agent` compiles to a LangGraph graph internally, so its root run reports `name="LangGraph"`. LCEL pipelines report `name="RunnableSequence"`. The handler rewrites both to `"LangChain"` so the trace is named consistently — custom user-given chain names are preserved.

### Token usage

Token usage is extracted from LangChain's `usage_metadata` (primary) or legacy `llm_output.token_usage` (fallback). The mapping is: `input_tokens` → `prompt_tokens`, `output_tokens` → `completion_tokens`. Reasoning tokens are subtracted from `output_tokens` when present.

### Example with tools

This example builds a LangChain agent via `create_agent` with one tool and traces it via `LangChainCallbackHandler`:

```python
from langchain.agents import create_agent
from langchain.tools import tool

import pandaprobe
from pandaprobe.integrations.langchain import LangChainCallbackHandler


@tool
def get_weather(city: str) -> str:
    """Get the current weather for a given city."""
    weather_data = {
        "london": "Cloudy, 15°C, 70% humidity",
        "tokyo": "Sunny, 28°C, 45% humidity",
        "new york": "Partly cloudy, 22°C, 55% humidity",
        "paris": "Rainy, 12°C, 85% humidity",
    }
    return weather_data.get(city.lower(), f"Weather data not available for {city}")


@tool
def get_population(city: str) -> str:
    """Get the approximate population of a city."""
    populations = {
        "london": "8.8 million",
        "tokyo": "13.9 million",
        "new york": "8.3 million",
        "paris": "2.2 million",
    }
    return populations.get(city.lower(), f"Population data not available for {city}")


agent = create_agent(
    model="openai:gpt-5.4-nano",
    tools=[get_weather, get_population],
    system_prompt="You are a helpful assistant with access to weather and population tools.",
)

handler = LangChainCallbackHandler(tags=["tool-agent", "example"])

result = agent.invoke(
    {"messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "What's the weather like in London and what's its population?"}]},
    config={"callbacks": [handler]},
)

final_message = result["messages"][-1]
print(f"Agent: {final_message.content}")

pandaprobe.flush()
pandaprobe.shutdown()
```

This produces a trace with: `CHAIN` (root, named "LangChain") → `AGENT` (`tools` node) → `LLM` (model call) → `TOOL` (`get_weather`) → `TOOL` (`get_population`) → `LLM` (final response).

### LCEL pipelines

The handler also works for plain LCEL chains. The trace is named "LangChain" by default (the underlying `RunnableSequence` name is rewritten) so LCEL runs are labeled consistently with agent runs.

```python
from langchain_core.prompts import ChatPromptTemplate
from langchain_openai import ChatOpenAI

from pandaprobe.integrations.langchain import LangChainCallbackHandler

prompt = ChatPromptTemplate.from_template("Tell me a joke about {topic}")
llm = ChatOpenAI(model="gpt-5.4-nano")
chain = prompt | llm

handler = LangChainCallbackHandler()
result = chain.invoke(
    {"topic": "pandas"},
    config={"callbacks": [handler]},
)
```
