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

set -euo pipefail

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.