Phoenix CLI

Invocation

px <resource> <action>                          # if installed globally
npx @arizeai/phoenix-cli <resource> <action>    # no install required

The CLI uses singular resource commands with subcommands like list and get:

px trace list
px trace get <trace-id>
px trace annotate <trace-id>
px trace add-note <trace-id>
px trace-annotations delete
px span list
px span annotate <span-id>
px span add-note <span-id>
px span-annotations delete
px session list
px session get <session-id>
px session annotate <session-id>
px session add-note <session-id>
px session-annotations delete
px dataset list
px dataset get <name>
px project list
px project get <name>
px annotation-config list
px auth status
px profile list
px profile show [name]
px profile create <name>
px profile use <name>
px profile edit <name>
px profile delete <name>

Setup

export PHOENIX_HOST=http://localhost:6006
export PHOENIX_PROJECT=my-project
export PHOENIX_API_KEY=your-api-key  # if auth is enabled

Always use --format raw --no-progress when piping to jq.

Quick Reference

Both stages tag every artifact with one shared coding annotation identifier (descriptive shape, e.g. coding-run:chatbot-context-loss-2026-05-06) so the run is queryable, reversible, and viewable as a unit. Pass --identifier <value> explicitly on every px call — shell inheritance is unreliable across agent harnesses. Open coding writes notes via px ... add-note and records a small local JSONL sidecar at .px/coding/<sanitized-identifier>.jsonl; axial coding reads that sidecar as the deterministic handoff and records labels in .px/coding/<sanitized-identifier>-axial.jsonl. Pick the identifier once per run (see references/open-coding.md), then share the Phoenix UI link from the wrap-up section. Revert is opt-in and runs three identifier-bound DELETEs only after explicit user confirmation.

Workflow term vs. server annotation name. The skill prose calls this value the coding annotation identifier (shell-variable hint: CODING_ANNOTATION_IDENTIFIER). The server-side annotation NAME used for the UI filter is unchanged — coding_session_id — for data compatibility with rows already written by previous runs. Don't try to rename the server-side annotation; treat the asymmetry as load-bearing.

Workflows

"What do I do after instrumenting?" / "Where do I focus?" / "What's going wrong?" open-coding → axial-coding → build evals for the top categories.

Reference Categories

Auth

px auth status                                # check connection and authentication
px auth status --endpoint http://other:6006   # check a specific endpoint
px auth status --profile staging              # check a named profile's connection

Profiles

Named profiles let you switch between multiple Phoenix instances (local, staging, cloud) without juggling environment variables. Profiles are stored in ~/.px/settings.json (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/px/settings.json).

Configuration priority (highest to lowest): CLI flags > env vars > active profile > built-in defaults.

px profile list                              # list all profiles (shows active profile)
px profile show                              # show the active profile's settings

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