Headless Initialization

By default, you need to create a user account, organization and project via the Langfuse UI before being able to use the API. You can find the API keys in the project settings within the UI.

If you want to automatically initialize these resources, you can optionally use the following LANGFUSE_INIT_* environment variables. When these variables are set, Langfuse will automatically create the specified resources on startup if they don't already exist. This allows for easy integration with infrastructure-as-code and automated deployment pipelines.

Note

For more programmatic control over the provisioning process, you can also use the Instance Management API.

Resource Dependencies

The different resources depend on each other.

You can e.g. initialize an organization and a user without having to also initialize a project and API keys, but you cannot initialize a project or user without also initializing an organization.

Organization
├── Project      (part of organization)
│   └── API Keys (set for project)
└── User         (owner of organization)

Environment Variables

Environment Variable	Description	Required to Create Resource	Example
`LANGFUSE_INIT_ORG_ID`	Unique identifier for the organization	Yes	`my-org`
`LANGFUSE_INIT_ORG_NAME`	Name of the organization	No	`My Org`
`LANGFUSE_INIT_PROJECT_ID`	Unique identifier for the project	Yes	`my-project`
`LANGFUSE_INIT_PROJECT_NAME`	Name of the project	No	`My Project`
`LANGFUSE_INIT_PROJECT_RETENTION`	Data Retention in days for project. Leave blank to retain data forever	No	`30`
`LANGFUSE_INIT_PROJECT_PUBLIC_KEY`	Public API key for the project	Yes	`pk-lf-1234567890`
`LANGFUSE_INIT_PROJECT_SECRET_KEY`	Secret API key for the project	Yes	`sk-lf-1234567890`
`LANGFUSE_INIT_USER_EMAIL`	Email address of the initial user	Yes	`user@example.com`
`LANGFUSE_INIT_USER_NAME`	Name of the initial user	No	`John Doe`
`LANGFUSE_INIT_USER_PASSWORD`	Password for the initial user	Yes	`password123`

The initial user signs in without signing up, so they never see the newsletter step that new users get after sign-up. To get the self-hosting updates, subscribe here: