Quick Start

Get up and running with Watchtower in under 5 minutes

Step 1: Install

# Install CLI
npm install -g @watchtower/cli

# Install Python SDK
pip install watchtower-adk

Step 2: Add the Plugin to Your Agent

Add the AgentTracePlugin to your Google ADK agent:

import os
from google.adk import Agent
from watchtower import AgentTracePlugin

# Create the plugin
plugin = AgentTracePlugin(
    # Enable stdout streaming for live tail
    enable_stdout=os.environ.get("WATCHTOWER_LIVE") == "1",
    # Use run ID from CLI if provided
    run_id=os.environ.get("WATCHTOWER_RUN_ID"),
)

# Add to your agent
agent = Agent(
    name="my_agent",
    model="gemini-2.0-flash",
    plugins=[plugin],
)

# Run your agent as normal
result = agent.run("Hello, world!")

Step 3: Run with Live Streaming

Use watchtower tail to see events in real-time:

watchtower tail python my_agent.py

You'll see a live stream of events as your agent runs:

watchtower tail
watchtowerLIVE • Run: abc123
+0ms run.start
+12ms llm.request gemini-2.0-flash
+847ms llm.response 1,203 tokens 835ms
+850ms tool.start search_web
+1341ms tool.end search_web 491ms

Step 4: View Saved Traces

After your agent finishes, traces are automatically saved. View them with:

# View the most recent trace
watchtower show last

# List all traces
watchtower list

# View a specific trace by run ID
watchtower show abc123

Next Steps