A proxy server that logs your LLM conversations to create datasets from your interactions with any Chat LLM. Supports multiple LLM backends including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Ollama with full OpenAI API compatibility.
- Install:
pip install dolphin-logger
- Initialize:
dolphin-logger init
- Configure: Edit your config file with your API keys (see path below)
- Run:
dolphin-logger
(starts server on http://localhost:5001) - Use: Point your LLM client to
http://localhost:5001
instead of the original API
- Maintains OpenAI API compatibility
- Supports multiple LLM backends through configuration:
- OpenAI (e.g., gpt-4.1)
- Anthropic native SDK (e.g., claude-3-opus)
- Anthropic via OpenAI-compatible API
- Google (e.g., gemini-pro)
- Ollama (local models e.g., codestral, dolphin)
- Configuration-based model definition using
config.json
- Dynamic API endpoint selection based on the requested model in the
/v1/chat/completions
endpoint. - Provides a
/v1/models
endpoint listing all configured models. - Provides a
/health
endpoint for server status and configuration load checks. - Supports both streaming and non-streaming responses.
- Automatic request logging to JSONL format.
- Logging suppression for specific tasks (requests starting with "### Task:").
- Error handling with detailed responses.
- Request/response logging with thread-safe implementation.
- Support for API keys via environment variables for enhanced security.
- Command-line interface for server operation, log uploading, and configuration management.
-
Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/cognitivecomputations/dolphin-logger.git cd dolphin-logger
-
Install the package: It's recommended to install in a virtual environment.
On Windows:
python -m venv venv venv\Scripts\activate pip install .
On Linux/Mac:
python -m venv venv source venv/bin/activate pip install .
Dolphin Logger uses a config.json
file to define available LLM models and their settings.
1. Initial Setup (First-Time Users):
Run the init
command to create the necessary configuration directory and a default configuration file:
dolphin-logger init
This will:
- Create the configuration directory if it doesn't exist.
- Copy a
config.json.example
file from the package to your config directory. - If a
config.json
already exists, it will not be overwritten.
2. Configuration File Location:
The active configuration file location depends on your operating system:
- Windows:
%USERPROFILE%\.dolphin-logger\config.json
- Linux/Mac:
~/.dolphin-logger/config.json
You can check this path using the CLI:
dolphin-logger config --path
3. Editing config.json
:
Open your configuration file and customize it with your desired models, API endpoints, and API keys. A config.json.example
is included in the root of this repository for reference.
Example config.json
structure:
{
"huggingface_repo": "cognitivecomputations/dolphin-logger",
"models": [
{
"provider": "anthropic",
"providerModel": "claude-3-7-sonnet-latest",
"model": "claude",
"apiKey": "ENV:ANTHROPIC_API_KEY"
},
{
"provider": "openai",
"providerModel": "gpt-4.1",
"model": "gpt",
"apiBase": "https://api.openai.com/v1/",
"apiKey": "ENV:OPENAI_API_KEY"
},
{
"provider": "openai",
"providerModel": "gemini-2.5-pro-preview-05-06",
"model": "gemini",
"apiBase": "https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/",
"apiKey": "ENV:GOOGLE_API_KEY"
},
{
"provider": "ollama",
"providerModel": "codestral:22b-v0.1-q5_K_M",
"model": "codestral"
},
{
"provider": "ollama",
"providerModel": "dolphin3",
"model": "dolphin"
}
]
}
Configuration fields:
provider
: The provider type:- "openai" for OpenAI-compatible APIs
- "anthropic" for native Anthropic SDK (recommended for Claude models)
- "ollama" for local Ollama models
providerModel
: The actual model name to send to the provider's APImodel
: The model name that clients will use when making requests to the proxyapiBase
: The base URL for the API. For Ollama, this defaults tohttp://localhost:11434/v1
if not specified. For Anthropic (using the native SDK viaprovider: "anthropic"
), this field is not used.apiKey
: The API key for authentication. Not needed for Ollama. This can be the actual key string or a reference to an environment variable.
Using Environment Variables for API Keys (Recommended for Security):
To avoid hardcoding API keys in your config.json
, you can instruct Dolphin Logger to read them from environment variables:
- In the
apiKey
field for a model, use the prefixENV:
followed by the name of the environment variable. For example:"apiKey": "ENV:MY_OPENAI_API_KEY"
- Dolphin Logger will then look for an environment variable named
MY_OPENAI_API_KEY
and use its value. - If the specified environment variable is not set at runtime, a warning will be logged during startup, and the API key for that model will be treated as missing (effectively
None
). This might lead to authentication errors if the provider requires a key.
Setting Environment Variables:
On Windows (Command Prompt):
set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_anthropic_key
set OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_key
set GOOGLE_API_KEY=your_google_key
On Windows (PowerShell):
$env:ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="your_anthropic_key"
$env:OPENAI_API_KEY="your_openai_key"
$env:GOOGLE_API_KEY="your_google_key"
On Linux/Mac:
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_anthropic_key
export OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_key
export GOOGLE_API_KEY=your_google_key
Benefits:
- Enhanced Security: Keeps sensitive API keys out of configuration files, which might be accidentally committed to version control.
- Flexibility: Allows different API keys for different environments (development, staging, production) without changing
config.json
. Ideal for Docker deployments and CI/CD pipelines.
Example config.json
entry:
{
"provider": "openai",
"providerModel": "gpt-4-turbo",
"model": "gpt-4-turbo-secure",
"apiBase": "https://api.openai.com/v1",
"apiKey": "ENV:OPENAI_API_KEY"
}
In this case, you would set the OPENAI_API_KEY
environment variable in your system before running Dolphin Logger.
Note for Anthropic models:
- Using the "anthropic" provider is recommended as it uses the official Anthropic Python SDK
- This provides better performance and reliability compared to using Claude through an OpenAI-compatible API
Note for Ollama models:
- If
apiBase
is not specified for an Ollama provider, it defaults tohttp://localhost:11434/v1
. - No API key is required for local Ollama models.
4. Validate Configuration (Optional):
After editing, you can validate your config.json
:
dolphin-logger config --validate
This will check for JSON syntax errors and basic structural issues.
Dolphin Logger is managed via the dolphin-logger
command-line tool.
dolphin-logger [command] [options]
Available Commands:
-
server
(default)- Starts the LLM proxy server.
- This is the default action if no command is specified.
- Example:
dolphin-logger # or explicitly dolphin-logger server # or with custom port dolphin-logger server --port 8080
- The server will run on port 5001 by default (configurable via the
PORT
environment variable or--port
flag).
-
upload
- Uploads collected
.jsonl
log files from your logs directory to a configured Hugging Face Hub dataset repository. - Example:
dolphin-logger upload
- See the "Uploading Logs" section for prerequisites and details.
- Uploads collected
-
init
- Initializes the Dolphin Logger configuration.
- Creates the configuration directory if it doesn't exist.
- Copies a default
config.json.example
to your config directory if noconfig.json
is present. This file serves as a template for your actual configuration. - Example:
dolphin-logger init
-
config
- Manages or inspects the configuration.
--path
: Shows the absolute path to theconfig.json
file (shell-friendly output).Powerful shell operations using the path:dolphin-logger config --path
# Edit config file directly vim $(dolphin-logger config --path) # Copy config to backup cp $(dolphin-logger config --path) backup-config.json # Check if config exists [ -f "$(dolphin-logger config --path)" ] && echo "Config exists" # View config contents cat $(dolphin-logger config --path) # Use in scripts CONFIG_PATH=$(dolphin-logger config --path) echo "Config is at: $CONFIG_PATH"
--validate
: Attempts to load and validate theconfig.json
file, checking for JSON correctness and basic structure. It will also report on API keys resolved from environment variables.dolphin-logger config --validate
Once the server is running (using dolphin-logger
or dolphin-logger server
):
-
List available models: You can check the available models by calling the
/v1/models
endpoint:curl http://localhost:5001/v1/models
This will return a list of models as defined in your configuration file.
-
Make chat completion requests: Use the proxy as you would the OpenAI API, but point your client's base URL to
http://localhost:5001
(or your configured port). Include the model name (as defined in themodel
field in yourconfig.json
) in your request.cURL example using a model named "claude":
curl http://localhost:5001/v1/chat/completions \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer dummy-token" \ -d '{ "model": "claude", "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello from Claude!"}], "stream": false }'
Python OpenAI SDK example:
from openai import OpenAI # Point to your local dolphin-logger proxy client = OpenAI( base_url="http://localhost:5001/v1", api_key="dummy-key" # Not validated by proxy ) response = client.chat.completions.create( model="claude", # Use model name from your config messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}] ) print(response.choices[0].message.content)
Using with popular tools:
- Cursor/Continue.dev: Set API base URL to
http://localhost:5001/v1
- LangChain: Use
openai_api_base="http://localhost:5001/v1"
- Any OpenAI-compatible client: Point base URL to your proxy
- Cursor/Continue.dev: Set API base URL to
-
Check Server Health: Verify server status and configuration load:
curl http://localhost:5001/health
Expected response (healthy):
{
"status": "ok",
"message": "Server is healthy, configuration loaded."
}
```
*If configuration issues exist (e.g., no models loaded):*
```json
{
"status": "error",
"message": "Server is running, but configuration might have issues (e.g., no models loaded)."
}
```
## Environment Variables
The proxy primarily uses the following environment variables:
- `PORT`: Sets the port on which the proxy server will listen (default: `5001`).
- **API Keys (Dynamic)**: Any environment variable that you reference in your `config.json` using the `ENV:` prefix for `apiKey` fields (e.g., if you have `"apiKey": "ENV:OPENAI_API_KEY"`, then `OPENAI_API_KEY` becomes a relevant environment variable).
- `HF_TOKEN` (for uploading logs): A Hugging Face Hub token with write access to the target dataset repository is required when using the `dolphin-logger upload` command.
## Logging
- All proxied requests and their corresponding responses to `/v1/chat/completions` are automatically logged.
- Logs are stored in date-specific `.jsonl` files (one line per JSON object).
- Log files are named with UUIDs to ensure uniqueness (e.g., `xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx.jsonl`).
- Logging is thread-safe.
- **Log Suppression:** If the first user message in a request starts with `### Task:`, that specific request/response pair will not be logged. This is useful for excluding specific interactions (e.g., meta-prompts or system commands) from your dataset.
**Log File Locations:**
- **Windows:** `%USERPROFILE%\.dolphin-logger\logs\`
- **Linux/Mac:** `~/.dolphin-logger/logs/`
## Uploading Logs
The `dolphin-logger upload` command facilitates uploading your collected logs to a Hugging Face Hub dataset.
**Prerequisites:**
- **Hugging Face Token:** Ensure the `HF_TOKEN` environment variable is set with a Hugging Face token. This token must have write access to the target dataset repository.
- **Target Repository:** The default target dataset is `cognitivecomputations/dolphin-logger`. This can be changed by modifying the `huggingface_repo` field in your `config.json`.
**Process:**
1. Run: `dolphin-logger upload`
2. The tool will:
* Locate all `.jsonl` files in your logs directory.
* Create a new branch in the target Hugging Face dataset (e.g., `upload-logs-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS`).
* Commit the log files to this new branch.
* Attempt to create a Pull Request (Draft) from this new branch to the dataset's main branch.
* Print the URL of the created Pull Request.
3. You will need to visit the URL to review and merge the Pull Request on Hugging Face Hub.
## Troubleshooting
**Common Issues and Solutions:**
1. **"Configuration file not found" error:**
- Run `dolphin-logger init` to create the default configuration
- Check that your config file exists with `dolphin-logger config --path`
2. **"Template config file not found" error:**
- Ensure you've installed the package properly with `pip install .`
- Verify the `config.json.example` file exists in the project root
3. **API authentication errors:**
- Verify your API keys are correctly set in environment variables
- Check that environment variable names match those specified in config (e.g., `ENV:OPENAI_API_KEY` requires `OPENAI_API_KEY` to be set)
- Use `dolphin-logger config --validate` to check API key resolution
4. **Server won't start / Port already in use:**
- **Windows:** Check if another process is using port 5001: `netstat -an | findstr :5001`
- **Linux/Mac:** Check if another process is using port 5001: `lsof -i :5001`
- Set a different port: `dolphin-logger server --port 5002` or `set PORT=5002` (Windows) / `export PORT=5002` (Linux/Mac)
- Kill existing processes if needed
5. **Models not appearing in `/v1/models` endpoint:**
- Validate your configuration: `dolphin-logger config --validate`
- Check that your config.json has a properly formatted "models" array
- Restart the server after configuration changes
6. **Ollama models not working:**
- Ensure Ollama is running: `ollama list`
- Check that the model names in your config match available Ollama models
- Verify Ollama is accessible at `http://localhost:11434`
7. **Logs not being created:**
- Check that requests don't start with "### Task:" (these are suppressed by default)
- Verify the logs directory exists and is writable
- Look for error messages in the server output
8. **HTTPS configuration error:**
- If you see an HTTPS error message, change your client configuration from `https://localhost` to `http://localhost`
- Dolphin Logger runs on HTTP, not HTTPS
**Getting Help:**
- Enable verbose logging with detailed error messages
- Check the server console output for specific error details
- Validate your configuration with `dolphin-logger config --validate`
- Ensure all required environment variables are set
## Error Handling
The proxy includes comprehensive error handling:
- Preserves original error messages from upstream APIs when available.
- Provides detailed error information in JSON format for debugging.
- Maintains appropriate HTTP status codes for different error types.
- Smart detection of HTTPS misconfiguration with helpful guidance.
## Project Structure
The `dolphin-logger` codebase is organized into several modules within the `src/dolphin_logger/` directory:
- `cli.py`: Handles command-line argument parsing and dispatches to appropriate functions for different commands (`server`, `upload`, `init`, `config`).
- `server.py`: Contains the Flask application setup, route definitions (`/health`, `/v1/models`, and the main proxy route), and the main server running logic.
- `core_proxy.py`: Implements the core logic for proxying requests. This includes selecting the target API based on configuration, and separate handlers for Anthropic SDK requests and general REST API requests.
- `config.py`: Manages configuration loading, creation of default configuration, and resolution of API keys from environment variables.
- `logging_utils.py`: Provides utilities for managing log files (daily rotation, UUID naming) and determining if a request should be logged.
- `upload.py`: Contains the logic for finding log files and uploading them to a Hugging Face Hub dataset.
- `main.py`: The primary entry point for the `dolphin-logger` script, which calls the main CLI function from `cli.py`.
- `__init__.py`: Makes `dolphin_logger` a Python package.
## Testing
The project includes a suite of unit and functional tests to ensure reliability and prevent regressions.
**Tools Used:**
- `pytest`: For test discovery and execution.
- `pytest-mock`: For mocking dependencies in unit tests.
- Standard Python `unittest.mock` and `subprocess` modules.
**Running Tests:**
1. Ensure you have installed the development dependencies:
```bash
pip install pytest pytest-mock requests
```
2. Navigate to the root directory of the project.
3. Run the tests:
```bash
python -m pytest tests/
```
Or more simply:
```bash
pytest tests/
```
**Test Environment Notes:**
- **Unit Tests (`tests/test_*.py` excluding `test_functional.py`):** These are self-contained and mock external dependencies like file system operations, API calls, and environment variables. They test individual modules in isolation.
- **Functional Tests (`tests/test_functional.py`):**
- These tests start an actual instance of the Dolphin Logger server on a free port using a subprocess.
- They use a temporary, isolated configuration directory and log directory for each test session, ensuring they **do not interfere with your user-level configuration setup.**
- The functional tests primarily verify the server's behavior with configurations that point to **non-existent backend services.** This allows testing of the proxy's routing, error handling, and logging mechanisms when upstream services are unavailable, without requiring actual LLM API keys or running local LLMs during the test execution.
## License
MIT