Node

2

Initialize PostHog

Required

Initialize the PostHog client with your project token:

Node.js

PostHog AI

import { PostHog } from 'posthog-node'
const client = new PostHog(
    '<ph_project_token>',
    {
        host: 'https://us.i.posthog.com'
    }
)

3

Send an event

Recommended

Once installed, you can manually send events to test your integration:

Node.js

PostHog AI

client.capture({
    distinctId: 'distinct_id_of_the_user',
    event: 'event_name',
    properties: {
        property1: 'value',
        property2: 'value',
    },
})

4

Configure exception autocapture

Recommended

You can enable exception autocapture when initializing the PostHog client to automatically capture uncaught exceptions and unhandled rejections in your Node app.

Node.js

PostHog AI

import { PostHog } from 'posthog-node'
const client = new PostHog(
    '<ph_project_token>',
    { host: 'https://us.i.posthog.com', enableExceptionAutocapture: true }
)

If you are using the Express framework, you will need to import and call setupExpressErrorHandler with your PostHog client and Express app. This is because Express handles uncaught exceptions internally meaning exception autocapture will not work by default.

server.ts

PostHog AI

import express from 'express'
import { PostHog, setupExpressErrorHandler } from 'posthog-node'
const app = express()
const posthog = new PostHog(POSTHOG_PROJECT_TOKEN)
setupExpressErrorHandler(posthog, app)

Note: Error tracking requires access the file system to process stack traces. Some providers, like Cloudflare Workers, do not support Node.js runtime APIs by default and need to be included as per their documentation (opens in a new tab).

5

Manually capture exceptions

Optional

If you need to manually capture exceptions, you can do so by calling the captureException method:

Node.js

PostHog AI

posthog.captureException(e, 'user_distinct_id', additionalProperties)

This is helpful if you’ve built your own error handling logic or want to capture exceptions normally handled by the framework.

Verify error tracking

Recommended

Confirm events are being sent to PostHog

Before proceeding, let’s make sure exception events are being captured and sent to PostHog. You should see events appear in the activity feed.

Check for exceptions in PostHog (opens in a new tab)

6

Upload source maps

Required

Great, you’re capturing exceptions! If you serve minified bundles, the next step is to upload source maps to generate accurate stack traces.

Let’s continue to the next section.

Upload source maps (opens in a new tab)