---

name: posthog-sdk-patterns description: | Apply production-ready PostHog SDK patterns for TypeScript and Python. Use when implementing PostHog integrations, refactoring SDK usage, or establishing team coding standards for PostHog. Trigger with phrases like "posthog SDK patterns", "posthog best practices", "posthog code patterns", "idiomatic posthog". allowed-tools: Read, Write, Edit version: 1.0.0 license: MIT author: Jeremy Longshore jeremy@intentsolutions.io

PostHog SDK Patterns

Overview

Production-ready patterns for PostHog SDK usage in TypeScript and Python.

Prerequisites

• Completed posthog-install-auth setup
• Familiarity with async/await patterns
• Understanding of error handling best practices

Instructions

Step 1: Implement Singleton Pattern (Recommended)

Copy// src/posthog/client.ts
import { PostHogClient } from '@posthog/sdk';

let instance: PostHogClient | null = null;

export function getPostHogClient(): PostHogClient {
  if (!instance) {
    instance = new PostHogClient({
      apiKey: process.env.POSTHOG_API_KEY!,
      // Additional options
    });
  }
  return instance;
}

Step 2: Add Error Handling Wrapper

Copyimport { PostHogError } from '@posthog/sdk';

async function safePostHogCall<T>(
  operation: () => Promise<T>
): Promise<{ data: T | null; error: Error | null }> {
  try {
    const data = await operation();
    return { data, error: null };
  } catch (err) {
    if (err instanceof PostHogError) {
      console.error({
        code: err.code,
        message: err.message,
      });
    }
    return { data: null, error: err as Error };
  }
}

Step 3: Implement Retry Logic

Copyasync function withRetry<T>(
  operation: () => Promise<T>,
  maxRetries = 3,
  backoffMs = 1000
): Promise<T> {
  for (let attempt = 1; attempt <= maxRetries; attempt++) {
    try {
      return await operation();
    } catch (err) {
      if (attempt === maxRetries) throw err;
      const delay = backoffMs * Math.pow(2, attempt - 1);
      await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, delay));
    }
  }
  throw new Error('Unreachable');
}

Output

• Type-safe client singleton
• Robust error handling with structured logging
• Automatic retry with exponential backoff
• Runtime validation for API responses

Error Handling

Examples

Factory Pattern (Multi-tenant)

Copyconst clients = new Map<string, PostHogClient>();

export function getClientForTenant(tenantId: string): PostHogClient {
  if (!clients.has(tenantId)) {
    const apiKey = getTenantApiKey(tenantId);
    clients.set(tenantId, new PostHogClient({ apiKey }));
  }
  return clients.get(tenantId)!;
}

Python Context Manager

Copyfrom contextlib import asynccontextmanager
from posthog import PostHogClient

@asynccontextmanager
async def get_posthog_client():
    client = PostHogClient()
    try:
        yield client
    finally:
        await client.close()

Zod Validation

Copyimport { z } from 'zod';

const posthogResponseSchema = z.object({
  id: z.string(),
  status: z.enum(['active', 'inactive']),
  createdAt: z.string().datetime(),
});

Resources

• PostHog SDK Reference
• PostHog API Types
• Zod Documentation

Next Steps

Apply patterns in posthog-core-workflow-a for real-world usage.