vetch 0.3.1

Planet-aware observability for LLM inference

Vetch SDK

Planet-aware observability for LLM inference.

Vetch is a Python SDK that wraps LLM API calls to log energy consumption, cost, and carbon per inference using live grid data. It never reads prompt or completion content—only metadata from the response usage.

→ Get started in 60 seconds (Cloud APIs) → Track local models (Ollama, vLLM, llama.cpp) → Interactive Inference Calculator — Compare energy, cost, and carbon across 48 models

Why Vetch?

Attributed Spend, Not Just Total Spend

Provider dashboards (OpenAI Usage, Anthropic Console, Google Cloud Billing) show you total spend. Vetch shows you attributed spend. Using tags, you can track cost-per-feature, cost-per-user, or cost-per-environment in real-time—without building custom infrastructure.

Sustainability Instrumentation

Begin tracking AI inference emissions for future CSRD (EU) and SEC (US) Scope 3 reporting. Vetch includes Tier 1 (±50%) hardware-measured energy data for popular models:

• GPT-4o, GPT-4o-mini, GPT-4.1 family, GPT-4.5, o1, o3, o4-mini - Measured in Azure datacenters
• Claude-3.7 Sonnet (standard + Extended Thinking) - Measured in AWS datacenters
• DeepSeek-R1, DeepSeek-V3 - Reasoning and MoE benchmarks
• Llama 3.1 (8B, 70B, 405B), Llama 3.3 70B - Open-weight measurements
• GPT-5 family (gpt-5, gpt-5-mini, gpt-5-nano, gpt-5.4 etc.) - Tier 3 estimates
• 48 models in the registry, with Tier 3 (order-of-magnitude) estimates for unmeasured models

Source: Jegham et al. (2025) - First large-scale LLM energy measurements in commercial datacenters.

Design Guarantees

Fail-Open Architecture

Vetch is architected with a non-blocking, fail-open boundary. Every Vetch operation (patching, calculation, emission) is wrapped in isolated error handlers. If Vetch fails, your LLM call proceeds normally, and a tracking_disabled: true event is logged. Vetch will never cause an inference outage.

Privacy & Data Perimeter

Vetch never reads or stores prompt/completion content. It only extracts metadata (token counts, model names, timing) directly from SDK response objects. No PII or proprietary prompt data ever leaves your execution environment.

Thread Safety (v0.1.4+)

Vetch is fully thread-safe and supports multi-client isolation. It uses contextvars for async safety and WeakKeyDictionary for client patching, ensuring that unpatching one client doesn't affect another in the same process.

Features

• Fail-Open: LLM calls always proceed even if Vetch fails
• Privacy-First: No prompt or completion data is ever read or buffered
• Multi-tier Caching: Memory -> File -> API -> Regional averages for grid data
• Observability-Transparent: Works seamlessly with Datadog, OpenTelemetry, and Sentry
• Low Overhead: Under 5ms overhead for sync calls; zero TTFT latency for streaming
• MoE-Aware: Energy estimates account for active parameters in Mixture-of-Experts models
• Session Aggregation: Group multiple LLM calls into sessions for agentic AI tracking
• Cache-Aware Pricing: Accurate cost calculation with prompt cache discounts

Supported Providers

Provider	Status	Instrumentation
OpenAI	Supported	vetch.instrument() or vetch.wrap()
Azure OpenAI	Supported	vetch.instrument() (auto-detects AzureOpenAI)
Anthropic	Supported	vetch.instrument() or vetch.wrap()
Vertex AI (Gemini)	Supported	vetch.instrument() or vetch.wrap()
OpenRouter	Compatible	Uses OpenAI instrumentation (OpenAI-compatible API)
Together.ai	Compatible	Uses OpenAI instrumentation (OpenAI-compatible API)
Anyscale	Compatible	Uses OpenAI instrumentation (OpenAI-compatible API)
Ollama	Compatible	Uses OpenAI instrumentation (OpenAI-compatible API)
vLLM / TGI	Compatible	Uses OpenAI instrumentation (OpenAI-compatible API)

OpenAI-compatible endpoints (OpenRouter, Together.ai, Ollama, vLLM, TGI) work automatically with vetch.instrument() since they use the openai Python SDK under the hood.

For local models (Ollama, vLLM, llama.cpp): See QUICKSTART-LOCAL.md for setup, GPU calibration, and TCO analysis.

Installation

pip install vetch

Quick Start

Vetch offers two instrumentation modes — choose the one that fits your use case:

instrument() — Global, Zero-Touch

One line at startup. Every LLM call across all providers is tracked automatically. Best for services, APIs, and production deployments where you want blanket coverage:

import vetch
import openai

vetch.instrument(region="us-east-1", tags={"service": "chat-api"})

# All LLM calls are now automatically tracked — nothing else to change
client = openai.OpenAI()
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="gpt-4o",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello world"}]
)
# Energy, cost, and carbon events emitted automatically

wrap() — Per-Call, Explicit

Context manager around individual calls. Best when you need per-call metrics, different tags per call, or want to avoid global patching:

from vetch import wrap

with wrap(region="us-east-1", tags={"team": "ml", "env": "prod"}) as ctx:
    response = client.chat.completions.create(
        model="gpt-4o",
        messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello world"}]
    )

# Access inference metadata directly
print(f"Cost:   ${ctx.event['estimated_cost_usd']}")
print(f"Energy: {ctx.event['estimated_energy_wh']} Wh")
print(f"Carbon: {ctx.event['estimated_carbon_g']} gCO2e")

When to use which:

	instrument()	wrap()
Setup	One line at startup	Context manager per call
Scope	All calls, all providers	Individual calls
Tags	Same tags for everything	Different tags per call
Metrics access	Via event callbacks	Via ctx.event dict
Best for	Production services	Notebooks, experiments, per-feature attribution

Both are fail-open (never break your LLM calls) and add <5ms overhead.

See QUICKSTART.md for a complete 60-second guide.

Async Support

from openai import AsyncOpenAI
from vetch import awrap

client = AsyncOpenAI()

async with awrap(region="us-east-1") as ctx:
    response = await client.chat.completions.create(
        model="gpt-4o",
        messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]
    )
    print(f"Cost: ${ctx.event['estimated_cost_usd']}")

await client.close()

Understanding Region Configuration

The region parameter determines which electricity grid is used for carbon intensity calculations. It should match the Electricity Maps zone identifier (which typically aligns with cloud provider region names: us-east-1, eu-west-1, eastus, etc.).

Region availability varies by provider:

Providers with Regional Control

For these providers, you control where inference happens and can specify the exact region:

Provider	How to Control Region	Example Region Format
Azure OpenAI	Region embedded in endpoint URL	eastus, westeurope (no hyphens)
Vertex AI (Google)	Set via vertexai.init()	us-central1, europe-west4 (hyphenated)
AWS Bedrock	Standard AWS region parameter	us-east-1, eu-west-1 (hyphenated)

For these providers: Specify the region you're actually using for accurate carbon calculations:

# Azure OpenAI - use the region from your endpoint
# Vetch attempts auto-detection from endpoint URL, but explicit config is more reliable
vetch.instrument(region="eastus")  # Matches eastus.openai.azure.com

# Vertex AI - match your vertexai.init() location
vetch.instrument(region="us-central1")

# AWS Bedrock - match your boto3 region
vetch.instrument(region="us-east-1")

Providers without Regional Control

For these providers, inference location is not exposed — requests are routed across global infrastructure (Azure, AWS, GCP) and the physical location of a specific inference call is not available to the client:

• OpenAI (standard API): Global routing across cloud providers
• Anthropic: Global routing across cloud providers

For these providers: Use your best estimate based on your location or expected data center:

# OpenAI/Anthropic - specify your expected or preferred region
vetch.instrument(region="us-east-1")  # Reasonable default for US users
vetch.instrument(region="eu-west-1")  # Reasonable default for EU users

Region Fallback Behavior

If you don't specify region, Vetch uses this fallback hierarchy:

1. VETCH_REGION environment variable (highest priority)
2. Cloud provider env vars (AWS_REGION, GOOGLE_CLOUD_REGION, AZURE_REGION)
3. Timezone-based heuristic (coarse approximation, often results in significant carbon calculation errors)

Best practice: Always set region explicitly or via VETCH_REGION environment variable for accurate carbon calculations.

# Set globally via environment
export VETCH_REGION=us-east-1

Session Aggregation (Agentic AI)

Group multiple LLM calls into sessions for agentic frameworks like CrewAI, AutoGPT, or LangGraph:

import vetch

with vetch.Session(tags={"agent": "researcher", "task": "summarize"}) as session:
    with vetch.wrap() as ctx1:
        response1 = client.chat.completions.create(...)

    # Nested sessions for sub-agents
    with vetch.Session(tags={"agent": "summarizer"}) as sub_session:
        with vetch.wrap() as ctx2:
            response2 = client.chat.completions.create(...)

# Aggregate metrics across all calls
print(f"Total energy: {session.total_energy_wh} Wh")
print(f"Total cost: ${session.total_cost_usd}")
print(f"Call count: {session.call_count}")

Sessions support distributed propagation across microservices:

# In FastAPI service:
headers = session.inject_headers({})
celery_task.delay(task_id, headers=headers)

# In Celery worker:
with vetch.Session.from_headers(task_headers) as worker_session:
    with vetch.wrap() as ctx:
        response = client.chat.completions.create(...)

Budget Alerts

Set spending thresholds with automatic alerting:

import vetch

vetch.set_budget("hourly", cost_usd=10.0, energy_wh=50.0)

@vetch.on_budget_alert
def handle_alert(alert):
    print(f"Budget alert: {alert}")

# Check budget status
status = vetch.get_budget_status()

OTLP Export (Grafana, Datadog)

Export metrics to any OpenTelemetry-compatible backend:

import vetch

vetch.configure_otlp_export(
    endpoint="http://localhost:4317",
    service_name="my-llm-service"
)

# Export a pre-built Grafana dashboard
# vetch dashboard --export grafana --output grafana_vetch.json

MCP Server (AI Agent Integration)

Vetch ships an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that gives AI agents real-time access to energy, cost, and carbon data. Agents can check budgets, compare models, and make sustainability-aware decisions mid-conversation.

Setup

pip install vetch[mcp]

Add to your MCP client configuration (e.g., Claude Desktop claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vetch": {
      "command": "vetch-mcp",
      "env": {
        "VETCH_REGION": "us-east-1"
      }
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

Tool	Description
vetch_estimate	Estimate energy, carbon, water, and cost for a model + token count
vetch_compare	Compare multiple models side-by-side (flags cheapest/greenest)
vetch_session_stats	Aggregated session metrics + waste advisories
vetch_status	Health check, version, and budget status
vetch_check_budget	Remaining budget (threshold, accumulated, percentage used)
vetch_grid_intensity	Live carbon intensity for a grid region
vetch_cleanest_region	Find the lowest-carbon region from a list
vetch_registry_lookup	Raw energy/pricing data for a model

Available Resources

URI	Description
vetch://registry/models	All model names in the registry
vetch://config	Current Vetch configuration
vetch://version	Vetch version string

The MCP server uses stdio transport and dispatches synchronous Vetch calls via asyncio.to_thread to avoid blocking the event loop.

CLI Usage

# Check Vetch status and configuration
vetch status

# Estimate energy/carbon for a model without running code
vetch estimate --model gpt-4o --input-tokens 1000 --output-tokens 500

# Compare multiple models
vetch compare --models gpt-4o,claude-3-opus,gemini-1.5-pro --tokens 1000

# Analyze token usage patterns
vetch audit

# Export Grafana dashboard
vetch dashboard --export grafana --output dashboard.json

# Freeze registry for CI/CD (eliminates cold-start latency)
vetch registry freeze --output vetch_registry.json

# Generate usage reports
vetch report --days 7 --tags team=ml

Token Waste Audit

Vetch tracks token usage patterns across your session and provides actionable recommendations:

from vetch import wrap, get_session_stats, generate_advisories

# Make multiple LLM calls
for _ in range(10):
    with wrap() as ctx:
        response = client.chat.completions.create(...)

# Analyze patterns
stats = get_session_stats()
advisories = generate_advisories(stats)

for a in advisories:
    print(f"[{a.level.value}] {a.title}")
    print(f"  {a.description}")

What it detects:

• Static system prompts: Repeated input token counts suggest cacheable prompts
• High input:output ratios: Large inputs producing small outputs
• Expensive model usage: Opportunities to use smaller, cheaper models

GPU Calibration (Local Inference)

For local inference (Ollama, vLLM, llama.cpp), calibrate energy measurements using actual GPU power draw:

from vetch.calibrate import calibrate_model, format_calibration_result

def my_inference():
    response = ollama.generate(model="llama3.1:8b", prompt="Hello world")
    return 100, 50  # (input_tokens, output_tokens)

result = calibrate_model("ollama", "llama3.1:8b", workload=my_inference)
print(format_calibration_result(result))

Requirements: NVIDIA GPU with pynvml (pip install nvidia-ml-py3)

Clean Test Isolation

Remove instrumentation for clean test environments:

import vetch

vetch.instrument()
# ... run your code ...
vetch.uninstrument()  # Restore original SDK methods

Energy Tiers

Vetch uses a tiered system for energy estimate confidence:

Tier	Name	Uncertainty	Source
0	Measured	+-10-20%	Direct GPU measurement (pynvml)
1	Vendor-Published	+-20-50%	Official provider data
2	Validated	+-50-100%	Crowdsourced aggregates
3	Estimated	order of magnitude	Parameter-based calculation

Run vetch methodology to see full methodology documentation.

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
VETCH_DISABLED	Set to true to completely disable Vetch (emergency kill switch)
VETCH_REGION	Default grid region (e.g., us-east-1, eu-west-1)
VETCH_OUTPUT	Output target: none (default), stderr, or file path
VETCH_HOME	Vetch home directory (default: ~/.vetch/)
VETCH_REGISTRY_REMOTE	Set to false to disable remote registry updates
VETCH_REGISTRY_PATH	Path to offline registry directory (air-gapped environments)
VETCH_REGISTRY_URL	Custom remote registry URL
ELECTRICITY_MAPS_API_KEY	API key for live grid carbon intensity data
VETCH_CACHE_MODE	Set to memory-only for serverless/Lambda environments

Alpha Limitations

This is an alpha release. Please be aware of:

1. Energy estimates are uncertain: Most models use Tier 3 estimates (order of magnitude uncertainty). See vetch methodology for details.

2. Region inference is a coarse heuristic: Without explicit VETCH_REGION, timezone-based fallback often results in significant carbon calculation errors. Always set region parameter or VETCH_REGION environment variable for accurate carbon calculations. See Understanding Region Configuration for details.

3. Experimental modules: vetch.calibrate, vetch.storage, and vetch.ci emit FutureWarning and may change in future versions.

Troubleshooting

Vetch is blocking my LLM calls:

export VETCH_DISABLED=true  # Emergency kill switch

Too much output:

export VETCH_OUTPUT=none  # Silence all output

Need to debug:

import logging
logging.getLogger("vetch").setLevel(logging.DEBUG)

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, testing guidelines, and how to contribute energy data.

License

Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE and NOTICE for details.