Setting up PostHog Error Tracking for Nitro

If you're like me and absolutely love PostHog, you've probably got it set up in you frontend for analytics, error tracking, etc... You don't really want a seperate tool just for error tracking you backend or API. So, I set up PostHog Error Tracking as a Nitro plugin.

Setup

1. Install posthog-node

npm install --save posthog-node

yarn add posthog-node

pnpm add posthog-node

bun add posthog-node

2. Create posthog.ts in ~/server/plugins/posthog.ts

server/plugins/posthog.ts

import { PostHog } from "posthog-node";

// HTTP methods that typically include request bodies
const METHODS_WITH_BODY = new Set(["POST", "PUT", "PATCH"]);

const hasRequestBody = (method: string) => METHODS_WITH_BODY.has(method);

export default defineNitroPlugin((nitro) => {
  // Skip PostHog initialization in development
  if (import.meta.dev) {
    console.log("PostHog disabled in development mode (server)");
    return;
  }

  // Capture server-side errors
  nitro.hooks.hook("error", async (error, { event }) => {
    if (!event) return;

    const config = useRuntimeConfig(event);
    const client = new PostHog(config.public.posthogPublicKey);

    client.captureException(error, undefined, {
      path: event.path,
      method: event.method,
      query: JSON.stringify(getQuery(event)),
      headers: JSON.stringify(getHeaders(event)),
      body: hasRequestBody(event.method) ? readRawBody(event) : undefined,
    });

    await client.shutdown();
  });
});

Conclusion

This setup will give you PostHog error tracking in your Nitro backend. Happy coding!

Setup

Conclusion

Hey! 👋