Manifest

Open-source observability for AI agents.
Track costs, tokens, messages, and performance — entirely on your machine.

     

Install  ·  What you get  ·  Tech stack  ·  Telemetry  ·  Configuration  ·  Contributing

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Want a hosted version instead? app.manifest.build is a free cloud instance — install the plugin, paste your API key, and you're done in 30 seconds. No server to run.

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Install

Manifest runs as an embedded server inside the OpenClaw plugin. Two commands, no Docker, no Postgres, no env files.

openclaw plugins install manifest
openclaw config set plugins.entries.manifest.config.mode "local"

Restart the gateway and you're up:

openclaw gateway restart

The dashboard opens at http://127.0.0.1:2099. Telemetry from your agent flows in automatically.

What happens under the hood

1. The plugin generates a local API key and stores it in ~/.openclaw/manifest/config.json
2. An embedded NestJS server starts with a SQLite database at ~/.openclaw/manifest/manifest.db
3. OpenTelemetry traces and metrics are piped to the local OTLP endpoint
4. Model pricing is seeded on first boot and refreshed from OpenRouter on each startup

No account, no signup, no external network calls for telemetry. Everything stays on your machine.

What you get

• Real-time dashboard — tokens, costs, messages, and model usage with interactive charts
• Per-agent breakdown — track multiple agents independently with sparkline overviews
• Cost tracking — automatic cost calculation using up-to-date model pricing (28+ models)
• Message log — paginated history of every agent message with token counts
• Security events — monitor for prompt injection attempts and anomalous patterns
• Notification rules — set threshold alerts on token or cost usage per period
• OTLP-native — standard OpenTelemetry ingestion (traces, metrics, logs) via HTTP

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	SolidJS, uPlot, custom CSS theme
Backend	NestJS 11, TypeORM, SQLite (local mode)
Auth	Better Auth (auto-login on localhost)
Telemetry	OTLP HTTP (JSON + Protobuf)
Build	Turborepo + npm workspaces

The full NestJS + SolidJS stack runs locally backed by SQLite. The same codebase also powers the cloud version with PostgreSQL — the only differences are the database driver and auth guard.

Connecting Telemetry

Automatic (OpenClaw plugin)

If you installed Manifest via the OpenClaw plugin, telemetry is wired up automatically. Every agent conversation generates traces and metrics without any extra configuration.

Manual (any OpenTelemetry SDK)

Manifest accepts standard OTLP HTTP signals. Point any exporter at your local instance:

Signal	Endpoint	Auth
Traces	POST http://127.0.0.1:2099/otlp/v1/traces	Authorization: Bearer <your-api-key>
Metrics	POST http://127.0.0.1:2099/otlp/v1/metrics	Authorization: Bearer <your-api-key>
Logs	POST http://127.0.0.1:2099/otlp/v1/logs	Authorization: Bearer <your-api-key>

Your API key is in ~/.openclaw/manifest/config.json. Both application/json and application/x-protobuf are supported.

Node.js / TypeScript

import { NodeSDK } from '@opentelemetry/sdk-node'
import { OTLPTraceExporter } from '@opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-http'

const sdk = new NodeSDK({
  traceExporter: new OTLPTraceExporter({
    url: 'http://127.0.0.1:2099/otlp/v1/traces',
    headers: { Authorization: 'Bearer mnfst_your-api-key' },
  }),
  serviceName: 'my-agent',
})

sdk.start()

Python

from opentelemetry.sdk.trace import TracerProvider
from opentelemetry.sdk.trace.export import BatchSpanProcessor
from opentelemetry.exporter.otlp.proto.http.trace_exporter import OTLPSpanExporter

provider = TracerProvider()
provider.add_span_processor(BatchSpanProcessor(OTLPSpanExporter(
    endpoint="http://127.0.0.1:2099/otlp/v1/traces",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer mnfst_your-api-key"},
)))

Semantic Conventions

Manifest classifies spans using these OpenTelemetry attributes:

Attribute	Purpose
agent.name	Groups data per agent
gen_ai.system	Identifies LLM API calls
gen_ai.request.model	Tracks which model was used
gen_ai.usage.input_tokens	Token usage tracking
gen_ai.usage.output_tokens	Token usage tracking
tool.name	Identifies tool call spans
session.key	Groups messages by session

Configuration

The plugin config lives in your OpenClaw settings. All fields are optional in local mode.

Setting	Default	Description
mode	"cloud"	Set to "local" for the self-hosted server
port	2099	Dashboard and OTLP port
host	"127.0.0.1"	Bind address

# Change the port
openclaw config set plugins.entries.manifest.config.port 8080

# Bind to all interfaces (access from other machines)
openclaw config set plugins.entries.manifest.config.host "0.0.0.0"

Data location

Path	Contents
~/.openclaw/manifest/manifest.db	SQLite database (all telemetry data)
~/.openclaw/manifest/config.json	Auto-generated API key

To reset everything, delete ~/.openclaw/manifest/ and restart the gateway.

Contributing

Manifest is open source under the MIT license. Contributions are welcome.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 22.x
• npm 10.x

Setup

git clone https://github.com/mnfst/manifest && cd manifest
npm install

Development

Run the backend and frontend separately in dev mode:

# Backend (needs a .env — see packages/backend/.env.example)
cd packages/backend && NODE_OPTIONS='-r dotenv/config' npx nest start --watch

# Frontend (proxies API to backend on :3001)
cd packages/frontend && npx vite

For local mode development without PostgreSQL:

MANIFEST_MODE=local MANIFEST_DB_PATH=./dev.db BETTER_AUTH_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32) \
  node packages/backend/dist/main.js

Testing

npm test --workspace=packages/backend          # 378 unit tests
npm run test:e2e --workspace=packages/backend  # 45 e2e tests
npm test --workspace=packages/frontend         # 82 frontend tests
npm test --workspace=packages/openclaw-plugin  # 116 plugin tests

Project structure

packages/
  backend/           NestJS API + OTLP ingestion + analytics
  frontend/          SolidJS dashboard
  openclaw-plugin/   OpenClaw plugin (cloud + local mode)
  manifest-server/   Embedded server wrapper for local mode

License

MIT