# Choose A Capture Path

Provon can capture agent evidence through the AI Gateway, OpenTelemetry, or persisted agent
transcripts. Choose one primary path, then combine paths only when a diagnosis needs more context.

## Decision Guide

| Requirement                                                    | Start with                                               |
| -------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- |
| Route model calls and enforce policy through Provon            | [AI Gateway](../ai-gateway/quickstart.md)                |
| Keep the existing model-provider path                          | [OpenTelemetry](../tracing/opentelemetry.md)             |
| Analyze existing Claude Code, Codex, or Pi sessions            | [Agent transcript sync](../tracing/agent-transcripts.md) |
| Capture model calls plus application, tool, and workflow spans | Gateway and application OpenTelemetry                    |

All three paths produce project-scoped trace evidence. They differ in where instrumentation happens
and how much of the complete agent execution they can observe.

## AI Gateway

Use the Gateway when Provon should own the model-call boundary. It provides:

- an OpenAI-compatible request surface;
- cloud, custom, and self-hosted model targets;
- routing, retries, fallback, limits, and guardrails;
- model attempt, token, cost, latency, and error evidence.

Gateway capture cannot infer application work that never crosses the model boundary. Add
application spans when tool execution, retrieval, queues, or agent handoffs matter.

## OpenTelemetry

Use OTLP when the application must call model providers directly or already has OpenTelemetry
instrumentation. Provon accepts OTLP/HTTP traces, logs, and metrics and normalizes common GenAI
semantics.

Instrument the complete user goal rather than only individual model requests. Preserve
conversation identity and causal parent-child relationships so Provon can reconstruct the
trajectory.

## Agent Transcripts

Use transcript sync for persisted Claude Code, Codex, and Pi sessions. The CLI detects supported
formats, sanitizes content, projects sessions into canonical spans, and uploads them through the
OTLP path.

Run a dry-run preview before uploading private transcripts.

## Avoid Duplicate Evidence

When Gateway and application instrumentation observe the same model call, connect the spans through
trace context or disable duplicate model-span export in one path. Duplicate independent spans can
inflate token, cost, and failure counts.

## Verify The Choice

Whichever path you choose, confirm that one representative run contains:

- a stable trace and conversation identifier;
- ordered model and tool activity;
- the user goal and terminal answer;
- provider, model, latency, usage, and error fields when available.

Continue with the [Tracing quickstart](../tracing/quickstart.md) or
[Gateway quickstart](../ai-gateway/quickstart.md).