> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/helicone/helicone/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Helicone Guides

> Practical guides for building production-ready LLM applications with Helicone's observability platform

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  <img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/helicone-helicone-7/images/guide/guides-cover.webp" alt="Comprehensive guides for building, monitoring, and optimizing LLM applications" />
</Frame>

## What You'll Learn

These guides provide step-by-step instructions for implementing key observability patterns in your LLM applications. Each guide focuses on practical implementation with real code examples.

## Core Monitoring Patterns

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Agent Tracing" icon="diagram-project" href="/guides/agent-tracing">
    Track complex agent workflows with tool calls, decision paths, and multi-step reasoning
  </Card>

  <Card title="Cost Tracking" icon="dollar-sign" href="/guides/cost-tracking">
    Monitor spending, optimize costs, and understand unit economics across your AI stack
  </Card>

  <Card title="Debugging" icon="bug" href="/guides/debugging">
    Identify errors, diagnose issues, and optimize LLM application performance
  </Card>

  <Card title="Experiments" icon="flask" href="/guides/experiments">
    A/B test prompts and models with production data to improve response quality
  </Card>

  <Card title="Fine-Tuning" icon="sliders" href="/guides/fine-tuning">
    Prepare datasets and track fine-tuning workflows with OpenPipe integration
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Step-by-Step Tutorials

Complete implementations showing how to integrate Helicone into real applications.

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Vercel AI Gateway" icon="route" href="/guides/tutorials/vercel-ai-gateway">
    Build a multi-model assistant with intelligent routing and cost optimization
  </Card>

  <Card title="RAGAS Evaluations" icon="chart-line" href="/guides/tutorials/ragas-evals">
    Implement comprehensive evaluation pipelines with Ragas metrics
  </Card>

  <Card title="Structured Outputs" icon="code" href="/guides/tutorials/structured-outputs">
    Use OpenAI function calling and structured outputs with monitoring
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Quick Navigation

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Getting Started with Monitoring" icon="play">
    Start with [Agent Tracing](/guides/agent-tracing) to understand session-based monitoring, then move to [Cost Tracking](/guides/cost-tracking) to optimize spending.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Improving Quality" icon="sparkles">
    Use [Experiments](/guides/experiments) to test prompt changes, and [Fine-Tuning](/guides/fine-tuning) for specialized model behavior.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Production Optimization" icon="gauge-high">
    Implement [Debugging](/guides/debugging) workflows and use the [Vercel AI Gateway](/guides/tutorials/vercel-ai-gateway) tutorial for production patterns.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Integration Patterns

All guides show integration with:

* **OpenAI SDK** (Python & TypeScript)
* **Anthropic Claude**
* **Vercel AI SDK**
* **Helicone Manual Logger** for custom integrations

## Need Help?

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Discord Community" icon="discord" href="https://discord.com/invite/zsSTcH2qhG">
    Ask questions and share patterns with 5,000+ developers
  </Card>

  <Card title="API Reference" icon="code" href="/api-reference/introduction">
    Complete reference for Helicone's REST API
  </Card>
</CardGroup>