Quickstart - Manifest

Installation

Pick your runtime. Each tab installs Manifest, starts it before your first API request, and gives it your project key.

Python
Node
PHP
n8n
Hermes

Install the SDK:

pip install mnfst

Add these lines at the top of the file that starts your app:

from mnfst import manifest

manifest()

Set your key in the environment of your app:

export MNFST_KEY=your-project-key

A .env file works only if you call load_dotenv() before manifest().

Install the SDK:

npm install manifest

Add these lines as the first import of the file that starts your server:

import { manifest } from 'manifest';

manifest();

Set your key in the environment of your app:

export MNFST_KEY=your-project-key

A .env file works only if you start your app with node --env-file=.env.

Install the opentelemetry extension and the SDK. Without the extension, the SDK sees none of your API requests.

pecl install opentelemetry
composer require mnfst/manifest-php

Add this line to php.ini or to your php-fpm pool configuration, then restart php-fpm:

auto_prepend_file = vendor/mnfst/manifest-php/prepend.php

Set MNFST_KEY in the environment of your server. auto_prepend_file runs before Laravel or Symfony load .env, so a .env file does not work here. The Laravel setup reads the key from .env instead.

Manifest runs only in a self-hosted n8n with Docker Compose. Run the steps in this order:

Install the SDK from the folder of your docker-compose.yml:

docker compose exec n8n npm install --prefix /home/node/.n8n/manifest manifest

Add these two lines to the environment of your n8n service, and of every worker service in queue mode:

MNFST_KEY: your-project-key
NODE_OPTIONS: --require /home/node/.n8n/manifest/node_modules/manifest/dist/register.cjs

Restart n8n:
docker compose up -d

Update Hermes, install and enable the Manifest plugin, and store your project key:

hermes update
hermes plugins install mnfst/manifest-hermes
hermes plugins enable manifest
hermes config set MNFST_KEY your-project-key

Then start a new Hermes session. If you run the Hermes gateway, restart it with hermes gateway restart.

Install covers the other ways to start Manifest: before any of your code, in Next.js and in Laravel.