Agent Quick Install

Introduction

This is a concise list of steps to install the Paraxial.io agent. It is intended for users who have already read the agent guide.

1. Mix install

{:paraxial, "~> 2.7.7"}

2. Config

config :paraxial,
  paraxial_api_key: System.get_env("PARAXIAL_API_KEY"),  # Required
  fetch_cloud_ips: true,                                 # Optional, default is false
  bulk: %{email: %{trusted: 100, untrusted: 3}},         # Optional, see https://hexdocs.pm/paraxial/Paraxial.html#functions
  trusted_domains: MapSet.new(["paraxial.io", "blackcatprojects.xyz"]) # Optional, see https://hexdocs.pm/paraxial/Paraxial.html#functions
  exploit_guard: :monitor                                # Optional, set to :monitor or :block 

Set the PARAXIAL_API_KEY environment variable to keep this secret out of source code.

3. Edit endpoint.ex

  plug RemoteIp
  plug Paraxial.AllowedPlug
  plug Paraxial.RecordPlug
  plug HavanaWeb.Router
  plug Paraxial.RecordPlug

4. (Optional) To send current user, edit router.ex, add Paraxial.CurrentUserPlug

defmodule HavanaWeb.Router do
  ...
  pipeline :browser do
    ...
    plug Paraxial.CurrentUserPlug
  end

Note: Only works with assign(conn, :paraxial_current_user, conn.assigns.current_user.email)

5. (Optional) Send :paraxial_login_user_name via assigns

In your application code, determine how a user's login attempt flows through the code. You are looking for the line right before the user's provided email and password are checked against the database. Once you find that location, re-write the conn with:

conn = assign(conn, :paraxial_login_user_name, email)

Where email is the user provided string for a login attempt.

6. (Optional) Send login success true or false

conn = assign(conn, :paraxial_login_success, false)

7. (Optional) Use the Paraxial.bulk_allowed?/3 function

In your Paraxial.io config, you can define :bulk and :trusted_domains

  bulk: %{email: %{trusted: 100, untrusted: 3}},
  trusted_domains: MapSet.new(["paraxial.io", "blackcatprojects.xyz"])

In your application code,

Paraxial.bulk_allowed?(user.email, :email, length(list_of_emails))

will return true or false, depending on the value of the third argument (an integer), and if the email matching a trusted domain.

8. (Optional) Configure the agent to only send events for specific routes

To only collect data for specific routes, set your configuration at compile time to the code below, by editing your config/dev.exs, config/test.exs, and config/prod.exs files.

Do NOT set only: or except: at runtime, the agent uses metaprogramming to generate code at compile time. If you set only: or except: at runtime, the agent will ignore the config and send data for all routes. As of 2.0.0, you will get an error (see below).

To have the agent only send data to the backend for the following:

• GET /users/log_in
• POST /users/log_in
• GET /users/:id/settings

config :paraxial,
  paraxial_api_key: System.get_env("PARAXIAL_API_KEY"),  
  ... 
  only: [
    %{path: "/users/log_in", method: "GET"},
    %{path: "/users/log_in", method: "POST"},
    %{path: "/users/:id/settings", method: "POST"}
  ]

To send events for all routes, except the following:

• GET /health_check
• GET /users/:id/status

config :paraxial,
  paraxial_api_key: System.get_env("PARAXIAL_API_KEY"),  
  ... 
  except: [
    %{path: "/health_check", method: "GET"},
    %{path: "/users/:id/status", method: "GET"}
  ]

After changing only/except in your compile time configuration, you must run:

mix deps.compile paraxial --force

Or you will get an error:

@ air % mix phx.server
ERROR! the application :paraxial has a different value set for key :except during runtime compared to compile time. Since this application environment entry was marked as compile time, this difference can lead to different behaviour than expected:

  * Compile time value was not set
  * Runtime value was set to: [%{method: "GET", path: "/health_check"}, %{method: "GET", path: "/users/:id/status"}]

To fix this error, you might:

  * Make the runtime value match the compile time one

  * Recompile your project. If the misconfigured application is a dependency, you may need to run "mix deps.compile paraxial --force"

  * Alternatively, you can disable this check. If you are using releases, you can set :validate_compile_env to false in your release configuration. If you are using Mix to start your system, you can pass the --no-validate-compile-env flag

9. (Optional) Configure the agent to exclude events for specific routes

To have the agent send data to the backend for all routes, except certain ones:

• GET /health_check

Set your config to:

config :paraxial,
  paraxial_api_key: System.get_env("PARAXIAL_API_KEY"),  
  ... 
  except: [
    %{path: "/users/health_check", method: "GET"}
  ]