posthog-core-workflow-a

PostHog Core Workflow A — Product Analytics

Overview

Primary PostHog workflow covering event capture, user identification, group analytics, and person properties. This is the foundation for all PostHog analytics: capturing what users do, linking events to identified users, and grouping users by company/team for B2B analytics.

Prerequisites

• Completed posthog-install-auth setup
• posthog-js (browser) and/or posthog-node (server) installed
• Project API key (phc_...) configured

Instructions

Step 1: Define Event Taxonomy

// src/analytics/events.ts
// Define all events as typed constants for consistency
export const EVENTS = {
  // User lifecycle
  USER_SIGNED_UP: 'user_signed_up',
  USER_LOGGED_IN: 'user_logged_in',
  USER_ONBOARDING_COMPLETED: 'user_onboarding_completed',

  // Core product actions
  FEATURE_USED: 'feature_used',
  ITEM_CREATED: 'item_created',
  ITEM_UPDATED: 'item_updated',
  ITEM_DELETED: 'item_deleted',
  SEARCH_PERFORMED: 'search_performed',
  EXPORT_COMPLETED: 'export_completed',

  // Revenue events
  SUBSCRIPTION_STARTED: 'subscription_started',
  SUBSCRIPTION_UPGRADED: 'subscription_upgraded',
  SUBSCRIPTION_CANCELED: 'subscription_canceled',
  PAYMENT_COMPLETED: 'payment_completed',
} as const;

// Standard property schema for consistency across events
interface BaseProperties {
  source?: 'web' | 'mobile' | 'api' | 'webhook';
  plan_tier?: 'free' | 'pro' | 'enterprise';
  duration_ms?: number;
}

Step 2: Capture Events (Browser)

import posthog from 'posthog-js';
import { EVENTS } from './events';

// Custom event with properties
posthog.capture(EVENTS.ITEM_CREATED, {
  item_type: 'document',
  source: 'web',
  plan_tier: 'pro',
});

// Timed event (measure duration)
const start = performance.now();
await doExpensiveOperation();
posthog.capture(EVENTS.EXPORT_COMPLETED, {
  format: 'csv',
  row_count: 1500,
  duration_ms: Math.round(performance.now() - start),
});

// Pageview with custom properties (if capture_pageview: false)
posthog.capture('$pageview', {
  page_title: document.title,
  referrer: document.referrer,
});

Step 3: Identify Users and Set Properties

// After user logs in — links anonymous events to this user
posthog.identify('user-456', {
  // $set properties (persist, overwrite on change)
  email: 'jane@acme.com',
  name: 'Jane Smith',
  plan: 'enterprise',
  signup_date: '2025-06-15',
});

// Update properties later without re-identifying
posthog.people.set({
  last_active: new Date().toISOString(),
  total_items: 42,
});

// Set properties only if not already set ($set_once)
posthog.people.set_once({
  first_seen: new Date().toISOString(),
  original_referrer: document.referrer,
});

// Unset properties
posthog.people.unset(['deprecated_field']);

// Reset on logout (clears distinct_id, starts new anonymous session)
posthog.reset();

Step 4: Group Analytics (B2B Company Tracking)

// Associate user with a company group
posthog.group('company', 'company-789', {
  name: 'Acme Corp',
  industry: 'SaaS',
  plan: 'enterprise',
  employee_count: 150,
  arr: 250000,
});

// Events now automatically include company context
posthog.capture(EVENTS.FEATURE_USED, {
  feature_name: 'bulk-export',
});
// This event is attributed to both user-456 AND company-789

// Multiple group types
posthog.group('team', 'team-alpha', { name: 'Alpha Team' });

Step 5: Server-Side Event Capture (posthog-node)

import { PostHog } from 'posthog-node';

const posthog = new PostHog(process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_KEY!, {
  host: 'https://us.i.posthog.com',
});

// Server-side capture (e.g., in API route or webhook handler)
function trackServerEvent(userId: string, event: string, properties?: Record<string, any>) {
  posthog.capture({
    distinctId: userId,
    event,
    properties: {
      ...properties,
      source: 'api',
    },
  });
}

// Identify with server-side properties
posthog.identify({
  distinctId: 'user-456',
  properties: {
    subscription_status: 'active',
    mrr: 99,
  },
});

// Group identify from server
posthog.groupIdentify({
  groupType: 'company',
  groupKey: 'company-789',
  properties: {
    plan: 'enterprise',
    total_seats: 50,
  },
});

// CRITICAL: Flush in serverless/edge functions
await posthog.flush();

Step 6: Create Annotations for Context

set -euo pipefail
# Mark a deployment or product change in PostHog
curl -X POST "https://app.posthog.com/api/projects/$POSTHOG_PROJECT_ID/annotations/" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $POSTHOG_PERSONAL_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "content": "v2.5.0 deployed — new checkout flow",
    "date_marker": "'$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)'",
    "scope": "project"
  }'

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Solution
Events not appearing	posthog.init not called	Ensure init runs before any capture
Anonymous/identified split	Different distinct_id across platforms	Use consistent user ID from your auth system
Group data missing	posthog.group() not called	Call group() before capture for group attribution
Server events lost	No flush() in serverless	Always call await posthog.flush() before response
Properties not updating	Using $set_once for mutable data	Use posthog.people.set() for values that change

Output

• Typed event taxonomy for consistent tracking
• Browser event capture with user identification
• B2B group analytics linking users to companies
• Server-side event capture with proper flushing
• Annotations marking deployments and product changes

Resources

• Capture Events
• Identifying Users
• Group Analytics
• Annotations API

Next Steps

For feature flags and experiments, see posthog-core-workflow-b.