Java SDK · Sankofa Docs

dev.sankofa:sankofa-catch is the official JVM SDK. Like the other server SDKs, it focuses on Catch — error capture, transactions, vitals — with a drop-in Servlet filter for HTTP context capture.

For installation and project setup, see Install on Java.

Requirements

JDK 11+
Gradle 8+ or Maven 3.9+

Build artifact identifiers

Field	Value
Group ID	`dev.sankofa`
Artifact ID	`sankofa-catch`
Version	`0.1.0`
Repository	Maven Central

Initialize

JavaApp.java

import dev.sankofa.sankofacatch.SankofaCatch;
import dev.sankofa.sankofacatch.Options;

public class App {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
      SankofaCatch.init(Options.builder()
          .apiKey(System.getenv("SANKOFA_KEY"))
          .endpoint("https://api.sankofa.dev")
          .environment(System.getenv().getOrDefault("ENV", "production"))
          .release(System.getenv("RELEASE_SHA"))
          .build());

      Runtime.getRuntime().addShutdownHook(new Thread(() ->
          SankofaCatch.flush(2000)
      ));

      // ... start the server
  }
}

`Options` builder

.apiKey(String)required

Server-side API key.

.endpoint(String)required

Server base URL.

.release(String)optional

Commit SHA / version tag for source-map matching.

.environment(String)default "production"

Free-form label tagged onto every event.

.appVersion(String)optional

Your app's user-facing version string.

.serverName(String)optional

Hostname / pod identifier — auto-detected if omitted.

.tracesSampleRate(double)default 0.1

Distributed-tracing sample rate (0.0–1.0).

.disableDiskQueue(boolean)default false

Set true for short-lived processes.

.readFlagSnapshot(Supplier<Map<String,Object>>)optional

Callback for flag context on error events.

.readConfigSnapshot(Supplier<Map<String,Object>>)optional

Callback for config context on error events.

Capture errors

Java

import dev.sankofa.sankofacatch.SankofaCatch;

try {
  chargeCard(amount);
} catch (Exception e) {
  String eventId = SankofaCatch.captureException(e);
  log.error("Captured exception {}", eventId);
}

// Non-error event
SankofaCatch.captureMessage("Payment retry attempted");

// With options
SankofaCatch.captureException(e, CaptureOptions.builder()
  .tags(Map.of("feature", "billing"))
  .extras(Map.of("amount", amount))
  .build());

For Kotlin callers in mixed projects, the same APIs work with named arguments.

Servlet filter

For any Servlet container (Tomcat, Jetty, Undertow, etc.):

JavaWebInit.java

import dev.sankofa.sankofacatch.servlet.SankofaCatchFilter;
import jakarta.servlet.ServletContextEvent;
import jakarta.servlet.ServletContextListener;

public class WebInit implements ServletContextListener {
  @Override
  public void contextInitialized(ServletContextEvent sce) {
      SankofaCatch.init(/* ... */);
      sce.getServletContext()
          .addFilter("sankofa", SankofaCatchFilter.class)
          .addMappingForUrlPatterns(null, true, "/*");
  }
}

The filter:

Generates a unique request ID;
Stamps $request_method, $request_path, $user_agent on every event;
Catches ServletException chains and forwards them to captureException.

User context, tags, breadcrumbs

Java

SankofaCatch.setUser(new Wire.UserContext("user_123", "ada@example.com"));

SankofaCatch.setTag("feature", "billing");
SankofaCatch.setExtra("amount", 49.99);

SankofaCatch.addBreadcrumb(
  "user-action",      // type
  "ui.click",         // category
  "Clicked checkout", // message
  "info",             // level
  Map.of("form_id", "checkout")  // data
);

Transactions and spans

Java

Transaction tx = SankofaCatch.getDefault().startTransaction(
  "checkout_handler", "http.server"
);

try {
  Span dbSpan = tx.startChild("db.query.orders", "db");
  List<Order> orders = jdbcTemplate.query(SQL, mapper);
  dbSpan.finish();

  tx.setStatus("ok");
} catch (Exception e) {
  tx.setStatus("internal_error");
  throw e;
} finally {
  tx.finish();
}

Web vitals

Java

String eventId = SankofaCatch.getDefault().captureVital(
  "lcp",                  // metric name
  2400.0,                 // value
  "needs-improvement",    // rating
  request.getRequestURI() // url
);

Graceful shutdown

Java

Runtime.getRuntime().addShutdownHook(new Thread(() -> {
  SankofaCatch.flush(2000);          // 2-second timeout
  SankofaCatch.shutdownDefault(2000); // dispose
}));

API summary

Method	Description
`SankofaCatch.init(options)`	Initialize the SDK.
`SankofaCatch.getDefault()`	Get the global SDK instance for advanced usage.
`SankofaCatch.captureException(throwable)` / `captureException(throwable, opts)`	Record an error, returns event ID.
`SankofaCatch.captureMessage(message)` / `captureMessage(message, opts)`	Record a non-error event.
`SankofaCatch.addBreadcrumb(type, category, message, level, data)`	Add a breadcrumb.
`SankofaCatch.setUser(user)`	Set the current user.
`SankofaCatch.setTag(key, value)`	Set a tag.
`SankofaCatch.setExtra(key, value)`	Set un-indexed extras.
`SankofaCatch.flush(timeoutMs)`	Drain the queue.
`SankofaCatch.shutdownDefault(timeoutMs)`	Flush + dispose.
`SankofaCatch.getDefault().startTransaction(name, op)`	Begin a transaction.
`SankofaCatch.getDefault().captureVital(name, value, rating, url)`	Record a Web-Vitals-style metric.
`SankofaCatchFilter` (servlet pkg)	Drop-in Servlet filter for HTTP context.

What's next

SDKs

Node SDK

The Node counterpart with Express + Fastify integrations.

SDKs

Python SDK

Python equivalent with WSGI + ASGI middleware.

Product

Catch product

Server-side error tracking, breadcrumbs, source-map upload.