Sentry - Complete Student Guide

Get free Sentry error tracking and performance monitoring through the GitHub Student Developer Pack to identify and fix issues in your applications.

What is Sentry?

Sentry is an application monitoring platform that helps developers identify, track, and fix software errors in real-time. It provides detailed error reports, performance monitoring, and release tracking to help you build more reliable applications.

Key Features

• Error Tracking: Automatically capture and track errors across your applications
• Performance Monitoring: Monitor application performance and identify bottlenecks
• Release Tracking: Track deployments and correlate errors with releases
• Issue Management: Organize, assign, and resolve issues with your team
• Alerting: Get notified when critical errors occur
• Breadcrumbs: Track user actions leading up to errors
• Integration Support: Works with popular frameworks and languages

What You Get with Student Pack

• 500,000 errors/month: Track up to 500,000 error events monthly
• Performance Monitoring: Monitor transaction performance and vitals
• Team Collaboration: Add team members to your Sentry organization
• Advanced Features: Access to all Sentry features for 2 years
• Release Tracking: Monitor deployments and track regressions

How to Redeem Sentry

Step 1: Verify Your GitHub Student Pack

1. Go to GitHub Education
2. Click “Get Student Benefits”
3. Verify your student status with a valid .edu email or student ID
4. Wait for approval (usually 1-7 business days)

Step 2: Access the Sentry Offer

1. Once approved, visit your GitHub Student Pack dashboard
2. Find “Sentry” in the partner offers list
3. Click “Get access” or “Redeem offer”
4. You’ll be redirected to Sentry’s student redemption page

Step 3: Set Up Your Sentry Account

1. Create a new Sentry account using your student email address
2. Or log in to your existing Sentry account
3. Apply the student discount during the signup process
4. Verify your email address when prompted
5. Complete the organization setup

Getting Started with Sentry

Setting Up Your First Project

1. Create a project: Choose your platform/framework from the list
2. Install Sentry SDK: Follow the installation instructions for your language
3. Configure SDK: Add your Data Source Name (DSN) to your application
4. Generate an error: Test the integration by triggering a sample error
5. View in dashboard: Check that errors appear in your Sentry dashboard

Supported Platforms

Web Frameworks

• JavaScript (React, Vue, Angular, Node.js)
• Python (Django, Flask, FastAPI)
• PHP (Laravel, Symfony)
• Ruby (Rails, Sinatra)
• Java (Spring Boot, JSP)

Mobile Platforms

• React Native
• Flutter
• iOS (Swift/Objective-C)
• Android (Java/Kotlin)
• Unity

Other Languages

• Go, Rust, C#, C++, Elixir, and more

Best Practices

• Initialize early: Set up Sentry SDK as early as possible in your application
• Use releases: Tag your deployments to track when issues were introduced
• Set up alerts: Configure notifications for critical errors
• Add context: Include user information and custom tags for better debugging
• Filter noise: Set up filters to ignore expected errors or spam
• Monitor performance: Use performance monitoring to identify slow transactions

Integration Examples

React Application

import * as Sentry from "@sentry/react";

Sentry.init({
  dsn: "YOUR_DSN_HERE",
  environment: "development",
  tracesSampleRate: 1.0,
});

Node.js Server

const Sentry = require("@sentry/node");

Sentry.init({
  dsn: "YOUR_DSN_HERE",
  tracesSampleRate: 1.0,
});

Python Flask

import sentry_sdk
from sentry_sdk.integrations.flask import FlaskIntegration

sentry_sdk.init(
    dsn="YOUR_DSN_HERE",
    integrations=[FlaskIntegration()],
    traces_sample_rate=1.0
)

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

SDK Not Capturing Errors

• Verify your DSN is correct and properly configured
• Check that the SDK is initialized before your application code runs
• Ensure you’re not catching and suppressing all exceptions
• Test with a deliberate error to confirm setup

Too Many Events

• Implement rate limiting to avoid hitting quotas
• Use beforeSend callback to filter unwanted events
• Set up proper release and environment filtering
• Consider sampling for high-traffic applications

Missing Context Information

• Add user context using Sentry.setUser()
• Include custom tags and extra data
• Use breadcrumbs to track user actions
• Set up proper error boundaries in React apps

Getting Help

• Visit Sentry Documentation
• Check the Sentry Community Forum
• Browse GitHub Issues for known problems
• Contact GitHub Education support for Student Pack issues

Advanced Features

Performance Monitoring

• Transaction Tracking: Monitor API calls, database queries, and user interactions
• Web Vitals: Track Core Web Vitals for frontend performance
• Custom Instrumentation: Add custom performance measurements
• Performance Alerts: Get notified when performance degrades

Release Management

• Deploy Tracking: Automatically track when new code is deployed
• Regression Detection: Identify when new releases introduce errors
• Commit Integration: Link errors to specific code changes
• Rollback Notifications: Get alerted to post-deployment issues

Team Collaboration

• Issue Assignment: Assign errors to specific team members
• Team Notifications: Set up team-specific alert rules
• Integration Setup: Connect with Slack, JIRA, GitHub, and more
• Custom Dashboards: Create project-specific monitoring views

Error Debugging Workflow

When an Error Occurs

1. Receive Alert: Get notified via email, Slack, or other integrations
2. Review Context: Check user information, tags, and breadcrumbs
3. Examine Stack Trace: Use source maps to see original code
4. Check Release: Identify if error is related to recent deployment
5. Assign and Track: Assign to team member and track resolution
6. Mark Resolved: Close issue when fix is deployed

Make the most of your free Sentry account by implementing comprehensive error tracking across all your student projects!