> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.021labs.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# shutdown()

> Gracefully shutdown the RDK client

## Signature

```python theme={null}
def shutdown() -> None
```

## Parameters

None.

## Example

```python theme={null}
from rdk import init, shutdown

init()

# Your application code...

# Clean shutdown
shutdown()
```

## Behavior

When called, `shutdown()`:

1. Stops the background flush timer
2. Flushes all pending traces
3. Cleans up the RDK client instance
4. Removes SDK instrumentation

## Use Cases

**FastAPI lifespan**:

```python theme={null}
from contextlib import asynccontextmanager
from fastapi import FastAPI
from rdk import init, shutdown

@asynccontextmanager
async def lifespan(app: FastAPI):
    init()
    yield
    shutdown()

app = FastAPI(lifespan=lifespan)
```

**Script completion**:

```python theme={null}
from rdk import init, observe, shutdown

init()

@observe(name="main")
def main():
    # Your code
    ...

if __name__ == "__main__":
    try:
        main()
    finally:
        shutdown()
```

**Signal handling**:

```python theme={null}
import signal
from rdk import init, shutdown

init()

def signal_handler(signum, frame):
    shutdown()
    exit(0)

signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, signal_handler)
signal.signal(signal.SIGTERM, signal_handler)
```

## Importance

<Warning>
  Always call `shutdown()` before your application exits. Otherwise, pending traces may be lost.
</Warning>

Traces are batched in memory. Without `shutdown()`:

* Traces below the batch size won't be sent
* Traces waiting for the flush interval won't be sent

## Thread Safety

`shutdown()` is thread-safe but should only be called once.

## See Also

* [init()](/api-reference/init) - Initialize the client
* [flush()](/api-reference/flush) - Manual flush without shutdown