diff --git a/guardrails_api/__init__.py b/guardrails_api/__init__.py
index f102a9c..3b93d0b 100644
--- a/guardrails_api/__init__.py
+++ b/guardrails_api/__init__.py
@@ -1 +1 @@
-__version__ = "0.0.1"
+__version__ = "0.0.2"
diff --git a/guardrails_api/app.py b/guardrails_api/app.py
index 92e72d8..a33fbbc 100644
--- a/guardrails_api/app.py
+++ b/guardrails_api/app.py
@@ -9,10 +9,12 @@
 from opentelemetry.instrumentation.flask import FlaskInstrumentor
 from guardrails_api.clients.postgres_client import postgres_is_enabled
 from guardrails_api.otel import otel_is_disabled, initialize
+from guardrails_api.utils.trace_server_start_if_enabled import trace_server_start_if_enabled
 from guardrails_api.clients.cache_client import CacheClient
 from rich.console import Console
 from rich.rule import Rule
 
+
 # TODO: Move this to a separate file
 class OverrideJsonProvider(DefaultJSONProvider):
     def default(self, o):
@@ -50,6 +52,7 @@ def register_config(config: Optional[str] = None):
 def create_app(
     env: Optional[str] = None, config: Optional[str] = None, port: Optional[int] = None
 ):
+    trace_server_start_if_enabled()
     # used to print user-facing messages during server startup
     console = Console()
 
diff --git a/guardrails_api/utils/has_internet_connection.py b/guardrails_api/utils/has_internet_connection.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8a7099c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/guardrails_api/utils/has_internet_connection.py
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+import requests
+
+
+def has_internet_connection() -> bool:
+    try:
+        res = requests.get("https://www.guardrailsai.com/")
+        res.raise_for_status()
+        return True
+    except requests.ConnectionError:
+        return False
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/guardrails_api/utils/trace_server_start_if_enabled.py b/guardrails_api/utils/trace_server_start_if_enabled.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..467abd6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/guardrails_api/utils/trace_server_start_if_enabled.py
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+import platform
+from guardrails.classes.credentials import Credentials
+from guardrails.version import GUARDRAILS_VERSION
+from guardrails_api.utils.has_internet_connection import has_internet_connection
+
+
+def trace_server_start_if_enabled():
+    config = Credentials.from_rc_file()
+    if config.enable_metrics is True and has_internet_connection():
+        from guardrails.utils.hub_telemetry_utils import HubTelemetry
+        HubTelemetry().create_new_span(
+            "guardrails-api/start",
+            [
+                ("guardrails-version", GUARDRAILS_VERSION),
+                ("python-version", platform.python_version()),
+                ("system", platform.system()),
+                ("platform", platform.platform()),
+                ("arch", platform.architecture()[0]),
+                ("machine", platform.machine()),
+                ("processor", platform.processor()),
+            ],
+            True,
+            False,
+        )
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index b8078d2..8c5ae0c 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ readme = "README.md"
 keywords = ["Guardrails", "Guardrails AI", "Guardrails API", "Guardrails API"]
 requires-python = ">= 3.8.1"
 dependencies = [
-    "guardrails-ai>=0.5.0a11",
+    "guardrails-ai>=0.5.6",
     "flask>=3.0.3,<4",
     "Flask-SQLAlchemy>=3.1.1,<4",
     "Flask-Caching>=2.3.0,<3",
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ dependencies = [
     "opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-grpc>=1.0.0,<2",
     "opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-http>=1.0.0,<2",
     "opentelemetry-instrumentation-flask>=0.12b0,<1",
+    "requests>=2.32.3"
 ]
 
 [tool.setuptools.dynamic]