logging-sucks

This skill is adapted from "Logging sucks. And here's how to make it better." by Boris Tane.

When helping with logging, observability, or debugging strategies, first identify the current logger, transport, schema, and deployment/runtime constraints. Then follow these principles:

Core Philosophy

• Logs are optimized for querying, not writing — always design with debugging in mind
• Context is everything — a log without correlation IDs is useless in distributed systems
• Logs are for humans during incidents, not just for compliance or "just in case"
• If you can't filter and search your logs effectively, they provide zero value
• Mental model shift: Log what happened to this request, not what your code is doing

Wide Events / Canonical Log Lines

Instead of scattering 10-20 log lines throughout a request, emit one comprehensive event per request per service. This is the most important concept for effective logging.