Logging Best Practices

Apply these logging principles to ensure effective debugging, monitoring, and audit capabilities across applications and services.

Structured Logging

• Use structured logging formats (JSON) for all log output
• Include consistent fields across all log entries
• Make logs machine-parseable while remaining human-readable
• Use a logging library that supports structured output natively
• Avoid string concatenation for log messages; use structured fields

Standard Log Fields

Include these fields in every log entry:

• timestamp: ISO 8601 format with timezone
• level: Log severity (DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR, FATAL)
• message: Human-readable description of the event