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Observability logging critical

Structured Logging Best Practices

Structured logging best practices with JSON format, OpenTelemetry integration, context propagation, and consistent schemas across services.

Difficulty
intermediate
Read time
1 min read
Version
v1.0.0
Confidence
established
Last updated

Quick Reference

Structured Logging: Use JSON format with consistent schema. Include traceId/spanId for correlation. Add service name, environment, version. Use log levels correctly (error for failures, warn for degraded, info for events). Never log secrets. Shallow nesting (2-3 levels max).

Use When

  • Setting up application logging
  • Implementing observability
  • Building microservices
  • Integrating with log aggregation systems

Skip When

  • Simple CLI scripts
  • Development-only debugging

Structured Logging Best Practices

Structured logging best practices with JSON format, OpenTelemetry integration, context propagation, and consistent schemas across services.

Tags

logging observability opentelemetry json tracing

Discussion