# Structured Logging

A structured logging system can be useful when your logs are destined for a
machine to parse and process. By maintaining its machine-readable characteristics,
it enables more efficient searching and aggregations when consumed by software
such as the [ELK stack](https://opensource.com/article/18/9/open-source-log-aggregation-tools).

Synapse's structured logging system is configured via the file that Synapse's
`log_config` config option points to. The file should include a formatter which
uses the `synapse.logging.TerseJsonFormatter` class included with Synapse and a
handler which uses the above formatter.

There is also a `synapse.logging.JsonFormatter` option which does not include
a timestamp in the resulting JSON. This is useful if the log ingester adds its
own timestamp.

A structured logging configuration looks similar to the following:

```yaml
version: 1

formatters:
    structured:
        class: synapse.logging.TerseJsonFormatter

handlers:
    file:
        class: logging.handlers.TimedRotatingFileHandler
        formatter: structured
        filename: /path/to/my/logs/homeserver.log
        when: midnight
        backupCount: 3  # Does not include the current log file.
        encoding: utf8

loggers:
    synapse:
        level: INFO
        handlers: [file]
    synapse.storage.SQL:
        level: WARNING
```

The above logging config will set Synapse as 'INFO' logging level by default,
with the SQL layer at 'WARNING', and will log to a file, stored as JSON.

It is also possible to configure Synapse to log to a remote endpoint by using the
`synapse.logging.RemoteHandler` class included with Synapse. It takes the
following arguments:

- `host`: Hostname or IP address of the log aggregator.
- `port`: Numerical port to contact on the host.
- `maximum_buffer`: (Optional, defaults to 1000) The maximum buffer size to allow.

A remote structured logging configuration looks similar to the following:

```yaml
version: 1

formatters:
    structured:
        class: synapse.logging.TerseJsonFormatter

handlers:
    remote:
        class: synapse.logging.RemoteHandler
        formatter: structured
        host: 10.1.2.3
        port: 9999

loggers:
    synapse:
        level: INFO
        handlers: [remote]
    synapse.storage.SQL:
        level: WARNING
```

The above logging config will set Synapse as 'INFO' logging level by default,
with the SQL layer at 'WARNING', and will log JSON formatted messages to a
remote endpoint at 10.1.2.3:9999.

## Google Cloud Logging (GKE)

When running Synapse on GKE, use `synapse.logging.GcpJsonFormatter`. It outputs
JSON to stdout with a `severity` field that Google Cloud Logging maps to the
correct per-entry severity. Without this, GKE assigns `ERROR` to everything
written to stderr regardless of the actual Python log level.

Example output:

```json
{"severity":"INFO","message":"Processed request: 3.481sec 200 GET /sync","logger":"synapse.access.http.8008","time":"2026-05-12T13:40:37.829Z"}
```

Configuration:

```yaml
version: 1
disable_existing_loggers: false

formatters:
    gcp_json:
        class: synapse.logging.GcpJsonFormatter

handlers:
    console:
        class: logging.StreamHandler
        formatter: gcp_json
        stream: ext://sys.stdout

loggers:
    synapse.storage.SQL:
        level: WARNING
    twisted:
        handlers: [console]
        propagate: false

root:
    level: INFO
    handlers: [console]
```