quick-brown-foxxx/setting-up-logging

Setting Up Logging

Rotating file logging, colored stdout logging, and colored non-log output. Uses colorlog for prefix-only coloring (log prefix is colored, message text stays default).

Copy reusable code from coding_rules_python/reusable/logging/.

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Key Principle

File logging is always on — it's the durable record for post-mortem debugging. Stdout is lost on terminal close; file logs survive.

Stdout logging is for modes where no human reads stdout directly. When you launch a GUI app from terminal or run a server in a container, stdout logs are useful — they show real-time output during development and serve as container log transport (Docker/systemd capture stdout).

CLI tools must NOT use stdout logging — stdout is the user interface. Log lines mixed into stdout corrupt the output (imagine mytool | grep something with log lines). Use write_info/write_error for user-facing messages instead.

| Mode | File log | Stdout log | Non-log colored output | |------|----------|------------|------------------------| | CLI tool | Always | Never | write_info, write_error for user messages | | GUI app | Always | Yes (dev convenience from terminal) | No (no terminal) | | Server (FastAPI) | Always | Yes (container log transport) | No |

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When to Use

• Every app — setup_file_logging() in your entrypoint
• GUI apps / servers — also setup_stdout_logging() (stdout is not the user interface)
• CLI tools — write_info/write_error for user-facing messages (NOT stdout logging)
• Suppressing noisy loggers — configure_logger_level("httpx", logging.WARNING)

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Typical Patterns

CLI tool — file logging + colored user output

import logging
from pathlib import Path
from shared.logging import setup_file_logging, configure_logger_level, write_info, write_error

# File logs always on
setup_file_logging(
    log_dir=Path("~/.local/state/myapp/logs").expanduser(),
    app_name="myapp",
)
configure_logger_level("httpx", logging.WARNING)

# User-facing output via write_info/write_error (NOT stdout logging)
write_info("Processing 42 items...")
write_error("Connection failed")

GUI app / server — file logging + stdout logging

import logging
from pathlib import Path
from shared.logging import setup_file_logging, setup_stdout_logging, configure_logger_level

# File logs always on
setup_file_logging(
    log_dir=Path("~/.local/state/myapp/logs").expanduser(),
    app_name="myapp",
)
# Stdout logs for dev convenience (visible when launched from terminal / in containers)
setup_stdout_logging(level=logging.INFO)
configure_logger_level("httpx", logging.WARNING)

Stdout output format (colored):

<green>2025-12-19 00:01:35 [INFO] myapp.core:</green> Processing 42 items
<yellow>2025-12-19 00:01:36 [WARNING] myapp.core:</yellow> Slow response from API

File output format (plain):

2025-12-19 00:01:35 [INFO] myapp.core: Processing 42 items
2025-12-19 00:01:36 [WARNING] myapp.core: Slow response from API

Color scheme (stdout only):

| Level | Color | |-------|-------| | DEBUG | Cyan | | INFO | Green | | WARNING | Yellow | | ERROR | Red | | CRITICAL | Red on white |

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Non-Log Colored Output

For CLI tools — colored messages that are NOT log entries (status messages, results, prompts). This is how CLI tools communicate with the user instead of stdout logging:

from shared.logging import write_info, write_success, write_warning, write_error

write_info("Starting download...")      # Green → stdout
write_success("Download complete!")     # Green → stdout
write_warning("Large file detected")   # Yellow → stdout
write_error("Failed to connect")       # Red → stderr

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Dependencies

[project]
dependencies = [
    "colorlog>=6.10.1",
]

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Files to Copy

Copy the entire coding_rules_python/reusable/logging/ directory into your project's shared/logging/:

• __init__.py — public API re-exports
• logger_setup.py — setup_stdout_logging(), setup_file_logging(), configure_logger_level()
• non_log_stdout_output.py — write_info(), write_success(), write_warning(), write_error()
• README.md — references this skill

Update import paths after copying (e.g., from shared.logging import ...).

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QML Log Routing (PySide6)

QML console.info/warn/error can be routed through Python's logging module via a custom Qt message handler. This integrates QML output with your file and stdout logging setup. The handler logs under the qt.qml logger name, so you can filter it independently.

See the building-qt-apps skill for the full handler implementation and the console.log() gotcha (it's silently dropped by Qt).

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API Reference

setup_file_logging(log_dir, app_name="app", level=DEBUG, max_bytes=5MB, backup_count=3)

Add RotatingFileHandler to root logger. Creates <log_dir>/<app_name>.log. Always use this — every app needs durable file logs.

setup_stdout_logging(level=logging.INFO)

Add colored StreamHandler to root logger. For GUI apps and servers where stdout is not the user interface. Do NOT use for CLI tools.

configure_logger_level(logger_name, level, propagate=True)

Set a specific logger's level. Use to suppress verbose third-party loggers.

write_info(message) / write_success(message)

Green text to stdout.

write_warning(message)

Yellow text to stdout.

write_error(message)

Red text to stderr.