Pino Google Cloud Logging configuration for Node.JS
This library contains the code to generate a Pino configuration which outputs
JSON structured logs for Google Cloud Logging.
This can be used with any Google Cloud service that captures logs written to
stdout (such as Cloud Run, Cloud Run Functions and Google Kubernetes Engine
workloads), so that the logging is formatted correctly in Google Cloud
Logging. This then alllows filtering by
log level, the ability to include structured data in the logs, and reporting of
errors with stack traces to
Google Cloud Error Reporting
Features
- Converts Pino log levels to Google Cloud Logging log levels.
- Uses
message
instead of msg
for the message key.
- Adds a millisecond-granularity timestamp in a
format recognised by Google Cloud Logging,
eg:
"timestamp":{"seconds":1445470140,"nanos":123000000}
.
- Adds a sequential
insertId
to ensure log messages with identical timestamps are ordered correctly.
- Logs including an Error object have the
stack_trace property
set so that the error is forwarded to Google Cloud Error Reporting.
- Includes a
ServiceContext
object in the logs for Google Cloud Error Reporting.
- Maps the OpenTelemetry properties
span_id
, trace_id
, trace_flags
to
the equivalent
Google Cloud Logging fields.
Example usage
1: Install required dependencies
npm install --save pino @google-cloud/pino-logging-gcp-config
2: Import the modules
Using Typescript / ES Modules:
import as pino from 'pino';
import {createGcpLoggingPinoConfig} from '@google-cloud/pino-logging-gcp-config';
Using Javascript / CommonJS:
const pino = require('pino');
const {createGcpLoggingPinoConfig} = require('@google-cloud/pino-logging-gcp-config');
3: Initialise Pino Logger with the GCP logging configuration
The
ServiceContext
(used by
Cloud Error Reporting)
can either be specified manually, along with any Pino logging options such as
the default log level:
const logger = pino.pino(
createGcpLoggingPinoConfig(
{
serviceContext: {
service: 'my-service',
version: '1.2.3',
},
},
{
level: 'debug',
}
)
);
Or using the defaults, the service name is auto-detected from the GCP
environment:
const logger = pino.pino(createGcpLoggingPinoConfig());
4: Use Pino normally to log messages and stack traces
logger.info('hello world');
const err = new Error('some exception');
logger.error(err, 'Caught an exception: %s', err);
logger.debug(
{
someProperties: 'some value',
},
'logging with extra properties'
);
Example output
Each log message will be output as a single line of JSON text. The output below
has been reformatted to multiple lines for clarity.
{
"severity": "INFO",
"level": 30,
"timestamp": {
"seconds": 1730802506,
"nanos": 375000000
},
"pid": 601658,
"hostname": "myHostName",
"logging.googleapis.com/insertId": "..........40FL7.zwt0uNYGdcmFiUn_",
"serviceContext": {
"service": "my-service",
"version": "1.2.3"
},
"message": "hello world"
}
{
"severity": "ERROR",
"level": 50,
"timestamp": {
"seconds": 1730802506,
"nanos": 377000000
},
"pid": 601658,
"hostname": "myHostName",
"err": {
"type": "Error",
"message": "some exception",
"stack": "Error: some exception\n at Object.<anonymous> (/some/dir/pino-logging-gcp-config/build/src/example.js:14:13)\n at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1434:14)\n at Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1518:10)\n at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1249:32)\n at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1065:12)\n at Function.executeUserEntryPoint [as runMain] (node:internal/modules/run_main:158:12)\n at node:internal/main/run_main_module:30:49"
},
"logging.googleapis.com/insertId": "..........80FL7.zwt0uNYGdcmFiUn_",
"serviceContext": {
"service": "my-service",
"version": "1.2.3"
},
"stack_trace": "Error: some exception\n at Object.<anonymous> (/some/dir/pino-logging-gcp-config/build/src/example.js:14:13)\n at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1434:14)\n at Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1518:10)\n at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1249:32)\n at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1065:12)\n at Function.executeUserEntryPoint [as runMain] (node:internal/modules/run_main:158:12)\n at node:internal/main/run_main_module:30:49",
"message": "Caught an exception: Error: some exception"
}
{
"severity": "DEBUG",
"level": 20,
"timestamp": {
"seconds": 1730802506,
"nanos": 378000000
},
"pid": 601658,
"hostname": "myHostName",
"someProperties": "some value",
"logging.googleapis.com/insertId": "..........C0FL7.zwt0uNYGdcmFiUn_",
"serviceContext": {
"service": "my-service",
"version": "1.2.3"
},
"message": "logging with extra properties"
}
This output will show up in Cloud Logging as in this screenshot (the second and
third log messages have been expanded to show the stack trace and the additional
log properties)

The Error with the stack trace will also show up in Cloud Error Reporting,
with the Service name and version specified in the ServiceContext.
