consola

What is consola?

The consola npm package is a console logger for Node.js and browsers. It provides an easy-to-use API for logging information, warnings, errors, and more, with a focus on developer experience and universal compatibility.

What are consola's main functionalities?

Basic Logging

Consola allows you to log messages at various levels, such as info, warn, and error, which are color-coded and formatted for better readability.

const consola = require('consola');
consola.info('Information message');
consola.warn('Warning message');
consola.error('Error message');

Reporters

You can add custom reporters to modify how logs are displayed or processed, giving you control over the logging output.

const consola = require('consola');
consola.addReporter({
  log(logObj) {
    console.log(logObj.message);
  }
});

Tagged Logging

Consola supports tagged logging, which allows you to prepend a tag to your log messages, making it easier to filter and identify logs related to specific parts of your application.

const consola = require('consola').withTag('my-tag');
consola.info('Tagged information message');

Log Level Control

You can control the log level threshold, which determines the minimum level of logs that will be displayed, allowing you to filter out less important logs in different environments.

const consola = require('consola');
consola.level = 3; // Only display logs with a level of 3 (errors) or higher

Other packages similar to consola

winston

Winston is a multi-transport async logging library for Node.js. It is similar to consola in that it provides logging capabilities, but it also allows for more complex transport configurations, such as logging to files, databases, or remote services.

pino

Pino is a very low overhead Node.js logger, which focuses on performance. It provides similar logging capabilities to consola but is designed to be as efficient as possible, making it suitable for high-performance applications.

debug

Debug is a tiny Node.js debugging utility that is similar to consola's tagged logging feature. It allows you to create debug instances with different namespaces, which you can enable or disable using environment variables.

log4js

Log4js is a logging framework for Node.js, which provides similar functionality to consola. It supports multiple appenders, log levels, and layouts, and it can be configured via JSON configuration files.

README

Consola

Elegant Console Logger

Why Consola?

• Easy to use
• Fancy output with Fallback for Continuous Integration (CI) environments
• Global mockable stdout/stderr wrapper
• Pluggable reporters
• Consistent Command Line Interface (CLI) experience
• Scoped Loggers

Installation

Using yarn:

yarn add consola

Using npm:

npm i consola

Getting started

const consola = require('consola')

// See types section for all available types
consola.start('Starting build')
consola.success('Built!')
consola.info('Reporter: Some info')
consola.error(new Error('Foo'))

Fancy Reporter

[2:17:17 PM] Starting build
[2:17:17 PM] [TEST] Log from test scope
[2:17:18 PM] Built!
[2:17:18 PM] Some info
[2:17:18 PM] Error: Foo

Minimal Reporter (CI)

Scoped Loggers

Group logs using a scope:

const logger = consola.withScope('test')

logger.info('Log from test scope') // [Test] Log from test scope

Reporters

Choose between one of the built-in reporters or bring own reporter.

By default FancyReporter is registered for modern terminals or BasicReporter will be used if running in limited environments such as CIs.

Available reporters:

• BasicReporter
• FancyReporter
• JSONReporter
• WinstonReporter

Please see Examples for usage info.

Creating your own reporter

A reporter (Class or Object) exposes log(logObj) method. To write a reporter, check implementations to get an idea.

Types

Types can be treated as extended logging levels in Consola's world.

A list of all available default types is here.

Creating a new instance

Consola has a global instance and is recommended to use everywhere. In case more control is needed, create a new instance.

const { Consola, BasicReporter } = require('consola')


const consola = new Consola({
    level: 30,
    reporters: [],
    types: []
})

consola.add(BasicReporter)

API

• consola.<type>([logObj|message|error])

Log to all reporters. If a plain string or error is given, then the message will be automatically translated to a logObject.

• add(reporter)

Register a custom reporter instance.

• remove(reporter)

Remove a registered reporter.

• clear()

Remove all current reporters (Useful for writing tests).

• withDefaults(defaults)

Create a wrapper interface with all types available and defaults applied to all logs.

• withScope(scope)

Shortcut to withDefaults({ scope }).

• level

The level to display logs. Any logs at or above this level will be displayed.
List of available levels here

logObject

logObject is a free-to-extend object which will be passed to reporters.

Here are standard possible fields:

Common fields:

• message
• date
• scope

Extended fields:

• clear
• badge
• additional
• additionalStyle (By default: grey)
• icon (Default depends on log type)

Integrations

With jest

consola.clear().add({
  log: jest.fn()
})

With jsdom

{
  virtualConsole: new jsdom.VirtualConsole().sendTo(consola)
}

License

MIT