nestjs-pino

What is nestjs-pino?

The `nestjs-pino` package is a logging module for NestJS applications that integrates the Pino logger. Pino is a fast, low-overhead logging library for Node.js. This package allows you to leverage Pino's performance and features within a NestJS application.

What are nestjs-pino's main functionalities?

Basic Logging

This feature allows you to set up basic logging in a NestJS application using Pino. The `LoggerModule.forRoot` method configures the logger with the specified options.

const { LoggerModule } = require('nestjs-pino');

@Module({
  imports: [
    LoggerModule.forRoot({
      pinoHttp: { level: 'info' }
    })
  ]
})
export class AppModule {}

Request Logging

This feature enables logging of HTTP requests. The `pinoHttp` option allows you to configure the logging level and other settings for HTTP request logging.

const { LoggerModule } = require('nestjs-pino');

@Module({
  imports: [
    LoggerModule.forRoot({
      pinoHttp: { level: 'info', prettyPrint: true }
    })
  ]
})
export class AppModule {}

Custom Logger Configuration

This feature allows you to provide a custom configuration for the logger using a factory function. This is useful for dynamic configuration based on environment variables or other runtime conditions.

const { LoggerModule } = require('nestjs-pino');

@Module({
  imports: [
    LoggerModule.forRootAsync({
      useFactory: () => ({
        pinoHttp: { level: 'debug', prettyPrint: true }
      })
    })
  ]
})
export class AppModule {}

Other packages similar to nestjs-pino

winston

Winston is another popular logging library for Node.js. It is highly configurable and supports multiple transports (e.g., console, file, HTTP). Compared to Pino, Winston is more feature-rich but generally slower in performance.

bunyan

Bunyan is a simple and fast JSON logging library for Node.js. Like Pino, it focuses on performance and structured logging. However, Pino is generally considered faster and more modern.

log4js

Log4js is a logging library inspired by the Java library log4j. It supports various appenders (e.g., console, file, SMTP) and is highly configurable. While it offers more features, it is not as performant as Pino.

README

NestJS-Pino

✨✨✨ Platform agnostic logger for NestJS based on Pino with REQUEST CONTEXT IN EVERY LOG ✨✨✨

Example

Import module:

import { LoggerModule } from 'nestjs-pino';

@Module({
  imports: [LoggerModule.forRoot()],
  controllers: [AppController],
  providers: [MyService]
})
class MyModule {}

In controller:

import { Logger } from 'nestjs-pino';

@Controller()
export class AppController {
  constructor(
    private readonly myService: MyService,
    private readonly logger: Logger
  ) {}

  @Get()
  getHello(): string {
    this.logger.log("getHello()", AppController.name);
    return `Hello ${this.myService.getWorld()}`;
  }
}

In service:

import { Logger } from 'nestjs-pino';

@Injectable()
export class MyService {
  constructor(private readonly logger: Logger) {}

  getWorld(...params: any[]) {
    this.logger.log("getWorld(%o)", MyService.name, params);
    return "World!";
  }
}

Output:

// Logs by Nest itself, when set `app.useLogger(app.get(Logger))`
{"level":30,"time":1570470154387,"pid":17383,"hostname":"my-host","context":"RoutesResolver","msg":"AppController {/}: true","v":1}
{"level":30,"time":1570470154391,"pid":17383,"hostname":"my-host","context":"RouterExplorer","msg":"Mapped {/, GET} route true","v":1}
{"level":30,"time":1570470154405,"pid":17383,"hostname":"my-host","context":"NestApplication","msg":"Nest application successfully started true","v":1}

// Logs by injected Logger methods in Services/Controllers
// Every log has it's request data
{"level":30,"time":1570470161805,"pid":17383,"hostname":"my-host","req":{"id":1,"method":"GET","url":"/","headers":{...},"remoteAddress":"::1","remotePort":53957},"context":"AppController","msg":"getHello()","v":1}
{"level":30,"time":1570470161805,"pid":17383,"hostname":"my-host","req":{"id":1,"method":"GET","url":"/","headers":{...},"remoteAddress":"::1","remotePort":53957},"context":"MyService","msg":"getWorld([])","v":1}

// Automatic logs of every request/response
{"level":30,"time":1570470161819,"pid":17383,"hostname":"my-host","req":{"id":1,"method":"GET","url":"/","headers":{...},"remoteAddress":"::1","remotePort":53957},"res":{"statusCode":304,"headers":{...}},"responseTime":15,"msg":"request completed","v":1}

Comparison with others

There are other Nestjs loggers. The key purposes of this one are:

• to be compatible with built in LoggerService
• to log with JSON (thanks to pino - super fast logger) (why JSON?)
• to log every request/response automatically (thanks to pino-http)
• to bind request data to the logs automatically from any service on any application layer without passing request context

Logger	Nest App logger	Logger service	Autobind request data to logs
nest-morgan	-	-	-
nest-winston	+	+	-
nestjs-pino-logger	+	+	-
nestjs-pino	+	+	+

Install

npm i nestjs-pino

Register module

Default params

Just import LoggerModule to your module:

import { LoggerModule } from 'nestjs-pino';

@Module({
  imports: [LoggerModule.forRoot()],
  ...
})
class MyModule {}

Synchronous configuration

LoggerModule.forRoot has the same API as pino-http:

import { LoggerModule } from 'nestjs-pino';

@Module({
  imports: [
    LoggerModule.forRoot(
      {
        name: 'add some name to every JSON line',
        level: process.env.NODE_ENV !== 'production' ? 'debug' : 'info',
        prettyPrint: process.env.NODE_ENV !== 'production',
        useLevelLabels: true,
        // and all the others...
      },
      someWritableStream
    )
  ],
  ...
})
class MyModule {}

Asynchronous configuration

With LoggerModule.forRootAsync you can for example import your ConfigModule and inject ConfigService to use it in useFactory method.

useFactory should return result typeof arguments of pino-http or null or Promise of it, example:

import { LoggerModule } from 'nestjs-pino';

@Injectable()
class ConfigService {
  public readonly level = "debug";
}

@Module({
  providers: [ConfigService],
  exports: [ConfigService]
})
class ConfigModule {}

@Module({
  imports: [
    LoggerModule.forRootAsync({
      imports: [ConfigModule],
      inject: [ConfigService],
      useFactory: async (config: ConfigService) => {
        await somePromise();
        return { level: config.level };
      }
    })
  ],
  ...
})
class TestModule {}

Or without ConfigModule you can just pass ConfigService to providers:

import { LoggerModule } from 'nestjs-pino';

@Injectable()
class ConfigService {
  public readonly level = "debug";
  public readonly stream = stream;
}

@Module({
  imports: [
    LoggerModule.forRootAsync({
      providers: [ConfigService],
      inject: [ConfigService],
      useFactory: (config: ConfigService) => {
        return [{ level: config.level }, config.stream];
      }
    })
  ],
  controllers: [TestController]
})
class TestModule {}

Extreme mode

If you want to enable extreme mode you should read pino extreme mode docs first.

If you are ok with that, so you can configure module like this:

import * as pino from 'pino';
import { LoggerModule } from 'nestjs-pino';

const dest = pino.extreme();
const logger = pino(dest);

@Module({
  imports: [LoggerModule.forRoot({ logger })],
  ...
})
class MyModule {}

Also you can read more about Log loss prevention.

Usage as Logger service

Logger implements standard NestJS LoggerService interface. So if you are familiar with built in NestJS logger you are good to go.

// my.service.ts
import { Logger } from 'nestjs-pino';

@Injectable()
export class MyService {
  constructor(private readonly logger: Logger) {}

  getWorld(...params: any[]) {
    this.logger.log("getWorld(%o)", MyService.name, params);
    return "World!";
  }
}

Usage as NestJS app logger

According to official docs, loggers with Dependency injection should be set via following construction:

import { Logger } from 'nestjs-pino';

const app = await NestFactory.create(MyModule, { logger: false });
app.useLogger(app.get(Logger));

FAQ

Q: How does it work?

A: It use pino-http under hood, so every request has it's own child-logger, and with help of async_hooks Logger can get it while calling own methods. So your logs can be groupped by req.id.

Q: Why use async_hooks instead of REQUEST scope?

A: REQUEST scope can have perfomance issues depending on your app. TL;DR: using it will cause to instantiating every class, that injects Logger, as a result it will slow down your app.

Q: I'm using old nodejs version, will it work for me?

A: Please read this.

Q: What about pino built in methods/levels?

A: Pino built in methods are not compatible to NestJS built in LoggerService methods, so decision is to map pino methods to LoggerService methods to save Logger API:

pino	LoggerService
trace	verbose
debug	debug
info	log
warn	warn
error	error