lognest

lognest

A friendly, zero-configuration Python logger.

One import. Beautiful colored output. Structured context. File rotation. Pretty tracebacks. Thread-safe. Plays nicely with the standard logging module. Pure Python, no dependencies.

from lognest import log

log.info("hello world")
log.warning("careful now", user_id=42)
log.success("all done!")

2026-05-21 12:34:56.789 | INFO     | __main__:<module>:3 | hello world
2026-05-21 12:34:56.790 | WARNING  | __main__:<module>:4 | careful now user_id=42
2026-05-21 12:34:56.790 | SUCCESS  | __main__:<module>:5 | all done!

Install

pip install lognest

Features at a glance

Feature	Example
Zero config	from lognest import log; log.info("hi")
Levels	trace · debug · info · success · warning · error · critical
Structured context	log.info("done", request_id="abc", ms=42)
Bound context	req_log = log.bind(request_id="abc")
Scoped context	with log.contextualize(user="alice"): ...
File output	log.add("app.log")
Size rotation	log.add("app.log", rotate="10 MB", keep=5)
Time rotation	log.add("app.log", rotate="daily", keep="7 days", compress=True)
JSON output	log.add("app.jsonl", serialize=True)
Custom format	log.add(sys.stderr, format="{time} {level} {message}")
Exception catching	@log.catch / with log.catch(): ...
Exception with TB	try: ... except: log.exception("oops")
stdlib interop	log.intercept_stdlib()
Custom sink	log.add(my_callable)
Per-sink filter	log.add(..., filter=lambda r: "secret" not in r["message"])
Per-sink level	log.add(..., level="WARNING")

Logging

from lognest import log

log.trace("very fine detail")
log.debug("debug detail")
log.info("informational")
log.success("operation succeeded")
log.warning("watch out")
log.error("something failed")
log.critical("crashing now")

Pass keyword arguments to attach structured context to a record:

log.info("payment processed", order_id=1234, amount=29.99, currency="USD")
# ... payment processed order_id=1234 amount=29.99 currency=USD

The message itself can also reference kwargs by name:

log.info("user {name} logged in from {ip}", name="alice", ip="10.0.0.1")

Bound and scoped context

req_log = log.bind(request_id="abc-123", user="alice")
req_log.info("started")
req_log.info("finished", ms=42)

with log.contextualize(job="cleanup"):
    log.info("removed temp files")     # job=cleanup appears in the record

Files and rotation

log.add(...) registers a new sink. The default stderr sink stays in place; you do not need to remove it.

# Plain file
log.add("app.log")

# Rotate every 10 megabytes, keep the 5 most recent
log.add("app.log", rotate="10 MB", keep=5)

# Rotate every day, keep a week, gzip the rotated files
log.add("app.log", rotate="daily", keep="7 days", compress=True)

# Errors only
log.add("errors.log", level="ERROR")

# JSON lines (great for log shippers and analytics)
log.add("events.jsonl", serialize=True)

# Custom format string
log.add("simple.log", format="{time} [{level}] {message}")

# Custom callable sink — receives the fully-rendered line
log.add(lambda line: my_queue.put(line))

log.add(...) returns an integer id. Use it to remove a single sink, or call log.remove() to remove all sinks.

sid = log.add("app.log")
log.remove(sid)
log.remove()           # remove everything (incl. the default stderr sink)

Rotation accepts:

• A size: "10 MB", "500 KB", "1 GB", or a raw byte count 10_000_000
• A schedule: "hourly", "daily", "weekly", "monthly"

Retention accepts:

• A count: keep=5 keeps the five most recent rotated files
• An age: keep="7 days" removes anything older

Catching exceptions

As a context manager:

with log.catch():
    risky_call()

As a decorator:

@log.catch
def task():
    1 / 0

@log.catch(reraise=True, message="task crashed")
def task():
    ...

Inside an except block:

try:
    risky_call()
except Exception:
    log.exception("call failed", endpoint="/api/x")

All three produce a clean, color-coded traceback.

Standard library interop

If a third-party library uses logging.getLogger(...), just reroute it:

from lognest import log
log.intercept_stdlib()         # everything now flows through lognest

import some_library
some_library.do_thing()

Custom format strings

The default format may be a str template or a callable.

Available placeholders for string templates:

{time} {level} {name} {function} {line} {file}
{message} {thread} {process}
{extra.key}            # any key attached via bind / contextualize / kwargs

For complete control, pass a callable that receives the record dict and returns a string:

def my_format(record):
    return f"[{record['level']}] {record['message']}"

log.add(sys.stderr, format=my_format)

Why lognest?

There are good loggers in the Python ecosystem already. lognest aims for the shortest path from "I want logs" to "I have nice logs":

• One import, one object, sensible defaults — no factories, no handlers to wire up.
• Structured context is just kwargs on every call.
• Configuration uses plain words: rotate="10 MB", keep="7 days".
• Catching exceptions and intercepting the stdlib is a one-liner.

License

MIT.