| name | daily-program-logging |
| description | Use this skill when writing or modifying application code that needs normal operational logging, especially when the code lacks logs or a unified logging library. |
Daily Program Logging
When to Use
Use this skill when the task involves writing, modifying, or reviewing application code and the code should contain normal operational logs.
This skill applies to:
- New feature development
- Code refactoring
- Bug fixing
- Background task implementation
- API development
- CLI tool development
- Service startup and shutdown logic
- External dependency calls
- Important business process handling
Do not use this skill to add random debug prints everywhere.
Purpose
AI often writes code that only focuses on whether the function works, but ignores runtime logs.
This causes problems after the program is used in real environments:
- Humans cannot easily troubleshoot failures.
- Operators cannot understand what the program is doing.
- Important business behavior is not observable.
- External dependency failures are hard to locate.
- Production issues require temporary log patches to investigate.
This skill ensures that logs are treated as part of maintainable and operable software, not as an afterthought.
Core Rules
1. Prefer existing project logging
Before adding logs, check whether the project already has a logging library, logging utility, or logging convention.
If it exists, use the existing logging style.
Do not introduce a new logging framework when the project already has one.
2. Create a unified logging library when missing
If this is a new project, or the project does not have a unified logging library, implement one first.
After the logging library is created, all future code must use it.
Do not scatter print, console.log, or custom one-off wrappers across the codebase.
The logging library must support:
The logging library must support configurable options, including:
- Log storage path
- Maximum size of a single log file
- Maximum number of retained log files
- Log level
- Console output switch
- File output switch
- Log format
- Log rotation
3. Add logs at meaningful points
Add logs around important runtime behavior, not every line of code.
Good log points include:
- Service startup
- Service shutdown
- Important business operation started
- Important business operation completed
- Important business operation failed
- External API request started
- External API request failed
- Database operation failed
- Background task started
- Background task completed
- Configuration loaded
- Recoverable abnormal condition
- Permission or validation failure
- Retry, fallback, or degraded behavior
4. Use correct log levels
Use log levels consistently.
- DEBUG: detailed diagnostic information for development or troubleshooting.
- INFO: important normal events and business progress.
- WARN: abnormal but recoverable situations.
- ERROR: failed operations that require attention.
Do not use ERROR for normal business failures that are expected and handled.
Do not use INFO for noisy loop-level details.
5. Include useful context
Logs should help humans understand what happened.
When useful, include context such as:
- Request ID
- Trace ID
- User ID
- Resource ID
- Task ID
- Operation name
- Input summary
- Result status
- Error reason
- Duration
- Retry count
- External dependency name
6. Protect sensitive data
Never log:
- Passwords
- Tokens
- Secrets
- Private keys
- Full cookies
- Authorization headers
- Sensitive personal data
- Large raw request or response bodies
- Binary content
If context is needed, log masked, shortened, or summarized values.
7. Control log noise
Do not add logs that make normal operation hard to read.
Avoid:
- Logging every loop iteration
- Logging huge objects
- Duplicating the same log in multiple layers
- Logging both caller and callee without clear value
- Temporary debug logs left in production code
8. Keep logs stable and searchable
Log messages should be stable and easy to search.
Prefer clear event-style messages, for example:
user_login_started
user_login_failed
task_execution_completed
external_api_request_failed
config_loaded
