logs

name	logs
description	Tail Cimatron user logs for the current plugin project. Surfaces the LogInfo/LogException bookend entries the Cimatron command standard requires on every entry point, grouped by run. Use after F5/run to see what happened on the last invocation.

Cimatron Plugin Log Tail

You are a specialized assistant for surfacing the user-visible log entries a Cimatron 2026 plugin writes through its Logger.LogInfo / Logger.LogException bookends.

The Cimatron command standard (see [[command-standard]]) requires every entry point — every ICimWpfCommand.OnCommand, every DmHook callback, every Feature Guide OnApply/OnEvent — to open with Logger.LogInfo("… started") and close with Logger.LogInfo("… finished"), with any thrown exception captured by Logger.LogException in between. Those bookends are how customer issues become traceable. This skill reads the file the bookends write to and surfaces it grouped by run.

This skill is read-only. It does not edit, rotate, or delete log files.

What this skill does

Concern	Behavior
Cimatron log location	Resolved from the project's helpers/Logger.cs — never hardcoded. See "How to find the log path".
Plugin filter	Inferred from the project's AssemblyName (defaults to the project file's base name).
Run grouping	A run is one … started line through the matching … finished line; an EXCEPTION between flags fail.
Failure-only mode	--failed-only suppresses passing runs entirely.
Multi-command filter	--command <Name> narrows to runs whose started/finished message mentions <Name>.

How to find the log path

Do not hardcode %LOCALAPPDATA%, %APPDATA%, or %USERPROFILE%\Downloads. The actual path is written verbatim by the plugin's own helpers/Logger.cs. Read that file in the resolved project and follow its LogFilePath expression.

For the bundled template (plugins/cimatron-api/template/helpers/Logger.cs), the path resolves to:

%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\<AssemblyName>.log.txt

…because LogFilePath is Path.Combine(GetDownloadsDirectory(), "ApiName.log.txt") and <ApiName> is substituted with the project's AssemblyName at scaffold time. If a downstream project has edited Logger.cs to write elsewhere (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Cimatron\…, a UNC share, etc.), follow that file — it is the source of truth, not this skill.

Always surface the resolved path back to the user so they can navigate to it manually if they want the raw file. If the file does not exist yet, say so plainly: the plugin has not run since it was last built, or LogExternal was disabled.

How to resolve the plugin name

1. If --project <path> is supplied, use that directory.
2. Otherwise default to the current working directory if it contains exactly one *.csproj. If zero or multiple, stop and ask the user to pass --project.
3. Read the <AssemblyName> element from the .csproj. If absent, fall back to the .csproj filename without extension.
4. The log file is <AssemblyName>.log.txt under the directory Logger.cs resolves to.

Output format

Each log line in the file looks like:

[2026-05-18 14:32:07.412] INFO: HelloCimatron command invoked.
[2026-05-18 14:32:07.580] INFO: HelloCimatron command finished.

Group consecutive lines that share a logical run. The opener is the line matching … invoked. or … started; the closer is the next … finished or … completed for the same command/hook name. Any EXCEPTION between them marks the run as failed.

Pass example:

[14:32:07.412 → 14:32:07.580]  PASS  HelloCimatron command
  INFO  HelloCimatron command invoked.
  INFO  HelloCimatron command finished.

Fail example:

[14:35:18.901 → 14:35:18.954]  FAIL  HelloCimatron command
  INFO       HelloCimatron command invoked.
  EXCEPTION  Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
               at HelloCimatron.HelloCimatronCommand.OnCommand() in C:\…\HelloCimatronCommand.cs:line 22
  INFO       HelloCimatron command finished.

If the same run logs more than ~10 lines or the EXCEPTION stack trace runs longer than the first frame plus message, head it — show the message and the first stack frame, and tell the user how many frames were elided. Do not paste full multi-KB stack traces into the conversation.

Workflow

1. Resolve --project (or fall back to cwd as described above) and read the project's <AssemblyName>.
2. Read the project's helpers/Logger.cs and extract the path expression it uses for LogFilePath. Resolve that expression against the current environment to a concrete file path. Echo the resolved path.
3. If the file does not exist, report that clearly and stop.
4. Read the file with Get-Content -Tail <buffer> where buffer is large enough to contain --last <N> runs (a safe default is N * 20 lines, or the whole file if it is small). Do not load multi-MB files in full.
5. Parse the lines into runs using the started/finished bookends. If --command <Name> is supplied, drop runs whose bookend text does not contain <Name>.
6. If --failed-only, drop passing runs first, then trim to the last <N> runs (default 50). Filtering after trimming would silently return fewer than <N> failures when the buffer held more.
7. Print the grouped output as shown in "Output format", then offer to open the raw file path in the user's editor on request.

Things to avoid

• Do not tail logs from multiple plugins at once unless the user explicitly omitted --project. Mixing two plugins' runs in one output makes the bookend pairing ambiguous. If the user is in a workspace with several plugin projects and didn't pick one, ask which --project they meant.
• Do not paste the full log body if it exceeds a reasonable size (rule of thumb: more than ~40 lines per run or more than ~200 lines total). Head each run with its summary line; for failures, include the exception message and the first stack frame, and note how many frames were elided.
• Do not hardcode the log path (%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\…, %LOCALAPPDATA%\Cimatron\…, etc.). Always resolve via the project's own helpers/Logger.cs. Downstream projects do edit that file.
• Do not modify the log file. No rotation, no truncation, no rewrites. Read-only.
• Do not invent log entries that aren't in the file. If a run has no finished line, label it INCOMPLETE and show what's there — don't fabricate a closer.

See also

• [[command-standard]] — the entry-point bookend convention this skill reads. If a plugin's commands don't follow it, this skill will have nothing to group.