logging-patterns

name	logging-patterns
description	Logging conventions — level usage, formatting style, structured output.
when_to_use	Writing code that logs events, configuring log output, or choosing log levels.
user-invocable	false

Logging Conventions

Setup

One logger per module, at module level:

import logging

logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

Formatting

Use %s-style formatting arguments, not f-strings — the message template is preserved for structured aggregator queries:

logger.info("Cleaned up %d expired sessions", count)                # yes
logger.error("SMTP send failed for %s", email, exc_info=True)       # yes
logger.info(f"Cleaned up {count} expired sessions")                 # no

Level Conventions

Level	Use for
DEBUG	Cache hit/miss, slow-path internals (opt-in only)
INFO	Startup/shutdown, admin bootstrap, cleanup counts, rate limit hits
WARNING	Recoverable anomalies, swallowed exceptions, degraded operation
ERROR	Unexpected exceptions on operational paths — always with exc_info=True
CRITICAL	Reserved for unusable state

Output

One record per line on stdout. Let the container runtime (Docker, k8s) capture it — no file sinks or log rotation in-app.

Support two formats via config:

• plain — Readable for local dev
• json — Stable single-line object per record for log aggregators (Loki, Datadog, ELK, CloudWatch)

Timestamps in UTC in both formats.