Logging Best Practices

Implement secure, structured logging with proper levels and context.

Log Levels

Level	Use For	Production
DEBUG	Detailed debugging	Off
INFO	Normal operations	On
WARN	Potential issues	On
ERROR	Errors with recovery	On
FATAL	Critical failures	On

Structured Logging (Winston)

const winston = require('winston');

const logger = winston.createLogger({
  level: process.env.LOG_LEVEL || 'info',
  format: winston.format.combine(
    winston.format.timestamp(),
    winston.format.json()
  ),
  defaultMeta: { service: 'api-service' },
  transports: [
    new winston.transports.Console(),
    new winston.transports.File({ filename: 'error.log', level: 'error' })
  ]
});

// Usage
logger.info('User logged in', { userId: '123', ip: '192.168.1.1' });
logger.error('Payment failed', { error: err.message, orderId: '456' });

Request Context

const { AsyncLocalStorage } = require('async_hooks');
const storage = new AsyncLocalStorage();

app.use((req, res, next) => {
  const context = {
    requestId: req.headers['x-request-id'] || uuid(),
    userId: req.user?.id
  };
  storage.run(context, next);
});

function log(level, message, meta = {}) {
  const context = storage.getStore() || {};
  logger.log(level, message, { ...context, ...meta });
}

PII Sanitization

const sensitiveFields = ['password', 'ssn', 'creditCard', 'token'];

function sanitize(obj) {
  const sanitized = { ...obj };
  for (const field of sensitiveFields) {
    if (sanitized[field]) sanitized[field] = '[REDACTED]';
  }
  if (sanitized.email) {
    sanitized.email = sanitized.email.replace(/(.{2}).*@/, '$1***@');
  }
  return sanitized;
}