Apex Logs utilizes a purpose-built query language for searching and aggregating structured log events.
An Apex Log event requires the following properties:
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
id |
string | The unique identifier of the event. |
level |
string | The severity level. |
message |
string | The log message. |
fields |
object | User-defined context, may contain nested arrays and objects. |
timestamp |
timestamp | The log creation time. |
A log event has an associated severity level, indicating if the log is purely informational, or represents a problem with your application. The following severity levels are supported:
Severity levels are treated as numeric internally, thus the following expressions are considered valid.
level > info
When used alone, the severity level keywords behave as an >= expression. For example these three expressions are identical:
error
level >= error
level >= "error"
Log messages provide an indication of what happened in the application, such as a user
signing in, uploading a file, or experiencing a crash. It’s recommended to provide machine-friendly “structured” messages, a good example would be “user_login” or “User Login”, while adding dynamic information to the log fields. This allows you to quickly filter on a distinct message as shown here:
message = "user_login"
message in ("User Login", "User Logout")
error and message = "upload_failed" and user.name = "tobi"
Unstructured log messages are less ideal, as shown below, the dynamic information is embedded in the message string, however, this style is also supported by Apex Logs.
"alert 1SvStCtXlLQ8JcqvnHRkIYCiYIn: performed query duration=2s"
To query against unstructured messages you may use substring match operators, for example:
message like "*performed query*"
message contains "performed query"
message starts with "alert 1SvStCtXlLQ8JcqvnHRkIYCiYIn"
message ends with "duration=2s"
Note that the duration=2s substring has no structure, it is simply a string, thus it’s not possible to perform more complex queries. Sending the duration as a numeric field is preferred, allowing for queries like:
message = "performed query" and duration > 2s
message = "performed query" and duration between 1m and 5m
Fields are accessible via the . operator, here are a few examples:
user.is_admin
user.name = "tobi"
cart.items.total > 15.99
Array elements are accessible via the [] operator, supplying the index:
cart.items[0].name = "Ferret Food"
cart.items[1].price > 10
This section covers the literals available.
Booleans use the true and false keywords:
user.is_admin = true
user.is_admin = false
Integers use a sequence of digits.
cart.total > 15
You may use _ as a thousands separator, for example:
1_000_000
Floats use a sequence of digits followed by a ., another sequence of digits,
and optional exponent.
cart.total > 15.99
You may use _ as a thousands separator, for example:
1_000_000.99
The numeric duration units use a millisecond resolution, using the suffixes ms, s, m, h, and d.
message = "uploaded file" and duration > 1500
message = "uploaded file" and duration > 1500ms
message = "uploaded file" and duration > 1s
message = "uploaded file" and duration > 1.5s
message = "uploaded file" and duration > 5m
message = "uploaded file" and duration > 3h
message = "uploaded file" and duration > 1d
The numeric byte size units use the suffixes b, kb, mb, gb, and tb for querying multiples of 1024.
message = "uploaded file" and file.size > 1024
message = "uploaded file" and file.size > 1024b
message = "uploaded file" and file.size > 1kb
message = "uploaded file" and file.size > 2.5mb
message = "uploaded file" and file.size > 1gb
Logical operators evaluate to a boolean, allowing you to define more complex filter operations.
The and operator evalutes to true if both conditions are truthy:
error and message = "Upload Failed"
The or operator evalutes to true if either condition is truthy:
user.first_name = "Tobi" or user.first_name = "Loki"
The ! operator negates an expression:
user.is_admin and !(user.email in ("tj@apex.sh", "tobi@apex.sh"))
The exists operator evalutes to true if the field is defined.
user.cart exists
Equality operators perform comparisons between fields and values.
The = operator evalutes to true if both operands are the same.
region = "us-west2"
This operator is aliased as ==.
The != operator evalutes to true if both operands are not the same.
region != "us-west2"
The like operator evalutes to true if the left operand matches the right’s pattern,
where * denotes a wildcard.
region like "us-*"
region like "*-west2"
region not like "*-west2"
The contains operator evalutes to true if the left operand contains the string on the right.
cart.items[0].product.name contains "Logitec"
cart.items[0].product.name not contains "Logitec"
This operator is aliased as includes.
The starts with operator evalutes to true if the left operand starts with the string on the right.
region starts with "us-"
region not starts with "us-"
The ends with operator evalutes to true if the left operand ends with the string on the right.
region ends with "-west2"
region not ends with "-west2"
The between operator evalutes to true if the left operand is between the range (inclusive).
response.status between 200 and 299
response.status not between 200 and 299
The in operator evalutes to true if the left operand is within the tuple.
function.name in ("check_processor", "check_queuer", "check_reporter")
function.name not in ("check_processor", "check_queuer", "check_reporter")
The > operator evalutes to true if the left operand is greater than the right.
cart.total > 15
The >= operator evalutes to true if the left operand is greater than or equal to the right.
cart.total >= 15
The < operator evalutes to true if the left operand is less than the right.
cart.total < 15
The <= operator evalutes to true if the left operand is less than or equal to the right.
cart.total <= 15
You may group expressions using the ( and ) characters, for example:
message = "Removed User" and (user.is_admin or user.email ends with "@apex.sh")
Errors caused by a particular Lambda function and version:
error and function.name = "alert_processor" and function.version = "v1.5.0"
Slow responses caused by a particular user.
user.email = "tobi@apex.sh" and response.duration >= 5s
Image upload errors:
error and message = "Upload Failed" and file.type like "image/*"
Large file uploads:
file.size >= 16mb
Actions performed by an administrator:
user.is_admin