sklog 2.0.1

Lightweight colored console logging with zero dependencies.

xlog

Lightweight colored console logging for Python. Zero dependencies, pure stdlib.

pip install sklog

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Why xlog

Python's built-in logging module is powerful but verbose to configure for simple scripts and CLI tools. xlog gives you colored, leveled output in one import with no setup.

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Quick start

from sklog import xlog_info, xlog_warning, xlog_error, xlog_success, xlog_debug

xlog_info("Server started on port 8080")
xlog_warning("Disk usage above 80 percent")
xlog_error("Database connection refused")
xlog_success("Deployment finished")
xlog_debug("Cache miss for key user:42")

Terminal output:

[*] Server started on port 8080
[!] Disk usage above 80 percent
[#] Database connection refused
[^] Deployment finished
[?] Cache miss for key user:42

Each level prints in its own color — blue, yellow, red, green, magenta.

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All functions

Typed wrappers

The easiest way to log. Each function maps to a fixed level.

xlog_info("Listening on port 8080")         # blue    [*]
xlog_warning("Retrying in 5 seconds")       # yellow  [!]
xlog_error("Permission denied")             # red     [#]  → writes to stderr
xlog_success("All tests passed")            # green   [^]
xlog_debug("payload = {'id': 42}")          # magenta [?]

All wrappers accept two keyword arguments:

xlog_success("Deployed", timestamp=True)    # prepend HH:MM:SS
xlog_error("Crashed", timestamp=True)

Generic function

When you want to pick the level dynamically:

from sklog import xlog

xlog("Starting up")              # default, white
xlog("Watch this", "w")         # warning
xlog("Done", "s", bold=True)    # success, bold
xlog("Trace", "d", timestamp=True, bold=True)

Full signature:

xlog(msg, flag=None, *, timestamp=False, bold=False, file=sys.stdout)

flag	level	color	symbol
"d"	DEBUG	magenta	[?]
"e"	ERROR	red	[#]
"w"	WARNING	yellow	[!]
"s"	SUCCESS	green	[^]
"n"	INFO	blue	[*]
None	DEFAULT	white	[ ]

Unknown flags fall back to DEFAULT silently rather than raising.

Formatting helpers

from sklog import xlog_header, xlog_separator

xlog_header("Build Report")          # bold + underlined, blank lines above and below
xlog_separator()                     # cyan === line, 50 chars wide
xlog_separator("-", 30)             # custom char and width

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Options

timestamp=True

Prepends the current time in HH:MM:SS format:

xlog_success("Build passed", timestamp=True)
# [14:32:07] [^] Build passed

xlog_error("Timeout", timestamp=True)
# [14:32:09] [#] Timeout

bold=True

Makes the symbol and message text bold. Only available on xlog directly:

xlog("Critical section complete", "s", bold=True)

file=

Redirect output to any writable stream. Useful in tests or when writing logs to a file alongside printing:

import sys
xlog_warning("Low memory", file=sys.stderr)

with open("run.log", "w") as f:
    xlog_info("Started", file=f)

xlog_error defaults to sys.stderr. All other functions default to sys.stdout.

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Real-world example

from sklog import xlog_header, xlog_info, xlog_success, xlog_error, xlog_separator

def deploy(service: str) -> None:
    xlog_header(f"Deploying {service}")

    xlog_info("Pulling latest image", timestamp=True)
    xlog_info("Running migrations", timestamp=True)

    ok = run_migrations()

    if ok:
        xlog_success("Migrations applied", timestamp=True)
        xlog_success(f"{service} is live")
    else:
        xlog_error("Migration failed — rolling back", timestamp=True)

    xlog_separator()

Output:

Deploying api-service

[14:05:01] [*] Pulling latest image
[14:05:02] [*] Running migrations
[14:05:04] [^] Migrations applied
[^] api-service is live
==================================================

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Requirements

• Python 3.8 or newer
• No third-party dependencies

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Development

git clone https://github.com/shahil-sk/sklog
cd sklog
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest -v

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License

MIT — see LICENSE.