TraceNest

TraceNest is a developer-first, local-first logging SDK for Python applications designed to remove the operational burden of log management from developers.

You focus on building features.
TraceNest takes care of logging.

What is TraceNest?

TraceNest is not just a logger.
It is a logging infrastructure layer embedded directly into your application.

It automatically:

• Creates and manages log files
• Rotates logs safely
• Enforces retention limits
• Provides a built-in UI to view logs
• Integrates seamlessly with FastAPI
• Works out of the box with zero configuration

Why TraceNest Exists

Traditional logging requires developers to:

• Configure log handlers
• Manage file rotation
• Clean up old logs
• Build tools to inspect logs

TraceNest eliminates this complexity by handling the entire log lifecycle automatically.

Key Features

• Zero-configuration setup
• Automatic TraceNestLogs/ folder creation
• Day-wise or single-file logging modes
• Strict size and retention enforcement
• Built-in UI served from the application
• Structured, metadata-rich logs
• Native FastAPI middleware
• Safe, non-blocking design
• Free and easy to integrate

Installation

pip install tracenest

Quick Usage

from tracenest import logger

logger.info("Application started")
logger.error("Payment failed", order_id=123)

Logs are immediately written to:

TraceNestLogs/

No configuration required.

Log Storage

By default, TraceNest stores logs locally inside the project root:

TraceNestLogs/
├── 2026-01-10.log
├── 2026-01-11.log
└── archive/

Default Behavior

• One log file per day
• Maximum 25–30 MB per day
• Retention up to 60 days
• Old logs deleted automatically

A single-file mode is also available for smaller projects.

Built-In UI

When used with FastAPI, TraceNest exposes a local UI automatically:

http://localhost:8000/tracenest

UI Features

• Live log streaming
• Search and filtering
• Date-based navigation
• Download logs
• Clear logs
• Theme selection

Available Themes

• Light
• Dark
• Blue-Dark

FastAPI Integration

TraceNest provides native FastAPI middleware for automatic request logging.

from tracenest.fastapi import TraceNestMiddleware

app.add_middleware(TraceNestMiddleware)

Automatically logs:

• Incoming requests
• Response status codes
• Request duration
• Unhandled exceptions

Safety and Performance

TraceNest is designed to be production-safe.

• Never blocks application execution
• Uses buffered I/O
• Minimal memory footprint
• Graceful fallback on failure
• Works inside Docker and containers

TraceNest will never crash your application.

Changelog

v0.1.8 - 2026-07-15

• Auto-refresh functionality to stream logs live in the dashboard without manually reloading.
• Manual refresh button.
• Slide-out Details Panel providing deep-dive capabilities into structured logs and traceback without losing table context.
• PyPI version checking directly in the UI versions modal.
• Completely redesigned UI dashboard inspired by modern observability platforms (e.g., Grafana/Vercel).
• High contrast, beautiful themes (Dark, Light, Dark Blue) relying on modern CSS variables.
• Achieved O(1) table updates per polling interval by intelligently caching parsed logs and dynamically computing diffs on the frontend.
• Current log selection bug: Re-rendering the dashboard on polling no longer destroys user selection.

v0.1.7 - 2026-07-03

• Markdown-based changelog system directly integrated into the UI.
• Dynamic Versions modal featuring a beautiful two-pane layout, fetching and rendering markdown using marked.js.
• Synced main project README.md with the full project changelog to ensure release notes are visible directly on PyPI.
• Improved UI links, adding proper developer attribution linking back to GitHub in the UI footer.
• Removed the static changelog.json in favor of the dynamic API.

v0.1.6 - 2026-07-03

• Added built-in secret redaction to prevent credentials, tokens, API keys, cookies, and database passwords from leaking in logs.
• Added recursive masking for dictionaries, lists, nested metadata, request data, and response data.
• Added pattern-based masking for raw log strings, Authorization headers, JWTs, database URLs, Redis URLs, and key-value secrets.
• Logs are now redacted before storage and before UI/API display for defense-in-depth safety.
• Middleware logging now masks sensitive headers, cookies, request bodies, and response bodies.
• Added tests for key-based redaction, regex redaction, nested data structures, middleware safety, and custom redaction configuration.

v0.1.5 - 2026-07-03

• Latest logs are now shown first by default (reverse chronological order).
• Added beautiful UI badges for log levels to improve readability.
• Timestamps converted to readable relative times (e.g. '2 minutes ago') with exact time on hover.
• Enhanced overall UI aesthetics with animations, shadow effects, and a premium feel.

Version 0.1.4 - 2026-07-02

• Initial stable release with dynamic UI and real-time log tailing.
• Search, filter, and pagination capabilities added.

Version 0.1.3 - 2026-07-01

• Fixed UI Delay Issue: Implemented a background flush thread that automatically syncs buffered logs to the disk every 1 second, completely resolving the 2-10 minute UI delay on low-traffic applications.
• Auto-Refreshing UI: The web UI now features automatic polling, instantly displaying new logs as soon as they are written without requiring manual page reloads.

Documentation

Detailed documentation is available in the docs/ folder:

• Introduction & philosophy
• Quick start
• Logging guidelines
• Configuration
• Storage & retention
• UI usage
• FastAPI integration
• Performance guarantees
• Version history

Versioning

TraceNest follows semantic versioning.

Current Version: 0.1.8

Includes:

• Core logging API
• Automatic folder creation
• Day-wise and single-file logging
• Retention enforcement
• Built-in UI
• FastAPI middleware

Philosophy

TraceNest is built on three principles:

1. Zero friction for developers
2. Full transparency of logs
3. Production-grade safety by default

Author & Maintainer

VishwajitVM

• 📍 New Delhi, India
• 🐙 GitHub: https://github.com/vishwajitvm
• ✉️ Email: vishwajitmall50@gmail.com

TraceNest is actively maintained with a strong focus on real-world production use cases, developer experience, and long-term scalability.

License

TraceNest SDK is free to use and distributed under an open-source license.