brunoggdev/ci4-logging-extended

Extended logger for CodeIgniter 4: improved context serialization and a convenient log:tail Spark command to inspect log files in real time.

v0.1.1 2026-03-24 13:19 UTC

Requires (Dev)

• codeigniter4/framework: ^4.3

MIT

• Bruno Gomes

README

Extended logging for CodeIgniter 4 — part of the ci4-*-extended series.

Two things in one package:

1. php spark log:tail — Watch your log file in real time with colorized, filtered output.
2. Context arrays actually work — CI4's native logger silently drops any context keys that don't have a matching {placeholder} in the message. This package fixes that by appending leftover keys as key=value pairs automatically.

Installation

composer require brunoggdev/ci4-logging-extended

log:tail

php spark log:tail

On startup it shows the last 20 lines of today's log, then streams new entries as they arrive. Rolls over automatically at midnight when a new daily file is created.

Options

Option	Description	Default
-level	Filter by log level	—
-filter	Filter lines containing this text (case-insensitive)	—
-lines	Lines to show on startup (use 0 to skip)	20

Examples

php spark log:tail                                        # watch everything
php spark log:tail -level error -lines 0                 # only errors, no history
php spark log:tail -filter payment -lines 100            # keyword filter, last 100 lines
php spark log:tail -level warning -filter checkout       # combine filters

Output

  ERROR      2026-03-20 14:32:01  copyUnityProducts failed | source_unity_id=42 error="Timeout"
  WARNING    2026-03-20 14:32:05  Retry scheduled | job=CopyProducts attempt=2
  INFO       2026-03-20 14:32:10  Job completed successfully

• Level is colorized: red for error/critical/alert/emergency, yellow for warning, cyan for notice, green for info, gray for debug
• The context part (after |) is highlighted in cyan to visually separate it from the main message

Context serialization

This package ships with Brunoggdev\LoggingExtended\Logger, an improved drop-in replacement for CI4's native logger, and a logger() helper function to quickly get an instance of it.

Wire it up by adding the following to app/Config/Services.php:

public static function logger(bool $getShared = true)
{
    if ($getShared) {
        return static::getSharedInstance('logger');
    }

    return new \Brunoggdev\LoggingExtended\Logger(config('Logger'));
}

Before this package, passing a context array without matching placeholders was silently discarded:

// ❌ Native CI4 — context is dropped, you only see "copyProducts failed"
log_message('error', 'copyProducts failed', [
    'source' => $sourceId,
    'target' => $targetId,
    'error'  => $e->getMessage(),
]);

After wiring the extended logger, the same call produces:

ERROR - 2026-03-20 14:32:01 --> copyProducts failed | source=42 target=99 error="Division by zero"

PSR-3 placeholder interpolation still works as before — keys consumed by {placeholders} are not duplicated in the appended context:

logger()->error('Job {job} failed on attempt {attempt}', [
    'job'     => 'SendEmail',   // consumed by {job}
    'attempt' => 3,             // consumed by {attempt}
    'user_id' => 99,            // not a placeholder — appended
]);
// ERROR - ... --> Job SendEmail failed on attempt 3 | user_id=99

Using a custom Logger subclass?

If you have a class that extends CI4's Logger (e.g. SentryLogger, GoogleLogger), just swap the parent import and you get context serialization for free:

// Before
use CodeIgniter\Log\Logger;

// After
use Brunoggdev\LoggingExtended\Logger;

Related packages

• brunoggdev/ci4-events-extended