Node.js: Configure logs in context

Logs in context for the Node.js agent connects your logs and APM data in New Relic. Bringing all of this data together in a single tool helps you quickly get to the root cause of an issue and find the log lines that you need to identify and resolve a problem.

Set up your Node.js app

To enable logs in context for APM apps monitored by Node.js, you can use our manual installation option.

Make sure you have already set up logging in New Relic. This includes configuring a supported log forwarder that collects your application logs and extends the metadata that is forwarded to New Relic.
Install or update to the latest Node.js agent version, and enable distributed tracing. Use Node.js agent version 6.2.0 or higher for logs in context.
Install Winston 3.0.0 or higher or Pino 7.0.0 or higher to enrich your log data.
Configure logs in context for Node.js using the appropriate log extension.

To install the Winston log enricher, enter the following command into your terminal or command line interface:
```
npm install @newrelic/winston-enricher
```

In your application code, update your logging configuration to add the newrelicFormatter:

// index.js
require('newrelic')
const winston = require('winston')
const newrelicFormatter = require('@newrelic/winston-enricher')(winston)

The New Relic formatter can be used individually or combined with other formatters as the final format.

format: winston.format.combine(
  winston.format.label({label: 'test'}),
  newrelicFormatter()
)

To install the Pino log enricher, enter the following command into your terminal or command line interface:
```
npm install @newrelic/pino-enricher
```
In your application code, update your logging configuration to add the New Relic Pino plugin:
```
// index.js
require('newrelic')
const nrPino = require('@newrelic/pino-enricher')
const pino = require('pino')
const logger = pino(nrPino())
```
The New Relic formatter can be used individually or combined with other formatters as the final format.

To verify that you have configured the log appender correctly, run your application, then check your logs data in New Relic using the query operator has:span.id has:trace.id.

If everything is configured correctly and your data is being forwarded to New Relic with the enriched metadata, your logs should now be emitted as JSON and contain trace.id and span.id fields. If you don't see log data in the UI, follow the troubleshooting procedures. If you'd like to see a working example of logs in context, take a look at our example application.

What's next?

After you set up APM logs in context, make the most of your logging data:

Explore the logging data across your platform with our Logs UI.
See your logs in context of your app's performance in the APM UI. Troubleshoot errors with distributed tracing, stack traces, application logs, and more.
Get deeper visibility into both your application and your platform performance data by forwarding your logs with our infrastructure monitoring agent. Review your infrastructure logs in the UI.
Set up alerts.
Query your data and create dashboards.

Set up your Node.js app

Node.js configuration with Winston

Node.js configuration with Pino

What's next?