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Request Logging

GoVisual can capture and log HTTP requests and responses passing through your application. This document explains how request logging works and how to configure it.

Basic Logging

By default, GoVisual logs basic request and response metadata:

  • HTTP method (GET, POST, PUT, etc.)
  • URL path
  • Query parameters
  • Status code
  • Response time
  • Timestamp
  • Request and response headers

This basic information is always captured and does not require any special configuration.

Body Logging

For more detailed logging, you can enable request and response body logging:

handler := govisual.Wrap(
    mux,
    govisual.WithRequestBodyLogging(true),  // Log request bodies
    govisual.WithResponseBodyLogging(true), // Log response bodies
)

Important Considerations

When enabling body logging, keep in mind:

  1. Performance Impact: Logging bodies requires reading them completely into memory, which may impact performance for large payloads
  2. Security Concerns: Request and response bodies may contain sensitive information (passwords, tokens, PII)
  3. Memory Usage: Bodies are stored in memory by default, which can increase memory usage

Ignoring Paths

To prevent logging of certain paths (like health checks or static assets), use the WithIgnorePaths option:

handler := govisual.Wrap(
    mux,
    govisual.WithIgnorePaths(
        "/health",      // Exact match
        "/metrics",     // Exact match
        "/static/*",    // Wildcard pattern
        "/api/auth/*"   // Wildcard pattern
    ),
)

The dashboard path (/__viz by default) is automatically ignored to prevent recursive logging.

Storage Considerations

How requests are stored depends on your configured storage backend:

  • Memory Storage: Logs are kept in memory and lost when the application restarts
  • PostgreSQL Storage: Logs are stored in a database table and persist across restarts
  • Redis Storage: Logs are stored with a configurable time-to-live (TTL)

See Storage Backends for more details.

Custom Headers

All headers are logged by default. If some headers contain sensitive information, you should handle them at the application level before they reach GoVisual.

Request Log Format

Internally, GoVisual stores request logs with the following structure:

type RequestLog struct {
    ID             string                 // Unique identifier
    Timestamp      time.Time              // When the request was received
    Method         string                 // HTTP method
    Path           string                 // URL path
    Query          string                 // Query parameters
    RequestHeaders map[string][]string    // Request headers
    ResponseHeaders map[string][]string   // Response headers
    StatusCode     int                    // HTTP status code
    Duration       time.Duration          // Response time
    RequestBody    string                 // Request body (if enabled)
    ResponseBody   string                 // Response body (if enabled)
    Error          string                 // Error message (if any)
    MiddlewareTrace []MiddlewareTraceEntry // Middleware execution trace
    RouteTrace     []RouteTraceEntry      // Route matching trace
}

Example

A complete example of request logging configuration:

handler := govisual.Wrap(
    mux,
    govisual.WithRequestBodyLogging(true),
    govisual.WithResponseBodyLogging(true),
    govisual.WithIgnorePaths("/health", "/metrics", "/static/*"),
    govisual.WithMaxRequests(1000),
)

Related Documentation