Telelogs

Open-source log aggregator: a native desktop app (built with GPUI) that streams logs from your Docker containers and Kubernetes pods (VMs next), with long retention in your own object-storage buckets.

Components

Install

Download the server and the macOS app from the latest release, or run the server as a container next to Docker:

docker run -d --name telelog-server \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  -p 127.0.0.1:7070:7070 \
  ghcr.io/tolaniverse/telelog-server --allow-unauthenticated

The port is published on 127.0.0.1 only; to reach the server from other machines, drop --allow-unauthenticated and pass a token (see below). The app isn't notarized yet, so the first time macOS refuses to open it: click Open Anyway in System Settings → Privacy & Security.

Or install both with Cargo (the app builds on macOS; it needs the Xcode Command Line Tools):

cargo install --locked telelog-server   # the server: telelog-server
cargo install --locked telelogs         # the desktop app: telelogs

Running from source

Requires Rust and a running Docker daemon.

cargo run -p telelog-server            # listens on 127.0.0.1:7070
cargo run -p telelogs                  # connects to http://127.0.0.1:7070

Use --listen / TELELOG_LISTEN and --server / TELELOG_SERVER to change addresses.

On macOS, scripts/bundle-macos.sh builds target/release/Telelogs.app with the app icon. The logo's sources are in assets/brand/; after changing icon.svg, scripts/macos-icon.sh regenerates the .icns.

Securing the server

On 127.0.0.1 the server runs open, for local use. To reach it from other machines, give it a token (and ideally TLS); it refuses to listen beyond localhost without one.

export TELELOG_TOKEN=$(telelog-server gen-token)
telelog-server --listen 0.0.0.0:7070 --tls-cert cert.pem --tls-key key.pem

With the container image, run the subcommand through Docker: docker run --rm ghcr.io/tolaniverse/telelog-server gen-token.

Then point the app at it with the same token. For a self-signed certificate, pass the CA it was issued by:

TELELOG_TOKEN=... telelogs --server https://logs.example.com:7070 --ca-cert ca.pem

All options can also be set as environment variables: TELELOG_LISTEN, TELELOG_TOKEN, TELELOG_TLS_CERT, TELELOG_TLS_KEY, TELELOG_SERVER, TELELOG_CA_CERT. If TLS is terminated by a proxy in front of the server, the token still works over the proxy's TLS; --allow-unauthenticated exists only for proxies that do their own auth.

Try it with a noisy container:

docker run -d --rm --name telelog-demo alpine sh -c \
  'i=0; while true; do i=$((i+1)); echo "INFO request $i ok"; sleep 0.5; done'

Using the app

• Sources: tick the containers and pods to show in the stream. Hiding one doesn't stop the server reading it. Your choices are saved for each server, and a namespace's choice applies to its pods as they're replaced.
• Filter: by text (message or source name), by level (Error, Warn, Info, Debug) and by time range. With a bucket, a time range also reads lines the in-memory buffer no longer holds.
• Rows: long lines wrap. Scroll up to pause following, and scroll back to the end to resume. Click a row for its labels and JSON, Filter by origin or Tail only this.
• Keys: ⌘K opens the command palette (screens, time ranges, a single source, theme), ⌘J switches between rows and JSON.

Kubernetes

--kubernetes reads the logs of every pod: each container is a source named namespace/pod/container, pods are picked up as they start, and containers are followed again after a restart. The server uses the kubeconfig's current context, or its service account when it runs inside the cluster.

telelog-server --kubernetes                                # current context, every namespace
telelog-server --kube-context prod --namespace shop,payments --selector app.kubernetes.io/part-of=shop

With Kubernetes on, a missing Docker daemon is only a warning, and containers that Kubernetes runs on the local daemon (Docker Desktop, OrbStack) are read through Kubernetes, not twice.

In the app's sidebar, pods are grouped by namespace. A namespace's checkbox turns all its pods on or off, so kube-system and the like stay out of the stream; the server still reads them unless you pass --namespace.

To run the server inside the cluster, deploy/kubernetes/telelog-server.yaml has a read-only service account (pods: get, list, watch; pods/log: get), the deployment and a service:

kubectl apply -f deploy/kubernetes/telelog-server.yaml
kubectl -n telelogs create secret generic telelog-server --from-literal=token=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
kubectl -n telelogs port-forward svc/telelog-server 7070

To build the image yourself: docker build -f docker/Dockerfile -t telelog-server .

Keeping logs in a bucket

The server keeps the newest lines in memory. Give it a bucket and it also archives every line there, so logs outlive the buffer, restarts and docker rm. Pick a time range in the app and it reads whatever the buffer doesn't hold from the bucket.

AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=... AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=... AWS_REGION=eu-west-1 \
telelog-server --archive-url s3://acme-logs/prod --retention-days 90

Credentials come from each provider's usual environment variables. For Cloudflare R2, MinIO or another S3-compatible store, also set AWS_ENDPOINT (and AWS_ALLOW_HTTP=true for plain http://); for Google Cloud Storage, GOOGLE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT. The bucket must already exist.

Lines are written as zstd-compressed JSON lines under <prefix>/v1/<YYYY-MM-DD>/<HH>/, with each file named after the time range it covers. A _checkpoint.json records the newest archived line, so a restart resumes from there with no gap and no duplicates. Once an hour the server deletes whole days older than the retention. The app's Storage screen shows the bucket's size, oldest day, last write and any error.

License

Telelogs is open source under two licenses:

You can self-host, modify and use the server freely. If you offer a modified server to others over a network, the AGPL requires you to publish your changes. The app and libraries are permissive, so you can embed them or build integrations without restriction.

Each crate's Cargo.toml declares its license.

Third-party assets

The app bundles Geist and Geist Mono (SIL Open Font License, crates/telelog-app/assets/fonts/OFL.txt) and Phosphor icons (MIT, crates/telelog-app/assets/icons/LICENSE-PHOSPHOR).