Logcollector

Logcollector

This is a plugin for Obsidian that logs all console output and uncaught exceptions to a note (inside or outside a vault). It's mainly aimed at developers.

As such, it's also useful for letting your plugin's users help you debug your plugin's issues: Ask your customers to install this plugin, then send you the resulting log when they report a bug.

This plugin is a fork of Logstravaganza plugin (version 2.3.0), but with the following added capabilities: - Place the log file outside the vault (avoids crashing Obsidian if there are too many entries). - Save timestamps in local time (default) or UTC format. - Write messages in plain text format.

What it does

• Intercepts and writes all console.*() output to a file in your vault.
• Logs uncaught exceptions to the same file, including exceptions occurring in async code and promises (as long as they're happening in the main thread).
• Logs can be written in several formats:
  • NDJSON, a plain text format that can be read by humans and machines alike. Every line in the file is a JSON object. Think CSV, but with JSON.
  • Markdown file containing a table.
  • Markdown file containing code blocks.
  • Plain text (no formatting applied).

Known issues

• Time logged in console through console.timeLog(*label*) and console.timeEnd(*label*) is not shown in log (only the label). This is due to the time is not passed in the arguments in console.timeLog(*label*) and console.timeEnd(*label*) events.
• When logging outside the vault, filename in bottom of options menu has a non functional link (due to security reasons, links to files outside the vault are not allowed).
• Worker messages (warnings, errors, etc.) are not captured by this plugin (even though they appear in the console). The main plugin process needs to capture the messages and print them using a console.*() call.

Example output

The log output will be written to a console-log.DEVICE-NAME.* or, optionally, console-log.DEVICE-NAME.2024-01-31.* . (Here, DEVICE-NAME is a placeholder for the actual device name as returned by the core Sync plugin. This works whether or not Sync is activated or not.)

Using the NDJSON formatter

Output file name: console-log.DEVICE-NAME.ndjson

{"timestamp":"2024-03-24T16:18:04.256Z","level":"info","sender":"plugin:logcollector","args":["[Logcollector] Proxy set up (v2.0.0)"]}
{"timestamp":"2024-03-24T16:18:04.419Z","level":"log","sender":"plugin:actions-uri:12152:11","args":[["[Actions URI]","Registered URI handlers:",["actions-uri","actions-uri/command","actions-uri/command/list","actions-uri/command/execute","actions-uri/dataview","actions-uri/dataview/table-query","actions-uri/dataview/list-query","actions-uri/file","actions-uri/file/list","actions-uri/file/get-active","actions-uri/file/open","actions-uri/file/delete","actions-uri/file/trash","actions-uri/file/rename","actions-uri/folder","actions-uri/folder/list","actions-uri/folder/create","actions-uri/folder/rename","actions-uri/folder/delete","actions-uri/folder/trash","actions-uri/info","actions-uri/note-properties","actions-uri/note-properties/get","actions-uri/note-properties/set","actions-uri/note-properties/clear","actions-uri/note-properties/remove-keys","actions-uri/note","actions-uri/note/list","actions-uri/note/get","actions-uri/note/get-first-named","actions-uri/note/get-active","actions-uri/note/open","actions-uri/note/create","actions-uri/note/append","actions-uri/note/prepend","actions-uri/note/touch","actions-uri/note/delete","actions-uri/note/trash","actions-uri/note/rename","actions-uri/note/search-string-and-replace","actions-uri/note/search-regex-and-replace","actions-uri/omnisearch","actions-uri/omnisearch/all-notes","actions-uri/omnisearch/open","actions-uri/daily-note","actions-uri/daily-note/list","actions-uri/daily-note/get-current","actions-uri/daily-note/get-most-recent","actions-uri/daily-note/open-current","actions-uri/daily-note/open-most-recent","actions-uri/daily-note/create","actions-uri/daily-note/append","actions-uri/daily-note/prepend","actions-uri/daily-note/search-string-and-replace","actions-uri/daily-note/search-regex-and-replace","actions-uri/weekly-note","actions-uri/weekly-note/list","actions-uri/weekly-note/get-current","actions-uri/weekly-note/get-most-recent","actions-uri/weekly-note/open-current","actions-uri/weekly-note/open-most-recent","actions-uri/weekly-note/create","actions-uri/weekly-note/append","actions-uri/weekly-note/prepend","actions-uri/weekly-note/search-string-and-replace","actions-uri/weekly-note/search-regex-and-replace","actions-uri/monthly-note","actions-uri/monthly-note/list","actions-uri/monthly-note/get-current","actions-uri/monthly-note/get-most-recent","actions-uri/monthly-note/open-current","actions-uri/monthly-note/open-most-recent","actions-uri/monthly-note/create","actions-uri/monthly-note/append","actions-uri/monthly-note/prepend","actions-uri/monthly-note/search-string-and-replace","actions-uri/monthly-note/search-regex-and-replace","actions-uri/quarterly-note","actions-uri/quarterly-note/list","actions-uri/quarterly-note/get-current","actions-uri/quarterly-note/get-most-recent","actions-uri/quarterly-note/open-current","actions-uri/quarterly-note/open-most-recent","actions-uri/quarterly-note/create","actions-uri/quarterly-note/append","actions-uri/quarterly-note/prepend","actions-uri/quarterly-note/search-string-and-replace","actions-uri/quarterly-note/search-regex-and-replace","actions-uri/yearly-note","actions-uri/yearly-note/list","actions-uri/yearly-note/get-current","actions-uri/yearly-note/get-most-recent","actions-uri/yearly-note/open-current","actions-uri/yearly-note/open-most-recent","actions-uri/yearly-note/create","actions-uri/yearly-note/append","actions-uri/yearly-note/prepend","actions-uri/yearly-note/search-string-and-replace","actions-uri/yearly-note/search-regex-and-replace","actions-uri/search","actions-uri/search/all-notes","actions-uri/search/open","actions-uri/tags","actions-uri/tags/list","actions-uri/vault","actions-uri/vault/open","actions-uri/vault/close","actions-uri/vault/info","actions-uri/vault/list-all-files","actions-uri/vault/list-non-notes-files"]]]}
{"timestamp":"2024-03-24T16:18:04.530Z","level":"time","sender":"plugin:omnisearch:50:7444","args":[["Omnisearch - Indexing total time"]]}
{"timestamp":"2024-03-24T16:18:04.530Z","level":"log","sender":"plugin:omnisearch:50:7571","args":[["Omnisearch - 66 files total"]]}

Obsidian won't open .ndjson files, even though they're basically plain text files.

In NDJSON, every line is a self-contained JSON object. This makes it easy to read and parse with tools like jq. For example, the file can be filtered with jq:

jq -r 'select(.level == "error")' < "console-log.DEVICE-NAME.ndjson"

This will only show the lines where the level is error. You can also stream the output of the plugin to a file and then use jq to filter it in real-time.

tail -f "console-log.DEVICE-NAME.ndjson" | jq -r 'select(.level == "error")'

Using the Markdown Table formatter

Output file name: console-log.DEVICE-NAME.md

| Timestamp | Originator | Level | Message |
| --------- | ---------- | ----- | ------- |
| 2024-03-23T17:25:42.973Z | plugin:logcollector | info | \[Logcollector] Proxy set up (v1.3.0) |
| 2024-03-23T17:25:43.109Z | plugin:actions-uri:12152:11 | log | \["\[Actions URI]","Registered URI handlers:",\["actions-uri","actions-uri/command","actions-uri/command/list","actions-uri/command/execute","actions-uri/dataview","actions-uri/dataview/table-query","actions-uri/dataview/list-query","actions-uri/file","actions-uri/file/list","actions-uri/file/get-active","actions-uri/file/open","actions-uri/file/delete","actions-uri/file/trash","actions-uri/file/rename","actions-uri/folder","actions-uri/folder/list","actions-uri/folder/create","actions-uri/folder/rename","actions-uri/folder/delete","actions-uri/folder/trash","actions-uri/info","actions-uri/note-properties","actions-uri/note-properties/get","actions-uri/note-properties/set","actions-uri/note-properties/clear","actions-uri/note-properties/remove-keys","actions-uri/note","actions-uri/note/list","actions-uri/note/get","actions-uri/note/get-first-named","actions-uri/note/get-active","actions-uri/note/open","actions-uri/note/create","actions-uri/note/append","actions-uri/note/prepend","actions-uri/note/touch","actions-uri/note/delete","actions-uri/note/trash","actions-uri/note/rename","actions-uri/note/search-string-and-replace","actions-uri/note/search-regex-and-replace","actions-uri/omnisearch","actions-uri/omnisearch/all-notes","actions-uri/omnisearch/open","actions-uri/daily-note","actions-uri/daily-note/list","actions-uri/daily-note/get-current","actions-uri/daily-note/get-most-recent","actions-uri/daily-note/open-current","actions-uri/daily-note/open-most-recent","actions-uri/daily-note/create","actions-uri/daily-note/append","actions-uri/daily-note/prepend","actions-uri/daily-note/search-string-and-replace","actions-uri/daily-note/search-regex-and-replace","actions-uri/weekly-note","actions-uri/weekly-note/list","actions-uri/weekly-note/get-current","actions-uri/weekly-note/get-most-recent","actions-uri/weekly-note/open-current","actions-uri/weekly-note/open-most-recent","actions-uri/weekly-note/create","actions-uri/weekly-note/append","actions-uri/weekly-note/prepend","actions-uri/weekly-note/search-string-and-replace","actions-uri/weekly-note/search-regex-and-replace","actions-uri/monthly-note","actions-uri/monthly-note/list","actions-uri/monthly-note/get-current","actions-uri/monthly-note/get-most-recent","actions-uri/monthly-note/open-current","actions-uri/monthly-note/open-most-recent","actions-uri/monthly-note/create","actions-uri/monthly-note/append","actions-uri/monthly-note/prepend","actions-uri/monthly-note/search-string-and-replace","actions-uri/monthly-note/search-regex-and-replace","actions-uri/quarterly-note","actions-uri/quarterly-note/list","actions-uri/quarterly-note/get-current","actions-uri/quarterly-note/get-most-recent","actions-uri/quarterly-note/open-current","actions-uri/quarterly-note/open-most-recent","actions-uri/quarterly-note/create","actions-uri/quarterly-note/append","actions-uri/quarterly-note/prepend","actions-uri/quarterly-note/search-string-and-replace","actions-uri/quarterly-note/search-regex-and-replace","actions-uri/yearly-note","actions-uri/yearly-note/list","actions-uri/yearly-note/get-current","actions-uri/yearly-note/get-most-recent","actions-uri/yearly-note/open-current","actions-uri/yearly-note/open-most-recent","actions-uri/yearly-note/create","actions-uri/yearly-note/append","actions-uri/yearly-note/prepend","actions-uri/yearly-note/search-string-and-replace","actions-uri/yearly-note/search-regex-and-replace","actions-uri/search","actions-uri/search/all-notes","actions-uri/search/open","actions-uri/tags","actions-uri/tags/list","actions-uri/vault","actions-uri/vault/open","actions-uri/vault/close","actions-uri/vault/info","actions-uri/vault/list-all-files","actions-uri/vault/list-non-notes-files"]] |
| 2024-03-23T17:25:43.168Z | plugin:omnisearch:50:7444 | time | \["Omnisearch - Indexing total time"] |
| 2024-03-23T17:25:43.168Z | plugin:omnisearch:50:7571 | log | \["Omnisearch - 66 files total"] |

In reading mode, the output will be displayed as a table.

Using the Markdown Code Blocks formatter

Output file name: console-log.DEVICE-NAME.md

```
time: 2024-05-06T17:31:06.874Z
from: plugin:logcollector
level: info
[Logcollector] Proxy set up (v2.0.1)
```

```
time: 2024-05-06T17:31:07.017Z
from: plugin:actions-uri:12152:11
level: log
[
    "[Actions URI]",
    "Registered URI handlers:",
    [
        "actions-uri",
        "actions-uri/command",
        "actions-uri/command/list",
        "actions-uri/command/execute",
        "actions-uri/dataview",
…
        "actions-uri/vault/list-all-files",
        "actions-uri/vault/list-non-notes-files"
    ]
]
```

```
time: 2024-05-06T17:31:07.098Z
from: plugin:omnisearch:50:7444
level: time
Omnisearch - Indexing total time
```

```
time: 2024-05-06T17:31:07.098Z
from: plugin:omnisearch:50:7571
level: log
Omnisearch - 75 files total
```

In reading mode, the output will be displayed as separate MD code blocks.

Using the plain text formatter

Output file name: console-log.DEVICE-NAME.txt

2026-05-03T13:09:54.039 plugin:logcollector info [Logcollector] Proxy set up (v3.0.0)
2026-05-03T13:09:57.567 plugin:omnisearch:136:8916 time Indexing total time
2026-05-03T13:19:06.658 plugin:omnisearch:136:8994 debug List files ALL Numfiles 2 test1.md,test2.md
2026-05-03T13:09:58.050 plugin:omnisearch:136:9237 debug Cache is enabled
2026-05-03T13:09:58.051 plugin:omnisearch:136:9323 time Loading index from cache
2026-05-03T13:09:58.283 plugin:omnisearch:134:179565 log Omnisearch - No cache found

This output does not apply any formatting or character scaping. It can be viewed with any text editor and easily parsed with text parsing tools (e.g. grep or awk).

Caveats

Naturally, the plugin can't know about past console output. It can only log what happens after when it's activated/enabled.

Please note: When this plugin is active and proxying console calls, all output to the actual console will appear as coming from plugin:logcollector.

Bug Reports & Discussions

Bug reports and feature requests are welcome, feel free to open an issue here on GitHub — thank you!

Installation

Using Obsidian community plugin browser

1. Open Settings → Community Plugins
2. Search for Logcollector
3. Install and enable the plugin.

Manual Installation

1. Download main.js and manifest.json from the latest release
2. Copy them to <your-vault>/.obsidian/plugins/obsidian-logcollector/
3. Enable the plugin in Settings → Community Plugins

Development

Clone the repository, run pnpm install OR npm install to install the dependencies. Afterwards, run pnpm dev OR npm run dev to compile and have it watch for file changes.

Author

Deimos Ibáñez

Acknowledgements

Carlo Zottmann, for creating the Logstravanza plugin from which this plugins is forked from, and all its contributors.

To FolderBridge plugin developers, whose code was used to open the file explorer for selecting a folder outside Obsidian vaults.

Disclaimer

Use at your own risk. Things might go sideways, hard. I'm not responsible for any data loss or damage. You have been warned.

Always back up your data. Seriously.

License

MIT, see LICENSE.md.