logx

README

logx

logx is an enhanced Kubernetes pod log viewer. It fetches pod logs, parses common structured and plain-text formats, highlights useful fields, and works as both a standalone CLI and a kubectl plugin.

Features

• Smart log parsing for JSON and plain-text logs
• Timestamp and log-level detection
• Colorized, readable output
• Multi-container pod support with interactive selection
• Previous container logs with -p
• Live log following with -f
• Container listing with JSON, YAML, and POSIX output

Installation

Homebrew

brew tap dantech2000/tap
brew install --cask logx

The cask installs both logx and kubectl-logx. Because kubectl-logx is placed on your PATH, kubectl automatically discovers it as a plugin:

kubectl logx --help
kubectl plugin list

Release Binaries

Download the archive for your platform from the GitHub releases page, then place the binaries on your PATH:

• logx for standalone use
• kubectl-logx for kubectl logx

Kubernetes discovers the plugin form from the kubectl-logx executable name. No plugin registration is required.

Usage

Fetch logs from a pod:

logx my-pod -n my-namespace
kubectl logx my-pod -n my-namespace

The explicit subcommand form is also supported:

logx logs my-pod -n my-namespace

Options:

• -n, --namespace: Kubernetes namespace, defaults to the current context namespace
• --context: Kubernetes context, defaults to the current kubeconfig context
• --kubeconfig: Path to a kubeconfig file, defaults to KUBECONFIG or ~/.kube/config
• -c, --container: Container name for multi-container pods
• -f, --follow: Follow log output
• -l, --level: Filter logs by level: DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR
• -p, --previous: Fetch logs from the previous terminated container instance

Example:

logx my-pod -n my-namespace -c my-container -f -l INFO

List containers in a pod:

logx containers my-pod -n my-namespace

Output formats:

logx containers my-pod -o json
logx containers my-pod -o yaml
logx containers my-pod -o posix

Version information:

logx version
logx version --short
logx version --output json
logx version --output yaml

Shell completion:

logx completion zsh > "${fpath[1]}/_logx"

Development

Prerequisites:

Use either asdf or Nix for a consistent toolchain.

With asdf:

asdf install

With Nix flakes:

nix develop

Manual prerequisites:

• Go 1.26 or later
• Access to a Kubernetes cluster for manual testing
• kubectl configured with the appropriate context
• just command runner

Build from source:

git clone https://github.com/dantech2000/logx.git
cd logx
just build

Common tasks:

just --list
just build
just test
just fmt

just build creates:

• bin/logx
• bin/kubectl-logx

Release

Create and push a version tag:

git tag -a vX.Y.Z -m "Release vX.Y.Z"
git push origin vX.Y.Z

The release pipeline publishes both the standalone logx binary and the kubectl-logx plugin binary. It also updates the Homebrew cask in dantech2000/homebrew-tap.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.