Set Up Logs

With Sentry Structured Logs, you can send text-based log information from your Rails applications to Sentry. Once in Sentry, these logs can be viewed alongside relevant errors, searched by text-string, or searched using their individual attributes.

Requirements

Logs for Rails are supported in Sentry Rails SDK version 5.27.0 and above.

gem install sentry-rails

Or add it to your Gemfile:

gem "sentry-rails"

Setup

To enable logging, initialize the SDK with enable_logs set to true:

Sentry.init do |config|
  config.dsn = "___PUBLIC_DSN___"
  config.enable_logs = true
end

This enables:

• The Sentry.logger API for explicit logging
• Automatic structured logging of Rails framework events (ActiveRecord queries, controller actions, etc.)

See the Usage section for examples and Options to customize which events are captured.

Usage

Use the Sentry.logger API to send logs to Sentry:

Sentry.logger.info("User logged in successfully")
Sentry.logger.error("Payment processing failed")

You can include additional context data as attributes:

Sentry.logger.error(
  "Failed to process payment. Order: %{order_id}",
  order_id: "or_2342",
  amount: 99.99
)

Additional attributes like amount are sent as searchable metadata in Sentry's Logs UI.

See Default Attributes for the complete list of metadata and Options to customize which events are captured.

Options

before_send_log

To filter logs before they are sent to Sentry, use the before_send_log callback. Return nil to skip a log, or return the log object to send it.

Sentry.init do |config|
  config.dsn = "___PUBLIC_DSN___"
  config.enable_logs = true

  config.before_send_log = lambda do |log|
    # Skip info logs
    return if log.level == :info

    log
  end
end

Structured Logging Subscribers

Structured logging is enabled by default when you set enable_logs = true. You can customize which Rails events are captured.

Default subscribers (enabled automatically):

• active_record - Database queries
• action_controller - HTTP requests

Additional subscribers (opt-in):

• active_job - Background jobs
• action_mailer - Email delivery

Enable additional subscribers:

Sentry.init do |config|
  config.dsn = "___PUBLIC_DSN___"
  config.enable_logs = true

  config.rails.structured_logging.subscribers = {
    active_record: Sentry::Rails::LogSubscribers::ActiveRecordSubscriber,
    action_controller: Sentry::Rails::LogSubscribers::ActionControllerSubscriber,
    active_job: Sentry::Rails::LogSubscribers::ActiveJobSubscriber,
    action_mailer: Sentry::Rails::LogSubscribers::ActionMailerSubscriber
  }
end

Disable default subscribers:

config.rails.structured_logging.subscribers = {
  active_record: Sentry::Rails::LogSubscribers::ActiveRecordSubscriber
  # ActionController disabled
}

Disable structured logging entirely:

config.rails.structured_logging.enabled = false

Sensitive Data Filtering

Structured logging automatically respects Rails' parameter filtering:

config.filter_parameters += [:password, :credit_card, :ssn]

This filters sensitive data from ActionController parameters, ActiveJob arguments, and ActionMailer parameters.

Custom Log Subscribers

You can create custom subscribers to capture your own Rails instrumentation events:

class MyCustomSubscriber < Sentry::Rails::LogSubscriber
  attach_to :my_component

  def my_event(event)
    log_structured_event(
      message: "Custom event occurred",
      level: :info,
      attributes: {
        duration_ms: event.duration,
        user_id: event.payload[:user_id]
      }
    )
  end
end

Register it in your configuration:

config.rails.structured_logging.subscribers = {
  active_record: Sentry::Rails::LogSubscribers::ActiveRecordSubscriber,
  my_component: MyCustomSubscriber
}

Using Rails.logger

If you want all Rails logs to go to Sentry, you can enable the :logger patch:

Sentry.init do |config|
  config.dsn = "___PUBLIC_DSN___"
  config.enable_logs = true
  config.enabled_patches << :logger
end

This will send all Rails.logger calls to Sentry:

Rails.logger.info("Processing user request")
Rails.logger.error("Failed to save record")

Default Attributes

The Rails SDK automatically sets several default attributes on all log entries to provide context and improve debugging:

Core Attributes

• environment: The environment set in the SDK if defined. This is sent from the SDK as sentry.environment.
• release: The release set in the SDK if defined. This is sent from the SDK as sentry.release.
• sdk.name: The name of the SDK that sent the log. This is sent from the SDK as sentry.sdk.name.
• sdk.version: The version of the SDK that sent the log. This is sent from the SDK as sentry.sdk.version.

Message Template Attributes

If the log was parameterized, Sentry adds the message template and parameters as log attributes.

• message.template: The parameterized template string. This is sent from the SDK as sentry.message.template.
• message.parameter.X: The parameters to fill the template string. X can either be the number that represent the parameter's position in the template string (sentry.message.parameter.0, sentry.message.parameter.1, etc) or the parameter's name (sentry.message.parameter.item_id, sentry.message.parameter.user_id, etc). This is sent from the SDK as sentry.message.parameter.X.

Server Attributes

• server.address: The address of the server that sent the log. Equivalent to server_name that gets attached to Sentry errors.

User Attributes

If user information is available in the current scope, the following attributes are added to the log:

• user.id: The user ID.
• user.name: The username.
• user.email: The email address.

Integration Attributes

If a log is generated by an SDK integration, the SDK will set additional attributes to help you identify the source of the log.

• origin: The origin of the log. This is sent from the SDK as sentry.origin.

Rails-Specific Attributes

When using structured logging with Log Subscribers, additional Rails-specific attributes are automatically included:

ActiveRecord Logs

• sql - The SQL query executed
• duration_ms - Query execution time in milliseconds
• cached - Whether the query result was cached
• statement_name - SQL statement name (when available and not "SQL")
• connection_id - Database connection identifier (when available)
• db_system - Database adapter (e.g., "postgresql", "mysql2", "sqlite3")
• db_name - Database name (sanitized for SQLite file paths)
• server_address - Database host (when available)
• server_port - Database port (when available)
• server_socket_address - Database socket path (when available)

ActionController Logs

• controller - Controller class name
• action - Action method name
• duration_ms - Request processing time in milliseconds
• method - HTTP request method
• path - Request path
• format - Response format (html, json, etc.)
• status - HTTP response status code (when available)
• view_runtime_ms - View rendering time in milliseconds (when available)
• db_runtime_ms - Database query time in milliseconds (when available)
• params - Filtered request parameters (only when send_default_pii is enabled)

ActiveJob Logs (when enabled)

Common attributes for all ActiveJob events:

• job_class - Job class name
• job_id - Unique job identifier
• queue_name - Queue name where job is processed
• executions - Number of execution attempts
• priority - Job priority

For perform events:

• duration_ms - Job execution time in milliseconds
• adapter - Queue adapter class name
• scheduled_at - When job was scheduled in ISO8601 format (for delayed jobs)
• delay_ms - Delay between scheduling and execution in milliseconds (for delayed jobs)
• arguments - Job arguments (only when send_default_pii is enabled, filtered for sensitive data)

For enqueue events:

• adapter - Queue adapter class name (when available)
• scheduled_at - When job was scheduled in ISO8601 format (for delayed jobs)
• delay_seconds - Delay between current time and scheduled time in seconds (for delayed jobs)

For retry_stopped and discard events:

• error_class - Error class name (when error is present)
• error_message - Error message (when error is present)

ActionMailer Logs (when enabled)

For deliver events:

• mailer - Mailer class name
• duration_ms - Email delivery time in milliseconds
• perform_deliveries - Whether deliveries are enabled
• delivery_method - Email delivery method used (when available)
• date - Email date header as string (when available)
• message_id - Email message ID (only when send_default_pii is enabled)

For process events:

• mailer - Mailer class name
• action - Mailer action method name
• duration_ms - Email processing time in milliseconds
• params - Mailer parameters (only when send_default_pii is enabled, filtered for sensitive data)

Troubleshooting

If logs aren't appearing in Sentry:

Verify configuration:

Sentry.init do |config|
  config.enable_logs = true  # Must be set
end

Test your setup:

Sentry.logger.info("Test log message")
Sentry.get_current_client.flush

Then verify if the log appears in Sentry.

Enable debug mode:

config.debug = true  # See SDK diagnostic output