Logs environment variables#

File-based configuration

You can add _FILE to individual variables to provide their configuration in a separate file. Refer to Keeping sensitive data in separate files for more details.

This page lists environment variables to set up logging for debugging. Refer to Logging in n8n for details.

n8n logs#

Variable	Type	Default	Description
`N8N_LOG_LEVEL`	Enum string: `info`, `warn`, `error`, `debug`	`info`	Log output level. Refer to Log levels for details.
`N8N_LOG_OUTPUT`	Enum string: `console`, `file`	`console`	Where to output logs. Provide multiple values as a comma-separated list.
`N8N_LOG_FORMAT`	Enum string: `text`, `json`	`text`	The log format to use. `text` prints human readable messages. `json` prints one JSON object per line containing the message, level, timestamp, and all metadata. This is useful for production monitoring as well as debugging.
`N8N_LOG_CRON_ACTIVE_INTERVAL`	Number	`0`	Interval in minutes to log currently active cron jobs. Set to `0` to disable.
`N8N_LOG_FILE_COUNT_MAX`	Number	`100`	Max number of log files to keep.
`N8N_LOG_FILE_SIZE_MAX`	Number	`16`	Max size of each log file in MB.
`N8N_LOG_FILE_LOCATION`	String	`<n8n-directory-path>/logs/n8n.log`	Log file location. Requires N8N_LOG_OUTPUT set to `file`.
`DB_LOGGING_ENABLED`	Boolean	`false`	Whether to enable database-specific logging.
`DB_LOGGING_OPTIONS`	Enum string: `query`, `error`, `schema`, `warn`, `info`, `log`	`error`	Database log output level. To enable all logging, specify `all`. Refer to TypeORM logging options
`DB_LOGGING_MAX_EXECUTION_TIME`	Number	`1000`	Maximum execution time (in milliseconds) before n8n logs a warning. Set to `0` to disable long running query warning.
`CODE_ENABLE_STDOUT`	Boolean	`false`	Set to `true` to send Code node logs from `console.log` or `print` to the process's stdout, only for production executions.
`NO_COLOR`	any	`undefined`	Set to any value to output logs without ANSI colors. For more information, see the no-color.org website.

Log streaming#

Refer to Log streaming for more information on this feature.

Variable	Type	Default	Description
`N8N_EVENTBUS_CHECKUNSENTINTERVAL`	Number	`0`	How often (in milliseconds) to check for unsent event messages. Can in rare cases send message twice. Set to `0` to disable it.
`N8N_EVENTBUS_LOGWRITER_SYNCFILEACCESS`	Boolean	`false`	Whether all file access happens synchronously within the thread (true) or not (false).
`N8N_EVENTBUS_LOGWRITER_KEEPLOGCOUNT`	Number	`3`	Number of event log files to keep.
`N8N_EVENTBUS_LOGWRITER_MAXFILESIZEINKB`	Number	`10240`	Maximum size (in kilo-bytes) of an event log file before a new one starts.
`N8N_EVENTBUS_LOGWRITER_LOGBASENAME`	String	`n8nEventLog`	Basename of the event log file. Ignored when `N8N_EVENTBUS_LOGWRITER_LOGFULLPATH` is set.
`N8N_EVENTBUS_LOGWRITER_LOGFULLPATH`	String	`''`	Absolute path to the event log file. Must end in `.log`. When set, this path is used verbatim and overrides `N8N_EVENTBUS_LOGWRITER_LOGBASENAME` and the default per-process suffix. Use this to give each n8n process a unique event log path when multiple processes share a writable filesystem. Refer to Per-process event log files for details.
`N8N_EVENTBUS_LOGWRITER_MAXTOTALMESSAGESPERFILE`	Number	`500000`	Maximum number of lines parsed from a single event log file during recovery. Bounds memory use when an event log file contains many invalid lines.

Manage log streaming destinations from environment variables#

Set N8N_LOG_STREAMING_MANAGED_BY_ENV to true to manage log streaming destinations from environment variables. See Manage instance settings using environment variables for how the activation pattern works, and Configure log streaming destinations using environment variables for the per-destination JSON shape.

Variable	Type	Default	Description
`N8N_LOG_STREAMING_MANAGED_BY_ENV`	Boolean	`false`	Set to `true` to manage log streaming from environment variables. When `true`, n8n applies the log streaming variables on every startup and locks the matching UI controls.
`N8N_LOG_STREAMING_DESTINATIONS`	JSON string	-	JSON array of log streaming destinations. Each destination is an object with a `type` of `webhook`, `syslog`, or `sentry`, plus the configuration for that type.

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