Skip to content

Configuration reference

django-log-panel is configured through the LOG_PANEL Django setting.

Backend and storage settings

Setting Default Description
BACKEND None Dotted path to a custom backend class. Overrides auto-detection.
DATABASE_ALIAS None Database alias for log storage (SQL or MongoDB). The backend engine is detected from the DATABASES entry — set ENGINE to "django_mongodb_backend" for MongoDB or any Django SQL backend for SQL.
MESSAGE_PREVIEW_LENGTH 16384 Number of characters kept inline on the Log row before larger messages are moved into ordered chunks.
MESSAGE_CHUNK_SIZE 262144 Number of characters stored per large-message chunk.
RETENTION_DAYS 90 Retention window in days. Used by the delete_old_logs cleanup command.

Capture and alert settings

Setting Default Description
ATTACH_ROOT_HANDLER True Auto-attach the matching log_panel handler to the root logger at startup.
LOG_LEVEL "INFO" Minimum level for the auto-attached handler and root logger. Only used when ATTACH_ROOT_HANDLER is True.
BUFFER_SIZE None Enable batch writes by setting this to a positive integer. When set, the auto-attached handler becomes a BufferedDatabaseHandler that accumulates up to this many records before flushing with a single bulk_create. None (default) keeps the original per-record DatabaseHandler.
BUFFER_FLUSH_INTERVAL 2.0 Maximum age in seconds before the next log activity flushes the current buffer. Only used when BUFFER_SIZE is set.
BUFFER_FLUSH_LEVEL "WARNING" Records at or above this level trigger an immediate flush regardless of buffer size. Only used when BUFFER_SIZE is set.
IGNORED_LOGGER_PREFIXES ("pymongo",) Logger namespaces skipped by DatabaseHandler, including child loggers. User values extend the default.
IGNORED_LOGGER_NAMES () Exact logger names skipped by DatabaseHandler.
IGNORED_MESSAGE_SUBSTRINGS () Message substrings skipped by DatabaseHandler. Useful when a project SQL logger emits noisy third-party queries.
THRESHOLDS {"WARNING": 1, "ERROR": 1, "CRITICAL": 1} Per-level alert thresholds for the log_threshold_reached signal. Omit a level to keep its default. Set a level to None to disable it.

Ignored loggers

DatabaseHandler silently skips records from pymongo and pymongo.* loggers by default. pymongo's background monitor thread emits DEBUG logs during connection setup, which would cause recursive writes back to MongoDB. Django database and SQL loggers are still captured.

Add noisy application or third-party loggers through LOG_PANEL:

LOG_PANEL = {
    "IGNORED_LOGGER_PREFIXES": ("silk",),
    "IGNORED_LOGGER_NAMES": ("myapp.single_noisy_logger",),
}

Prefixes are namespace-aware: silk matches silk and silk.middleware, but not silky.

For django-silk, SQL query logs will be heavy if LOG_LEVEL is DEBUG. Ignore the Silk table prefix in the message:

LOG_PANEL = {
    "IGNORED_MESSAGE_SUBSTRINGS": ("silk_",),
}

This skips logged queries for tables such as "silk_request" and "silk_response".

Admin UI and access settings

Setting Default Description
TITLE "Log Panel" Page title shown in the admin UI.
PAGE_SIZE 10 Rows per page in the detail table.
RANGES {"24h": ..., "30d": ..., "90d": ...} Timeline ranges shown on the dashboard cards.
CACHE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS 30 Django cache timeout for admin dashboard logger cards. Set to None to disable card caching.
LEVEL_COLORS see below Hex colors for log level badges in the table view. Merged with defaults, so you only need to override the levels you want to change.
PERMISSION_CALLBACK None Dotted path to a callable (request) -> bool. When unset, any active staff user may view the panel.

LEVEL_COLORS

Default colors for Python's standard log levels:

Level Default color
NOTSET #888
DEBUG #888
INFO #417690
WARNING #c0a000
ERROR #c47900
CRITICAL #ba2121

Override individual levels or add custom ones:

LOG_PANEL = {
    "LEVEL_COLORS": {
        "CRITICAL": "#9b00d3",
        "MY_AUDIT": "#0055aa",
    },
}

Any level without an entry falls back to gray.

Custom log levels are supported. If you register one with Python's logging module and add it to LEVEL_COLORS, it will appear in the admin filter dropdown.

import logging

MY_AUDIT = 25
logging.addLevelName(MY_AUDIT, "MY_AUDIT")

LOG_PANEL = {
    "LEVEL_COLORS": {
        "MY_AUDIT": "#0055aa",
    },
}

logger.exception() still stores the record at ERROR level, not a separate EXCEPTION level.

PERMISSION_CALLBACK

Use PERMISSION_CALLBACK when the default is_staff check is too broad.

LOG_PANEL = {
    "PERMISSION_CALLBACK": "myapp.utils.can_view_logs",
}

The callback receives the current HttpRequest and must return True to grant access.

def can_view_logs(request):
    return request.user.is_superuser

def can_view_logs(request):
    return request.user.groups.filter(name="log-viewers").exists()

Custom RANGES

Override the default dashboard ranges by providing RangeConfig instances or plain dictionaries.

from datetime import timedelta

from log_panel.types import RangeConfig, RangeUnit

LOG_PANEL = {
    "RANGES": {
        "1h": RangeConfig(
            delta=timedelta(hours=1),
            unit=RangeUnit.HOUR,
            slots=12,
            format="%H:%M",
            label="Last hour",
        ),
        "7d": RangeConfig(
            delta=timedelta(days=7),
            unit=RangeUnit.DAY,
            slots=7,
            format="%b %d",
            label="Last 7 days",
        ),
    },
}

See also