# Nodejs logging using winston **URL:** \ **Category:** Developers & API\ **Tags:** api, nodejs\ **Created:** [November 29, 2022, 3:31pm UTC](https://community.grafana.com/t/nodejs-logging-using-winston/76990 "2022-11-29T15:31:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![terchris](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/grafana/user_avatar/community.grafana.com/terchris/32/28024_2.png) [@terchris](https://community.grafana.com/u/terchris)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2022, 3:31pm UTC](https://community.grafana.com/t/nodejs-logging-using-winston/76990/1 "2022-11-29T15:31:39Z")
How to log from my node application using winston ? I can find one article about it. But that howto requires patching to make it work, > **[How to configure Grafana Loki to collect Node.js logs](https://grafana.com/blog/2022/07/07/how-to-configure-grafana-loki-with-a-node.js-e-commerce-app/)** > > To better understand the customer experience for my dad's online honey business, I introduced logging capabilities to the Node.js app with Grafana Loki. Sending a log from an application must be pretty basic. But I can’t find any examples. I hope someone has a simple example of getting a log from an application running in nodejs. A simple “Hello world” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![yosiasz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/grafana/user_avatar/community.grafana.com/yosiasz/32/45847_2.png) [@yosiasz](https://community.grafana.com/u/yosiasz)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2022, 6:53pm UTC](https://community.grafana.com/t/nodejs-logging-using-winston/76990/2 "2022-11-29T18:53:27Z")
Welcome In your nodejs app just pop this in for starters ```auto const { createLogger, transports, format } = require("winston"); const LokiTransport = require("winston-loki"); const l_log = createLogger({ transports: [new LokiTransport({ host: "http://127.0.0.1:3100", labels: { app: 'honeyshop'}, json: true, format: format.json(), replaceTimestamp: true, onConnectionError: (err) => console.error(err) }), new transports.Console({ format: format.combine(format.simple(), format.colorize()) })] }) l_log.info({ message: `Hello World`, labels: { 'origin': 'api' } }) ``` ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/grafana/original/3X/8/0/805e5698dd5bea9c3f420bc55addb1c11bc17eac.png) ---
**Author:** ![terchris](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/grafana/user_avatar/community.grafana.com/terchris/32/28024_2.png) [@terchris](https://community.grafana.com/u/terchris)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 8:39am UTC](https://community.grafana.com/t/nodejs-logging-using-winston/76990/3 "2022-11-30T08:39:29Z")
Hi @yosiasz and thank you for your reply. In your example, the host is on the same machine as the node app is running. I would prefer not to set up grafana system myself. Rather use the Grafana Cloud Free account ( [Grafana Cloud | Observability platform overview](https://grafana.com/products/cloud/) ). As [Dan Mihai Dinu](https://grafana.com/author/dan_dinu/) writes in his post - winston-loki does not work when sending logs to the hosted grafana service. > Bummer, it doesn’t work. After a good hour of debugging, I noticed that _winston-loki_ works fine with local instances of Grafana Loki, but it doesn’t authenticate properly to send requests to Grafana Cloud Logs From the screenshot in his article, I see that the version he is patching is winston-loki 6.0.5. The latest version is now 6.0.6 and I don’t know if the problem is fixed or not. And I’m not sure if his patch for version 6.0.5 will work on 6.0.6. To me, this seems like a bug. But I’m not sure whether it is in Grafana cloud or winston-loki. ---
**Author:** ![yosiasz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/grafana/user_avatar/community.grafana.com/yosiasz/32/45847_2.png) [@yosiasz](https://community.grafana.com/u/yosiasz)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 8:45am UTC](https://community.grafana.com/t/nodejs-logging-using-winston/76990/4 "2022-11-30T08:45:09Z")
> [@terchris](#): > > In your example, the host is on the same machine as the node app is running. Hey, You are correct @terchris . Bummer indeed. I think you are going to be the one to lead us where no person has gone before 😉 So the main question is why would it not work when it is a remote host? Also can one bypass winston-loki and hit loki using it’s own api? > **[Grafana Loki HTTP API | Grafana Loki documentation](https://grafana.com/docs/loki/latest/reference/api/)** > > Loki exposes REST endpoints for operating on a Loki cluster. This section details the REST endpoints. And check out how other languages do it and grok it in javascript > Thinking out loud ---
**Author:** ![terchris](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/grafana/user_avatar/community.grafana.com/terchris/32/28024_2.png) [@terchris](https://community.grafana.com/u/terchris)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 9:00am UTC](https://community.grafana.com/t/nodejs-logging-using-winston/76990/5 "2022-11-30T09:00:11Z")
Hi Based on the article by Dan Mihai Dinu I have tested sending data to grafana cloud using postman. ![Screen Shot 2022-11-30 at 09.48.32](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/grafana/original/3X/4/d/4d58d4a249165809c7242efa5ed40dee275c8330.png) It works just fine. There is a undocumented part in his article. That is the first parameter in values. In my example, when I tested yesterday, I set it to “1669731652002000001”, It is the UNIX timestamp ( [https://www.unixtimestamp.com/](https://www.unixtimestamp.com/)) Also note that the URL contains the userid and password. Mine looks like this: [https://333666:eyJrIjoiMDc5.......@logs-prod-eu-west-0.grafana.net/loki/api/v1/push](https://333666:eyJrIjoiMDc5.......@logs-prod-eu-west-0.grafana.net/loki/api/v1/push) This is the body of my message: ```auto { "streams": [ { "stream": { "level": "info", "app": "urbalurba" }, "values": [ [ "1669731652002000001", "{\"timestamp\":\"2022-11-15T12:08:57.322Z\",\"logMessage\":\"Updated merge\",\"jobname\":\"webpage_info2merge\",\"idName\":\"bamble.kommune.no\",\"counter\":null,\"totalCount\":null,\"level\":\"info\",\"message\":\"Updated merge\"}" ] ] } ] } ``` ---
**Author:** ![yosiasz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/grafana/user_avatar/community.grafana.com/yosiasz/32/45847_2.png) [@yosiasz](https://community.grafana.com/u/yosiasz)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 9:30am UTC](https://community.grafana.com/t/nodejs-logging-using-winston/76990/6 "2022-11-30T09:30:53Z")
Cool. Not sure what you are trying to point out in your last post. Anyways I would Implement what worked in postman in the code for nodejs Meaning a POST also adding user name and token in the url Or I believe createLogger has one option for that: basicAuth ---
**Author:** ![terchris](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/grafana/user_avatar/community.grafana.com/terchris/32/28024_2.png) [@terchris](https://community.grafana.com/u/terchris)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 9:52am UTC](https://community.grafana.com/t/nodejs-logging-using-winston/76990/7 "2022-11-30T09:52:26Z")
Hi In my previous post I was just pointing out that it is possible to send log directly to grafana cloud using the API. I could implement my own function to just send my log directly to grafana cloud using that API. Then there would be no need for winston-loki at all. But I’m sure that the internal workings of winston-loki is more complex than just a wrapper to that API. So it is better to solve the problem in the winston-loki. I do not have the skills to fix the winston-loki ☹ ---
**Author:** ![yosiasz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/grafana/user_avatar/community.grafana.com/yosiasz/32/45847_2.png) [@yosiasz](https://community.grafana.com/u/yosiasz)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 9:58am UTC](https://community.grafana.com/t/nodejs-logging-using-winston/76990/8 "2022-11-30T09:58:16Z")
> [@terchris](#): > > But I’m sure that the internal workings of winston-loki is more complex than just a wrapper to that API Are you 100% sure? 😉 Check this out ```auto logger.add(new LokiTransport({ host: 'http://127.0.0.1:3100', json: true, basicAuth: 'username:password', labels: { job: 'winston-loki-example' } })) ``` ---
**Author:** ![yosiasz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/grafana/user_avatar/community.grafana.com/yosiasz/32/45847_2.png) [@yosiasz](https://community.grafana.com/u/yosiasz)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 7:00pm UTC](https://community.grafana.com/t/nodejs-logging-using-winston/76990/9 "2022-11-30T19:00:22Z")
So I spun up a cloud loki ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/grafana/original/3X/a/5/a5266d38ef03bdc3cd03ba70162f14c0c26d991a.png) then using the basicAuth setting I used the user and password as follows ```auto transports: [new LokiTransport({ host: "https://your_cloud_url_from_above", labels: { app: 'kumbamboom'}, json: true, basicAuth: 'user_from_above:password_from_above', format: format.json(), replaceTimestamp: true, ``` ---
**Author:** ![terchris](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/grafana/user_avatar/community.grafana.com/terchris/32/28024_2.png) [@terchris](https://community.grafana.com/u/terchris)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2022, 12:49pm UTC](https://community.grafana.com/t/nodejs-logging-using-winston/76990/10 "2022-12-02T12:49:22Z")
Thanks @yosiasz Based on your input and [Winston-loki not working with Grafana Cloud Loki · Issue #108 · JaniAnttonen/winston-loki · GitHub](https://github.com/JaniAnttonen/winston-loki/issues/108) I created this simple code. I think that my problem was that I had my parameters wrong (URL and probably password). There are probably return codes that can be inspected to help in case it does not work. I was looking for a simple code to test- I could not find one so I created it. ```nohighlight /* The siplest test ever to see if grafana cloud and winston is working A small node app that sends a log message to Grafana Cloud Loki using the winston-loki transport. To you by terchris and friends. */ import winston from "winston"; import LokiTransport from "winston-loki" // https://grafana.com/orgs/urbalurba (change urbalurba to your own org) // in the Loki card. Click on the Details button. On the next page you will se the Grafana Data Source settings. // Create a password and replace the const variables below with your own values. const GRAFANA_HOST = "https://logs-prod-eu-west-0.grafana.net"; const MY_APP_NAME = "urbalurba"; const GRAFANA_USERID = "333666"; const GRAFANA_PASSWORD = "eyJr1234567890FjYzZlOTg2NTE5ZDIyY12345678900ODdlZjAx1234567890IsIm4iOiJ1234567890iwi1234567890cyM30="; // start leave this as is const GRAFANA_BASICAUTH = GRAFANA_USERID + ":" + GRAFANA_PASSWORD; const logger = winston.createLogger({ level: 'debug', transports: [ new LokiTransport({ host: GRAFANA_HOST, labels: { app: MY_APP_NAME }, json: true, basicAuth: GRAFANA_BASICAUTH, format: winston.format.json(), replaceTimestamp: true, onConnectionError: (err) => console.error(err) }), new winston.transports.Console({}), ], }); // end leave this as is // send some log messages logger.info("Starting test"); logger.debug("sending debug message"); logger.warn("sending warn message"); logger.error("sending error message"); logger.info("done testing"); // To see the logging in grafana cloud, go to Explore https://urbalurba.grafana.net/explore (change urbalurba to your own org) // At the top there is a dropdown. Select the one with the Loki logo (in my case grafanacloud-urbalurba-logs) // In the "Select label" dropdown select "app" and in the "Select value" dropdown select "urbalurba" (change urbalurba to your own app name) // Click on the "Run Query" button in the upper right corner. You should see the log messages you sent above. ``` ---
**Author:** ![architectinprogress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f9ae1b/32.png) [@architectinprogress](https://community.grafana.com/u/architectinprogress)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2022, 8:43am UTC](https://community.grafana.com/t/nodejs-logging-using-winston/76990/11 "2022-12-29T08:43:33Z")
@terchris Hey there. I tried hitting the url using postman. I’m getting a 204 response and the labels are also getting created in Loki but the logs shows “No logs found” What am I missing? TIA ---
**Author:** ![architectinprogress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f9ae1b/32.png) [@architectinprogress](https://community.grafana.com/u/architectinprogress)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2022, 4:31pm UTC](https://community.grafana.com/t/nodejs-logging-using-winston/76990/12 "2022-12-29T16:31:57Z")
**Update** : The logs for the post request that I made yesterday is showing up now. But its not showing for the recent requests. I guess there is a lag. Any help will be appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![arielb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/839c29/32.png) [@arielb](https://community.grafana.com/u/arielb)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2023, 2:16pm UTC](https://community.grafana.com/t/nodejs-logging-using-winston/76990/13 "2023-08-20T14:16:19Z")
@architectinprogress I was facing the same issue, look at the timestamp in nanoseconds that you send and see that the endpoint matches the one needed for Loki! **Note:** by default, Grafana only looks 6h ago. `POST` `https://:@.grafana.net/loki/api/v1/push` ```json { "streams": [ { "stream": { "level": "info", "app": "bees" }, "values": [ [ "1692536838000000000", "{\"level\":\"info\",\"message\":\"Hello bananas!\"}" ] ] } ] } ``` ---
**Author:** ![mvogelenzang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@mvogelenzang](https://community.grafana.com/u/mvogelenzang)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2024, 5:57am UTC](https://community.grafana.com/t/nodejs-logging-using-winston/76990/14 "2024-11-13T05:57:55Z")
If anyone needs an on the fly patch for winston-loki, this worked for me: ```auto import winston from 'winston'; import LokiTransport from 'winston-loki'; import dotenv from 'dotenv'; import fetch from 'node-fetch'; dotenv.config(); // Load environment variables // Extend LokiTransport class ExtendedLokiTransport extends LokiTransport { constructor(options) { // Pass options to the base constructor super(options); // Ensure options are stored this.options = options; } log(info, callback) { const { message, ...metadata } = info; // Prepare the log entry const logEntry = { message, ...metadata }; // Remove the `level` field from metadata delete metadata.level; // Prepare the payload const payload = { streams: [ { stream: this.options.labels || {}, // Ensure labels are provided values: [[`${Date.now()}000000`, JSON.stringify(logEntry)]], }, ], }; // Prepare headers const headers = { 'Content-Type': 'application/json', Authorization: `Basic ${Buffer.from(this.options.basicAuth).toString('base64')}`, }; // Send the payload to Loki fetch(this.options.host, { method: 'POST', headers, body: JSON.stringify(payload), }) .then((response) => { if (!response.ok) { console.error(`Loki transport error (${response.status}): ${response.statusText}`); } else { console.log('Log successfully sent to Loki'); } callback(); }) .catch((err) => { console.error('Loki transport fetch error:', err); callback(err); }); } } // Create the logger using the extended transport export const logger = winston.createLogger({ level: 'info', format: winston.format.json(), transports: [ new ExtendedLokiTransport({ host: process.env.LOKI_URL, basicAuth: `${process.env.LOKI_USERNAME}:${process.env.LOKI_PASSWORD}`, labels: { app: 'exactplay-unified-api-server' }, }), ], }); ```