Centralizing deployment logs in third-party services

Diagnosing a deployment often means digging through logs from the Build Step, Runtime, and Edge Network. Vercel now offers Log Drains as a way to offload that data to dedicated log management platforms. The feature forwards each new log line to an external service, eliminating the need to query logs across multiple interfaces.

How Log Drains work

Log Drains transmit log entries in real time to an archival, search, or alerting service. They support delivery over HTTPS, HTTP, TLS, and TCP, with three available payload formats:

  • JSON
  • NDJSON
  • Syslog

Alongside the general mechanism, two first-party logging integrations are launching in the Integrations Marketplace: LogDNA and Datadog.

The LogDNA and Datadog integrations available in the ZEIT Integrations marketplace.

Connecting a project takes three steps:

  1. Install the selected integration from the Integrations Marketplace.
  2. Complete the configuration flow and link the service to a project.
  3. Observe incoming logs in the provider's dashboard.
The LogDNA and Datadog application interfaces.

Why offload logs

Moving logs to a dedicated provider brings capabilities that are not part of a standard deployment workflow:

  • Persistent log retention beyond the platform's default window.
  • High-volume storage for extended debugging and auditing.
  • Alert rules that trigger on specific log patterns.
  • Metric generation and graph visualization from the log stream.

Launch partners for the feature include LogDNA, Logflare, and Datadog. Developers interested in building their own drain can refer to the integration documentation. Feedback and feature requests are welcome via email or on Twitter.