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pgtail

Interactive PostgreSQL log tailer with auto-detection and color output.

pgtail automatically discovers running PostgreSQL instances and provides real-time log streaming with powerful filtering, syntax highlighting, and an interactive terminal UI.

Features

  • Auto-detection - Automatically finds PostgreSQL instances (running processes, pgrx, PGDATA env)
  • Format support - TEXT, CSV (csvlog), and JSON (jsonlog) log formats
  • Real-time filtering - Filter by log level, regex patterns, time ranges, and fields
  • SQL highlighting - Syntax highlighting for SQL in log messages
  • Vim navigation - Navigate logs with vim-style keybindings (j/k, g/G, Ctrl+d/u)
  • Visual selection - Select text with v/V and copy with y or Ctrl+c
  • Slow query detection - Highlight slow queries based on configurable thresholds
  • Desktop notifications - Get notified of errors, patterns, or slow queries
  • Themeable - Built-in themes (dark, light, monokai, solarized) plus custom themes
  • Status toolbar - REPL bottom toolbar shows instance count, active filters, and theme
  • Shell mode - Run shell commands without leaving pgtail (! prefix)
  • Export - Export filtered logs to files or pipe to external commands

Quick Example

# Start pgtail
pgtail

# List detected instances
pgtail> list

# Tail instance 0
pgtail> tail 0

# In tail mode, filter to errors only
tail> level error

# Exit with 'q' or Ctrl+C

Requirements

  • Python 3.10+
  • PostgreSQL with logging_collector = on and log_destination set to stderr, csvlog, or jsonlog

Installation

brew install willibrandon/tap/pgtail

winget install willibrandon.pgtail

pip install git+https://github.com/willibrandon/pgtail.git

See the Installation Guide for all options including binary downloads.

Getting Help