Better Stack .NET logging

Start logging in 2 minutes

Which .NET logger do you want to use to send logs to Better Stack?

• NLog
• Serilog

Send logs to Better Stack using NLog

1. Install

Install NLog.Extension.Logging and BetterStack.Logs.NLog packages:

dotnet add package NLog.Extensions.Logging
dotnet add package BetterStack.Logs.NLog

2. Setup

Set up NLog logging with Better Stack. Save the following config as nlog.config in your project root:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<nlog xmlns="http://www.nlog-project.org/schemas/NLog.xsd"
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        autoReload="true"
        internalLogLevel="Warn"
        internalLogFile="internal.txt">
    <extensions>
        <add assembly="BetterStack.Logs.NLog" />
    </extensions>

    <targets>
        <target xsi:type="BetterStack.Logs"
            name="mybetterstack"
            layout="${message}"
            sourceToken="$SOURCE_TOKEN"
            endpoint="https://$INGESTING_HOST" />
    </targets>

    <rules>
        <logger name="*" minlevel="Trace" writeTo="mybetterstack" />
    </rules>
</nlog>

Add the following configuration to your .csproj file:

<ItemGroup>
  <None Update="nlog.config" CopyToOutputDirectory="Always" />
</ItemGroup>

3. Start logging

Use NLog logger as usual:

// Configures NLog to color properties based on their type, you can remove it if you don't want it
NLog.LogManager.Setup().SetupSerialization(
  setupBuilder => setupBuilder.RegisterValueFormatter(new BetterStack.Logs.NLog.ColorValueFormatter())
);

var logger = NLog.LogManager.GetCurrentClassLogger();

logger.Error("Something bad happened.");
logger.Info("Log message with structured logging. {object}", new {
  item="Orange Soda",
  price=100.00,
});
logger.Info("User has bought {item} for {price}.", "Orange Soda", 100.00);

You should see your logs in Better Stack → Live tail.
Find passed structured data under the context.properties field.

Send logs to Better Stack using Serilog

1. Install

Install Serilog.Extensions.Logging and BetterStack.Logs.Serilog packages:

dotnet add package Serilog.Extensions.Logging
dotnet add package BetterStack.Logs.Serilog

2. Configure Serilog and start logging

Use Serilog logger with configured .WriteTo.BetterStack() sink:

using Serilog;

Log.Logger = new LoggerConfiguration()
    .WriteTo.BetterStack(
        sourceToken: "$SOURCE_TOKEN",
        betterStackEndpoint: "https://$INGESTING_HOST"
    )
    .MinimumLevel.Info()
    .CreateLogger();

Log.Error("Something bad happened.");
Log.Information("Log message with structured logging. {Object}", new {
  item="Orange Soda",
  price=100.00,
});
Log.Information("User has bought {Item} for {Price}.", "Orange Soda", 100.00);

Log.CloseAndFlush();

You should see your logs in Better Stack → Live tail.
Find passed structured data under the properties field.

Additional information

You can see example projects for both NLog and Serilog integration.

Using Serilog

For logs to be sent to Better Stack reliably, Serilog must be properly closed by Log.CloseAndFlush(), even when the application ends unexpectedly. For more information, see Lifecycle of Loggers in Serilog docs.

For more on Serilog configuration, see their official docs.

Need help?

Please let us know at hello@betterstack.com.
We're happy to help! 🙏