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LogCLI getting started

logcli is a command-line client for Loki that lets you run LogQL queries against your Loki instance. The query command will output extra information about the query and its results, such as the API URL, set of common labels, and set of excluded labels.

This is useful, for example, if you want to download a range of logs from Loki. Or want to perform analytical administration tasks, for example, discover the number of log streams to understand your label cardinality, or find out the estimated volume of data that a query will search over. You can also use logcli as part of shell scripts.

If you are a Grafana Cloud user, you can also use logcli to query logs that you have exported to long-term storage with Cloud Logs Export, or any other Loki formatted log data.

Note

Note that logcli is a querying tool, it cannot be used to ingest logs.

Install logcli

As a best practice, you should download the version of logcli that matches your Loki version. And upgrade your logcli when you upgrade your version of Loki.

Download the logcli binary from the Loki releases page.

Builds are available for Linux, Mac, and Windows.

Build LogCLI from source

Clone the Loki repository and build logcli from source:

bash 
git clone https://github.com/grafana/loki.git
cd loki
make logcli

Optionally, move the binary into a directory that is part of your $PATH.

bash 
cp cmd/logcli/logcli /usr/local/bin/logcli

Set up command completion

You can set up tab-completion for logcli with one of the two options, depending on your shell:

  • For bash, add this to your ~/.bashrc file:
bash 
eval "$(logcli --completion-script-bash)"
  • For zsh, add this to your ~/.zshrc file:
bash 
eval "$(logcli --completion-script-zsh)"

LogCLI usage

Once you have installed logcli, you can run it in the following way:

logcli <command> [<flags>, <args> ...]

<command> points to one of the commands, detailed in the command reference below.

<flags> is one of the subcommands available for each command.

<args> is a list of space separated arguments. Arguments can optionally be overridden using environment variables. Environment variables will always take precedence over command line arguments.

Authenticate to Loki

To connect to a Loki instance, set the following argument:

  • --addr=http://loki.example.com:3100 or the LOKI_ADDR environment variable

For example, to query a local Loki instance directly without needing a username and password:

bash 
export LOKI_ADDR=http://localhost:3100

logcli query '{service_name="website"}'

To connect to a Loki instance which requires authentication, you will need to additionally set the following arguments:

  • --username or the LOKI_USERNAME environment variable
  • --password or the LOKI_PASSWORD environment variable

For example, to query Grafana Cloud:

bash 
export LOKI_ADDR=https://logs-us-west1.grafana.net
export LOKI_USERNAME=<username>
export LOKI_PASSWORD=<password>

logcli query '{service_name="website"}'

To specify a particular tenant, set the following argument:

  • --org-id or the LOKI_ORG_ID environment variable

Note

If you are running Loki behind a proxy server and you have authentication configured, you will also have to pass in LOKI_USERNAME and LOKI_PASSWORD, LOKI_BEARER_TOKEN or LOKI_BEARER_TOKEN_FILE accordingly.

LogCLI command reference

The output of logcli help:

shell 
usage: logcli <command> [<flags>][<args> ...]

A command-line for Loki.

Flags:
      --help             Show context-sensitive help (also try --help-long and
                         --help-man).
      --version          Show application version.
  -q, --quiet            Suppress query metadata
      --stats            Show query statistics
  -o, --output=default   Specify output mode [default, raw, jsonl]. raw
                         suppresses log labels and timestamp.
  -z, --timezone=Local   Specify the timezone to use when formatting output
                         timestamps [Local, UTC]
      --cpuprofile=""    Specify the location for writing a CPU profile.
      --memprofile=""    Specify the location for writing a memory profile.
      --stdin            Take input logs from stdin
      --addr="http://localhost:3100"
                         Server address. Can also be set using LOKI_ADDR env
                         var.
      --username=""      Username for HTTP basic auth. Can also be set using
                         LOKI_USERNAME env var.
      --password=""      Password for HTTP basic auth. Can also be set using
                         LOKI_PASSWORD env var.
      --ca-cert=""       Path to the server Certificate Authority. Can also be
                         set using LOKI_CA_CERT_PATH env var.
      --tls-skip-verify  Server certificate TLS skip verify.
      --cert=""          Path to the client certificate. Can also be set using
                         LOKI_CLIENT_CERT_PATH env var.
      --key=""           Path to the client certificate key. Can also be set
                         using LOKI_CLIENT_KEY_PATH env var.
      --org-id=""        adds X-Scope-OrgID to API requests for representing
                         tenant ID. Useful for requesting tenant data when
                         bypassing an auth gateway.

Commands:
  help [<command>...]
    Show help.

  query [<flags>] <query>
    Run a LogQL query.

    The "query" command is useful for querying for logs. Logs can be returned in
    a few output modes:

      raw: log line
      default: log timestamp + log labels + log line
      jsonl: JSON response from Loki API of log line

    The output of the log can be specified with the "-o" flag, for example, "-o
    raw" for the raw output format.

    The "query" command will output extra information about the query and its
    results, such as the API URL, set of common labels, and set of excluded
    labels. This extra information can be suppressed with the --quiet flag.

    By default we look over the last hour of data; use --since to modify or
    provide specific start and end times with --from and --to respectively.

    Notice that when using --from and --to then ensure to use RFC3339Nano time
    format, but without timezone at the end. The local timezone will be added
    automatically or if using --timezone flag.

    Example:

      logcli query
         --timezone=UTC
         --from="2021-01-19T10:00:00Z"
         --to="2021-01-19T20:00:00Z"
         --output=jsonl
         'my-query'

    The output is limited to 30 entries by default; use --limit to increase.

    While "query" does support metrics queries, its output contains multiple
    data points between the start and end query time. This output is used to
    build graphs, similar to what is seen in the Grafana Explore graph view. If
    you are querying metrics and just want the most recent data point (like what
    is seen in the Grafana Explore table view), then you should use the
    "instant-query" command instead.

  instant-query [<flags>] <query>
    Run an instant LogQL query.

    The "instant-query" command is useful for evaluating a metric query for a
    single point in time. This is equivalent to the Grafana Explore table view;
    if you want a metrics query that is used to build a Grafana graph, you
    should use the "query" command instead.

    This command does not produce useful output when querying for log lines; you
    should always use the "query" command when you are running log queries.

    For more information about log queries and metric queries, refer to the
    LogQL documentation:

    https://grafana.com/docs/loki/<LOKI_VERSION>/logql/

  labels [<flags>] [<label>]
    Find values for a given label.

  series [<flags>] <matcher>
    Run series query.

    The "series" command will take the provided label matcher and return all the
    log streams found in the time window.

    It is possible to send an empty label matcher '{}' to return all streams.

    Use the --analyze-labels flag to get a summary of the labels found in all
    streams. This is helpful to find high cardinality labels.

query command reference

The output of logcli help query:

shell 
usage: logcli query [<flags>] <query>

Run a LogQL query.

The "query" command is useful for querying for logs. Logs can be returned in a few output modes:

  raw: log line
  default: log timestamp + log labels + log line
  jsonl: JSON response from Loki API of log line

The output of the log can be specified with the "-o" flag, for example, "-o raw" for the raw output format.

The "query" command will output extra information about the query and its results, such as the API URL, set of common labels, and set of
excluded labels. This extra information can be suppressed with the --quiet flag.

By default we look over the last hour of data; use --since to modify or provide specific start and end times with --from and --to
respectively.

Notice that when using --from and --to then ensure to use RFC3339Nano time format, but without timezone at the end. The local timezone will be
added automatically or if using --timezone flag.

Example:

  logcli query
     --timezone=UTC
     --from="2021-01-19T10:00:00Z"
     --to="2021-01-19T20:00:00Z"
     --output=jsonl
     'my-query'

The output is limited to 30 entries by default; use --limit to increase.

While "query" does support metrics queries, its output contains multiple data points between the start and end query time. This output is used
to build graphs, similar to what is seen in the Grafana Explore graph view. If you are querying metrics and just want the most recent data
point (like what is seen in the Grafana Explore table view), then you should use the "instant-query" command instead.

Parallelization:

You can download an unlimited number of logs in parallel, there are a few flags which control this behavior:

  --parallel-duration
  --parallel-max-workers
  --part-path-prefix
  --overwrite-completed-parts
  --merge-parts
  --keep-parts

Refer to the help for each flag for details about what each of them do.

Example:

  logcli query
     --timezone=UTC
     --from="2021-01-19T10:00:00Z"
     --to="2021-01-19T20:00:00Z"
     --output=jsonl
     --parallel-duration="15m"
     --parallel-max-workers="4"
     --part-path-prefix="/tmp/my_query"
     --merge-parts
     'my-query'

This example will create a queue of jobs to execute, each being 15 minutes in duration. In this case, that means, for the 10-hour total
duration, there will be forty 15-minute jobs. The --limit flag is ignored.

It will start four workers, and they will each take a job to work on from the queue until all the jobs have been completed.

Each job will save a "part" file to the location specified by the --part-path-prefix. Different prefixes can be used to run multiple queries
at the same time. The timestamp of the start and end of the part is in the file name. While the part is being downloaded, the filename will
end in ".part", when it is complete, the file will be renamed to remove this ".part" extension. By default, if a completed part file is found,
that part will not be downloaded again. This can be overridden with the `--overwrite-completed-parts` flag.

Part file example using the previous command, adding --keep-parts so they are not deleted:

Since we don't have the --forward flag, the parts will be downloaded in reverse. Two of the workers have finished their jobs (last two files),
and have picked up the next jobs in the queue. Running ls, this is what we should expect to see.

$ ls -1 /tmp/my_query* /tmp/my_query_20210119T183000_20210119T184500.part.tmp /tmp/my_query_20210119T184500_20210119T190000.part.tmp
/tmp/my_query_20210119T190000_20210119T191500.part.tmp /tmp/my_query_20210119T191500_20210119T193000.part.tmp
/tmp/my_query_20210119T193000_20210119T194500.part /tmp/my_query_20210119T194500_20210119T200000.part

If you do not specify the `--merge-parts` flag, the part files will be downloaded, and logcli will exit, and you can process the files as you
wish. With the flag specified, the part files will be read in order, and the output printed to the terminal. The lines will be printed as
soon as the next part is complete, you don't have to wait for all the parts to download before getting output. The `--merge-parts` flag will
remove the part files when it is done reading each of them. To change this, you can use the `--keep-parts` flag, and the part files will not be
removed.

Flags:
      --help                    Show context-sensitive help (also try --help-long and --help-man).
      --version                 Show application version.
  -q, --quiet                   Suppress query metadata
      --stats                   Show query statistics
  -o, --output=default          Specify output mode [default, raw, jsonl]. raw suppresses log labels and timestamp.
  -z, --timezone=Local          Specify the timezone to use when formatting output timestamps [Local, UTC]
      --cpuprofile=""           Specify the location for writing a CPU profile.
      --memprofile=""           Specify the location for writing a memory profile.
      --stdin                   Take input logs from stdin
      --addr="http://localhost:3100"
                                Server address. Can also be set using LOKI_ADDR env var.
      --username=""             Username for HTTP basic auth. Can also be set using LOKI_USERNAME env var.
      --password=""             Password for HTTP basic auth. Can also be set using LOKI_PASSWORD env var.
      --ca-cert=""              Path to the server Certificate Authority. Can also be set using LOKI_CA_CERT_PATH env var.
      --tls-skip-verify         Server certificate TLS skip verify. Can also be set using LOKI_TLS_SKIP_VERIFY env var.
      --cert=""                 Path to the client certificate. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_CERT_PATH env var.
      --key=""                  Path to the client certificate key. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_KEY_PATH env var.
      --org-id=""               adds X-Scope-OrgID to API requests for representing tenant ID. Useful for requesting tenant data when
                                bypassing an auth gateway. Can also be set using LOKI_ORG_ID env var.
      --query-tags=""           adds X-Query-Tags http header to API requests. This header value will be part of `metrics.go` statistics.
                                Useful for tracking the query. Can also be set using LOKI_QUERY_TAGS env var.
      --bearer-token=""         adds the Authorization header to API requests for authentication purposes. Can also be set using
                                LOKI_BEARER_TOKEN env var.
      --bearer-token-file=""    adds the Authorization header to API requests for authentication purposes. Can also be set using
                                LOKI_BEARER_TOKEN_FILE env var.
      --retries=0               How many times to retry each query when getting an error response from Loki. Can also be set using
                                LOKI_CLIENT_RETRIES env var.
      --min-backoff=0           Minimum backoff time between retries. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_MIN_BACKOFF env var.
      --max-backoff=0           Maximum backoff time between retries. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_MAX_BACKOFF env var.
      --auth-header="Authorization"
                                The authorization header used. Can also be set using LOKI_AUTH_HEADER env var.
      --proxy-url=""            The http or https proxy to use when making requests. Can also be set using LOKI_HTTP_PROXY_URL env var.
      --compress                Request that Loki compress returned data in transit. Can also be set using LOKI_HTTP_COMPRESSION env var.
      --limit=30                Limit on number of entries to print. Setting it to 0 will fetch all entries.
      --since=1h                Lookback window.
      --from=FROM               Start looking for logs at this absolute time (inclusive)
      --to=TO                   Stop looking for logs at this absolute time (exclusive)
      --step=STEP               Query resolution step width, for metric queries. Evaluate the query at the specified step over the time range.
      --interval=INTERVAL       Query interval, for log queries. Return entries at the specified interval, ignoring those between. **This
                                parameter is experimental, please see Issue 1779**
      --batch=1000              Query batch size to use until 'limit' is reached
      --parallel-duration=1h    Split the range into jobs of this length to download the logs in parallel. This will result in the logs being
                                out of order. Use --part-path-prefix to create a file per job to maintain ordering.
      --parallel-max-workers=1  Max number of workers to start up for parallel jobs. A value of 1 will not create any parallel workers.
                                When using parallel workers, limit is ignored.
      --part-path-prefix=PART-PATH-PREFIX
                                When set, each server response will be saved to a file with this prefix. Creates files in the format:
                                'prefix-utc_start-utc_end.part'. Intended to be used with the parallel-* flags so that you can combine the
                                files to maintain ordering based on the filename. Default is to write to stdout.
      --overwrite-completed-parts
                                Overwrites completed part files. This will download the range again, and replace the original completed part
                                file. Default will skip a range if it's part file is already downloaded.
      --merge-parts             Reads the part files in order and writes the output to stdout. Original part files will be deleted with this
                                option.
      --keep-parts              Overrides the default behavior of --merge-parts which will delete the part files once all the files have been
                                read. This option will keep the part files.
      --forward                 Scan forwards through logs.
      --no-labels               Do not print any labels
      --exclude-label=EXCLUDE-LABEL ...
                                Exclude labels given the provided key during output.
      --include-label=INCLUDE-LABEL ...
                                Include labels given the provided key during output.
      --labels-length=0         Set a fixed padding to labels
      --store-config=""         Execute the current query using a configured storage from a given Loki configuration file.
      --remote-schema           Execute the current query using a remote schema retrieved from the configured -schema-store.
      --schema-store=""         Store used for retrieving remote schema.
      --colored-output          Show output with colored labels
  -t, --tail                    Tail the logs
  -f, --follow                  Alias for --tail
      --delay-for=0             Delay in tailing by number of seconds to accumulate logs for re-ordering

Args:
  <query>  eg '{foo="bar",baz=~".*blip"} |~ ".*error.*"'

instant-query command reference

The output of logcli help instant-query:

shell 
usage: logcli instant-query [<flags>] <query>

Run an instant LogQL query.

The "instant-query" command is useful for evaluating a metric query for a single point in time. This is equivalent to the Grafana Explore
table view; if you want a metrics query that is used to build a Grafana graph, you should use the "query" command instead.

This command does not produce useful output when querying for log lines; you should always use the "query" command when you are running log
queries.

For more information about log queries and metric queries, refer to the LogQL documentation:

https://grafana.com/docs/loki/latest/logql/

Flags:
      --help                  Show context-sensitive help (also try --help-long and --help-man).
      --version               Show application version.
  -q, --quiet                 Suppress query metadata
      --stats                 Show query statistics
  -o, --output=default        Specify output mode [default, raw, jsonl]. raw suppresses log labels and timestamp.
  -z, --timezone=Local        Specify the timezone to use when formatting output timestamps [Local, UTC]
      --cpuprofile=""         Specify the location for writing a CPU profile.
      --memprofile=""         Specify the location for writing a memory profile.
      --stdin                 Take input logs from stdin
      --addr="http://localhost:3100"
                              Server address. Can also be set using LOKI_ADDR env var.
      --username=""           Username for HTTP basic auth. Can also be set using LOKI_USERNAME env var.
      --password=""           Password for HTTP basic auth. Can also be set using LOKI_PASSWORD env var.
      --ca-cert=""            Path to the server Certificate Authority. Can also be set using LOKI_CA_CERT_PATH env var.
      --tls-skip-verify       Server certificate TLS skip verify. Can also be set using LOKI_TLS_SKIP_VERIFY env var.
      --cert=""               Path to the client certificate. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_CERT_PATH env var.
      --key=""                Path to the client certificate key. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_KEY_PATH env var.
      --org-id=""             adds X-Scope-OrgID to API requests for representing tenant ID. Useful for requesting tenant data when bypassing
                              an auth gateway. Can also be set using LOKI_ORG_ID env var.
      --query-tags=""         adds X-Query-Tags http header to API requests. This header value will be part of `metrics.go` statistics.
                              Useful for tracking the query. Can also be set using LOKI_QUERY_TAGS env var.
      --bearer-token=""       adds the Authorization header to API requests for authentication purposes. Can also be set using
                              LOKI_BEARER_TOKEN env var.
      --bearer-token-file=""  adds the Authorization header to API requests for authentication purposes. Can also be set using
                              LOKI_BEARER_TOKEN_FILE env var.
      --retries=0             How many times to retry each query when getting an error response from Loki. Can also be set using
                              LOKI_CLIENT_RETRIES env var.
      --min-backoff=0         Minimum backoff time between retries. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_MIN_BACKOFF env var.
      --max-backoff=0         Maximum backoff time between retries. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_MAX_BACKOFF env var.
      --auth-header="Authorization"
                              The authorization header used. Can also be set using LOKI_AUTH_HEADER env var.
      --proxy-url=""          The http or https proxy to use when making requests. Can also be set using LOKI_HTTP_PROXY_URL env var.
      --compress              Request that Loki compress returned data in transit. Can also be set using LOKI_HTTP_COMPRESSION env var.
      --limit=30              Limit on number of entries to print. Setting it to 0 will fetch all entries.
      --now=NOW               Time at which to execute the instant query.
      --forward               Scan forwards through logs.
      --no-labels             Do not print any labels
      --exclude-label=EXCLUDE-LABEL ...
                              Exclude labels given the provided key during output.
      --include-label=INCLUDE-LABEL ...
                              Include labels given the provided key during output.
      --labels-length=0       Set a fixed padding to labels
      --store-config=""       Execute the current query using a configured storage from a given Loki configuration file.
      --remote-schema         Execute the current query using a remote schema retrieved from the configured -schema-store.
      --schema-store=""       Store used for retrieving remote schema.
      --colored-output        Show output with colored labels

Args:
  <query>  eg 'rate({foo="bar"} |~ ".*error.*" [5m])'

labels command reference

The output of logcli help labels:

shell 
usage: logcli labels [<flags>] [<label>]

Find values for a given label.

Flags:
      --help                  Show context-sensitive help (also try --help-long and --help-man).
      --version               Show application version.
  -q, --quiet                 Suppress query metadata
      --stats                 Show query statistics
  -o, --output=default        Specify output mode [default, raw, jsonl]. raw suppresses log labels and timestamp.
  -z, --timezone=Local        Specify the timezone to use when formatting output timestamps [Local, UTC]
      --cpuprofile=""         Specify the location for writing a CPU profile.
      --memprofile=""         Specify the location for writing a memory profile.
      --stdin                 Take input logs from stdin
      --addr="http://localhost:3100"
                              Server address. Can also be set using LOKI_ADDR env var.
      --username=""           Username for HTTP basic auth. Can also be set using LOKI_USERNAME env var.
      --password=""           Password for HTTP basic auth. Can also be set using LOKI_PASSWORD env var.
      --ca-cert=""            Path to the server Certificate Authority. Can also be set using LOKI_CA_CERT_PATH env var.
      --tls-skip-verify       Server certificate TLS skip verify. Can also be set using LOKI_TLS_SKIP_VERIFY env var.
      --cert=""               Path to the client certificate. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_CERT_PATH env var.
      --key=""                Path to the client certificate key. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_KEY_PATH env var.
      --org-id=""             adds X-Scope-OrgID to API requests for representing tenant ID. Useful for requesting tenant data when bypassing
                              an auth gateway. Can also be set using LOKI_ORG_ID env var.
      --query-tags=""         adds X-Query-Tags http header to API requests. This header value will be part of `metrics.go` statistics.
                              Useful for tracking the query. Can also be set using LOKI_QUERY_TAGS env var.
      --bearer-token=""       adds the Authorization header to API requests for authentication purposes. Can also be set using
                              LOKI_BEARER_TOKEN env var.
      --bearer-token-file=""  adds the Authorization header to API requests for authentication purposes. Can also be set using
                              LOKI_BEARER_TOKEN_FILE env var.
      --retries=0             How many times to retry each query when getting an error response from Loki. Can also be set using
                              LOKI_CLIENT_RETRIES env var.
      --min-backoff=0         Minimum backoff time between retries. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_MIN_BACKOFF env var.
      --max-backoff=0         Maximum backoff time between retries. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_MAX_BACKOFF env var.
      --auth-header="Authorization"
                              The authorization header used. Can also be set using LOKI_AUTH_HEADER env var.
      --proxy-url=""          The http or https proxy to use when making requests. Can also be set using LOKI_HTTP_PROXY_URL env var.
      --compress              Request that Loki compress returned data in transit. Can also be set using LOKI_HTTP_COMPRESSION env var.
      --since=1h              Lookback window.
      --from=FROM             Start looking for labels at this absolute time (inclusive)
      --to=TO                 Stop looking for labels at this absolute time (exclusive)

Args:
  [<label>]  The name of the label.

series command reference

The output of logcli help series:

shell 
usage: logcli series [<flags>] <matcher>

Run series query.

The "series" command will take the provided label matcher and return all the log streams found in the time window.

It is possible to send an empty label matcher '{}' to return all streams.

Use the --analyze-labels flag to get a summary of the labels found in all streams. This is helpful to find high cardinality labels.

Flags:
      --help                  Show context-sensitive help (also try --help-long and --help-man).
      --version               Show application version.
  -q, --quiet                 Suppress query metadata
      --stats                 Show query statistics
  -o, --output=default        Specify output mode [default, raw, jsonl]. raw suppresses log labels and timestamp.
  -z, --timezone=Local        Specify the timezone to use when formatting output timestamps [Local, UTC]
      --cpuprofile=""         Specify the location for writing a CPU profile.
      --memprofile=""         Specify the location for writing a memory profile.
      --stdin                 Take input logs from stdin
      --addr="http://localhost:3100"
                              Server address. Can also be set using LOKI_ADDR env var.
      --username=""           Username for HTTP basic auth. Can also be set using LOKI_USERNAME env var.
      --password=""           Password for HTTP basic auth. Can also be set using LOKI_PASSWORD env var.
      --ca-cert=""            Path to the server Certificate Authority. Can also be set using LOKI_CA_CERT_PATH env var.
      --tls-skip-verify       Server certificate TLS skip verify. Can also be set using LOKI_TLS_SKIP_VERIFY env var.
      --cert=""               Path to the client certificate. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_CERT_PATH env var.
      --key=""                Path to the client certificate key. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_KEY_PATH env var.
      --org-id=""             adds X-Scope-OrgID to API requests for representing tenant ID. Useful for requesting tenant data when bypassing
                              an auth gateway. Can also be set using LOKI_ORG_ID env var.
      --query-tags=""         adds X-Query-Tags http header to API requests. This header value will be part of `metrics.go` statistics.
                              Useful for tracking the query. Can also be set using LOKI_QUERY_TAGS env var.
      --bearer-token=""       adds the Authorization header to API requests for authentication purposes. Can also be set using
                              LOKI_BEARER_TOKEN env var.
      --bearer-token-file=""  adds the Authorization header to API requests for authentication purposes. Can also be set using
                              LOKI_BEARER_TOKEN_FILE env var.
      --retries=0             How many times to retry each query when getting an error response from Loki. Can also be set using
                              LOKI_CLIENT_RETRIES env var.
      --min-backoff=0         Minimum backoff time between retries. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_MIN_BACKOFF env var.
      --max-backoff=0         Maximum backoff time between retries. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_MAX_BACKOFF env var.
      --auth-header="Authorization"
                              The authorization header used. Can also be set using LOKI_AUTH_HEADER env var.
      --proxy-url=""          The http or https proxy to use when making requests. Can also be set using LOKI_HTTP_PROXY_URL env var.
      --compress              Request that Loki compress returned data in transit. Can also be set using LOKI_HTTP_COMPRESSION env var.
      --since=1h              Lookback window.
      --from=FROM             Start looking for logs at this absolute time (inclusive)
      --to=TO                 Stop looking for logs at this absolute time (exclusive)
      --analyze-labels        Printout a summary of labels including count of label value combinations, useful for debugging high cardinality
                              series

Args:
  <matcher>  eg '{foo="bar",baz=~".*blip"}'

fmt command reference

The output of logcli help fmt:

shell 
usage: logcli fmt

Formats a LogQL query.

Flags:
      --help                  Show context-sensitive help (also try --help-long and --help-man).
      --version               Show application version.
  -q, --quiet                 Suppress query metadata
      --stats                 Show query statistics
  -o, --output=default        Specify output mode [default, raw, jsonl]. raw suppresses log labels and timestamp.
  -z, --timezone=Local        Specify the timezone to use when formatting output timestamps [Local, UTC]
      --cpuprofile=""         Specify the location for writing a CPU profile.
      --memprofile=""         Specify the location for writing a memory profile.
      --stdin                 Take input logs from stdin
      --addr="http://localhost:3100"
                              Server address. Can also be set using LOKI_ADDR env var.
      --username=""           Username for HTTP basic auth. Can also be set using LOKI_USERNAME env var.
      --password=""           Password for HTTP basic auth. Can also be set using LOKI_PASSWORD env var.
      --ca-cert=""            Path to the server Certificate Authority. Can also be set using LOKI_CA_CERT_PATH env var.
      --tls-skip-verify       Server certificate TLS skip verify. Can also be set using LOKI_TLS_SKIP_VERIFY env var.
      --cert=""               Path to the client certificate. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_CERT_PATH env var.
      --key=""                Path to the client certificate key. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_KEY_PATH env var.
      --org-id=""             adds X-Scope-OrgID to API requests for representing tenant ID. Useful for requesting tenant data when bypassing
                              an auth gateway. Can also be set using LOKI_ORG_ID env var.
      --query-tags=""         adds X-Query-Tags http header to API requests. This header value will be part of `metrics.go` statistics.
                              Useful for tracking the query. Can also be set using LOKI_QUERY_TAGS env var.
      --bearer-token=""       adds the Authorization header to API requests for authentication purposes. Can also be set using
                              LOKI_BEARER_TOKEN env var.
      --bearer-token-file=""  adds the Authorization header to API requests for authentication purposes. Can also be set using
                              LOKI_BEARER_TOKEN_FILE env var.
      --retries=0             How many times to retry each query when getting an error response from Loki. Can also be set using
                              LOKI_CLIENT_RETRIES env var.
      --min-backoff=0         Minimum backoff time between retries. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_MIN_BACKOFF env var.
      --max-backoff=0         Maximum backoff time between retries. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_MAX_BACKOFF env var.
      --auth-header="Authorization"
                              The authorization header used. Can also be set using LOKI_AUTH_HEADER env var.
      --proxy-url=""          The http or https proxy to use when making requests. Can also be set using LOKI_HTTP_PROXY_URL env var.
      --compress              Request that Loki compress returned data in transit. Can also be set using LOKI_HTTP_COMPRESSION env var.

stats command reference

The output of logcli help stats:

shell 
usage: logcli stats [<flags>] <query>

Run a stats query.

The "stats" command will take the provided query and return statistics from the index on how much data is contained in the matching stream(s).
This only works against Loki instances using the TSDB index format.

By default we look over the last hour of data; use --since to modify or provide specific start and end times with --from and --to
respectively.

Notice that when using --from and --to then ensure to use RFC3339Nano time format, but without timezone at the end. The local timezone will be
added automatically or if using --timezone flag.

Example:

  logcli stats
     --timezone=UTC
     --from="2021-01-19T10:00:00Z"
     --to="2021-01-19T20:00:00Z"
     'my-query'

Flags:
      --help                  Show context-sensitive help (also try --help-long and --help-man).
      --version               Show application version.
  -q, --quiet                 Suppress query metadata
      --stats                 Show query statistics
  -o, --output=default        Specify output mode [default, raw, jsonl]. raw suppresses log labels and timestamp.
  -z, --timezone=Local        Specify the timezone to use when formatting output timestamps [Local, UTC]
      --cpuprofile=""         Specify the location for writing a CPU profile.
      --memprofile=""         Specify the location for writing a memory profile.
      --stdin                 Take input logs from stdin
      --addr="http://localhost:3100"
                              Server address. Can also be set using LOKI_ADDR env var.
      --username=""           Username for HTTP basic auth. Can also be set using LOKI_USERNAME env var.
      --password=""           Password for HTTP basic auth. Can also be set using LOKI_PASSWORD env var.
      --ca-cert=""            Path to the server Certificate Authority. Can also be set using LOKI_CA_CERT_PATH env var.
      --tls-skip-verify       Server certificate TLS skip verify. Can also be set using LOKI_TLS_SKIP_VERIFY env var.
      --cert=""               Path to the client certificate. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_CERT_PATH env var.
      --key=""                Path to the client certificate key. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_KEY_PATH env var.
      --org-id=""             adds X-Scope-OrgID to API requests for representing tenant ID. Useful for requesting tenant data when bypassing
                              an auth gateway. Can also be set using LOKI_ORG_ID env var.
      --query-tags=""         adds X-Query-Tags http header to API requests. This header value will be part of `metrics.go` statistics.
                              Useful for tracking the query. Can also be set using LOKI_QUERY_TAGS env var.
      --bearer-token=""       adds the Authorization header to API requests for authentication purposes. Can also be set using
                              LOKI_BEARER_TOKEN env var.
      --bearer-token-file=""  adds the Authorization header to API requests for authentication purposes. Can also be set using
                              LOKI_BEARER_TOKEN_FILE env var.
      --retries=0             How many times to retry each query when getting an error response from Loki. Can also be set using
                              LOKI_CLIENT_RETRIES env var.
      --min-backoff=0         Minimum backoff time between retries. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_MIN_BACKOFF env var.
      --max-backoff=0         Maximum backoff time between retries. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_MAX_BACKOFF env var.
      --auth-header="Authorization"
                              The authorization header used. Can also be set using LOKI_AUTH_HEADER env var.
      --proxy-url=""          The http or https proxy to use when making requests. Can also be set using LOKI_HTTP_PROXY_URL env var.
      --compress              Request that Loki compress returned data in transit. Can also be set using LOKI_HTTP_COMPRESSION env var.
      --since=1h              Lookback window.
      --from=FROM             Start looking for logs at this absolute time (inclusive)
      --to=TO                 Stop looking for logs at this absolute time (exclusive)

Args:
  <query>  eg '{foo="bar",baz=~".*blip"} |~ ".*error.*"'

volume command reference

The output of logcli help volume:

shell 
usage: logcli volume [<flags>] <query>

Run a volume query.

The "volume" command will take the provided label selector(s) and return aggregate volumes for series matching those volumes. This only works
against Loki instances using the TSDB index format.

By default we look over the last hour of data; use --since to modify or provide specific start and end times with --from and --to
respectively.

Notice that when using --from and --to then ensure to use RFC3339Nano time format, but without timezone at the end. The local timezone will be
added automatically or if using --timezone flag.

Example:

  logcli volume
     --timezone=UTC
     --from="2021-01-19T10:00:00Z"
     --to="2021-01-19T20:00:00Z"
     'my-query'

Flags:
      --help                  Show context-sensitive help (also try --help-long and --help-man).
      --version               Show application version.
  -q, --quiet                 Suppress query metadata
      --stats                 Show query statistics
  -o, --output=default        Specify output mode [default, raw, jsonl]. raw suppresses log labels and timestamp.
  -z, --timezone=Local        Specify the timezone to use when formatting output timestamps [Local, UTC]
      --cpuprofile=""         Specify the location for writing a CPU profile.
      --memprofile=""         Specify the location for writing a memory profile.
      --stdin                 Take input logs from stdin
      --addr="http://localhost:3100"
                              Server address. Can also be set using LOKI_ADDR env var.
      --username=""           Username for HTTP basic auth. Can also be set using LOKI_USERNAME env var.
      --password=""           Password for HTTP basic auth. Can also be set using LOKI_PASSWORD env var.
      --ca-cert=""            Path to the server Certificate Authority. Can also be set using LOKI_CA_CERT_PATH env var.
      --tls-skip-verify       Server certificate TLS skip verify. Can also be set using LOKI_TLS_SKIP_VERIFY env var.
      --cert=""               Path to the client certificate. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_CERT_PATH env var.
      --key=""                Path to the client certificate key. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_KEY_PATH env var.
      --org-id=""             adds X-Scope-OrgID to API requests for representing tenant ID. Useful for requesting tenant data when bypassing
                              an auth gateway. Can also be set using LOKI_ORG_ID env var.
      --query-tags=""         adds X-Query-Tags http header to API requests. This header value will be part of `metrics.go` statistics.
                              Useful for tracking the query. Can also be set using LOKI_QUERY_TAGS env var.
      --bearer-token=""       adds the Authorization header to API requests for authentication purposes. Can also be set using
                              LOKI_BEARER_TOKEN env var.
      --bearer-token-file=""  adds the Authorization header to API requests for authentication purposes. Can also be set using
                              LOKI_BEARER_TOKEN_FILE env var.
      --retries=0             How many times to retry each query when getting an error response from Loki. Can also be set using
                              LOKI_CLIENT_RETRIES env var.
      --min-backoff=0         Minimum backoff time between retries. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_MIN_BACKOFF env var.
      --max-backoff=0         Maximum backoff time between retries. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_MAX_BACKOFF env var.
      --auth-header="Authorization"
                              The authorization header used. Can also be set using LOKI_AUTH_HEADER env var.
      --proxy-url=""          The http or https proxy to use when making requests. Can also be set using LOKI_HTTP_PROXY_URL env var.
      --compress              Request that Loki compress returned data in transit. Can also be set using LOKI_HTTP_COMPRESSION env var.
      --since=1h              Lookback window.
      --from=FROM             Start looking for logs at this absolute time (inclusive)
      --to=TO                 Stop looking for logs at this absolute time (exclusive)
      --limit=30              Limit on number of series to return volumes for.
      --targetLabels=TARGETLABELS ...
                              List of labels to aggregate results into.
      --aggregateByLabels     Whether to aggregate results by label name only.

Args:
  <query>  eg '{foo="bar",baz=~".*blip"}

volume_range command reference

The output of logcli help volume_range:

shell 
usage: logcli volume_range [<flags>] <query>

Run a volume query and return timeseries data.

The "volume_range" command will take the provided label selector(s) and return aggregate volumes for series matching those volumes, aggregated
into buckets according to the step value. This only works against Loki instances using the TSDB index format.

By default we look over the last hour of data; use --since to modify or provide specific start and end times with --from and --to
respectively.

Notice that when using --from and --to then ensure to use RFC3339Nano time format, but without timezone at the end. The local timezone will be
added automatically or if using --timezone flag.

Example:

        logcli volume_range
           --timezone=UTC
           --from="2021-01-19T10:00:00Z"
           --to="2021-01-19T20:00:00Z"
       --step=1h
           'my-query'

Flags:
      --help                  Show context-sensitive help (also try --help-long and --help-man).
      --version               Show application version.
  -q, --quiet                 Suppress query metadata
      --stats                 Show query statistics
  -o, --output=default        Specify output mode [default, raw, jsonl]. raw suppresses log labels and timestamp.
  -z, --timezone=Local        Specify the timezone to use when formatting output timestamps [Local, UTC]
      --cpuprofile=""         Specify the location for writing a CPU profile.
      --memprofile=""         Specify the location for writing a memory profile.
      --stdin                 Take input logs from stdin
      --addr="http://localhost:3100"
                              Server address. Can also be set using LOKI_ADDR env var.
      --username=""           Username for HTTP basic auth. Can also be set using LOKI_USERNAME env var.
      --password=""           Password for HTTP basic auth. Can also be set using LOKI_PASSWORD env var.
      --ca-cert=""            Path to the server Certificate Authority. Can also be set using LOKI_CA_CERT_PATH env var.
      --tls-skip-verify       Server certificate TLS skip verify. Can also be set using LOKI_TLS_SKIP_VERIFY env var.
      --cert=""               Path to the client certificate. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_CERT_PATH env var.
      --key=""                Path to the client certificate key. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_KEY_PATH env var.
      --org-id=""             adds X-Scope-OrgID to API requests for representing tenant ID. Useful for requesting tenant data when bypassing
                              an auth gateway. Can also be set using LOKI_ORG_ID env var.
      --query-tags=""         adds X-Query-Tags http header to API requests. This header value will be part of `metrics.go` statistics.
                              Useful for tracking the query. Can also be set using LOKI_QUERY_TAGS env var.
      --bearer-token=""       adds the Authorization header to API requests for authentication purposes. Can also be set using
                              LOKI_BEARER_TOKEN env var.
      --bearer-token-file=""  adds the Authorization header to API requests for authentication purposes. Can also be set using
                              LOKI_BEARER_TOKEN_FILE env var.
      --retries=0             How many times to retry each query when getting an error response from Loki. Can also be set using
                              LOKI_CLIENT_RETRIES env var.
      --min-backoff=0         Minimum backoff time between retries. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_MIN_BACKOFF env var.
      --max-backoff=0         Maximum backoff time between retries. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_MAX_BACKOFF env var.
      --auth-header="Authorization"
                              The authorization header used. Can also be set using LOKI_AUTH_HEADER env var.
      --proxy-url=""          The http or https proxy to use when making requests. Can also be set using LOKI_HTTP_PROXY_URL env var.
      --compress              Request that Loki compress returned data in transit. Can also be set using LOKI_HTTP_COMPRESSION env var.
      --since=1h              Lookback window.
      --from=FROM             Start looking for logs at this absolute time (inclusive)
      --to=TO                 Stop looking for logs at this absolute time (exclusive)
      --limit=30              Limit on number of series to return volumes for.
      --targetLabels=TARGETLABELS ...
                              List of labels to aggregate results into.
      --aggregateByLabels     Whether to aggregate results by label name only.
      --step=1h               Query resolution step width, roll up volumes into buckets cover step time each.

Args:
  <query>  eg '{foo="bar",baz=~".*blip"}

detected-fields command reference

The output of logcli help detected-fields:

shell 
usage: logcli detected-fields [<flags>] <query> [<field>]

Run a query for detected fields..

The "detected-fields" command will return information about fields detected using either the "logfmt" or "json" parser against the log lines returned by the provided query for the provided time range.

The "detected-fields" command will output extra information about the query and its results, such as the API URL, set of common labels, and set of excluded labels. This extra information can be suppressed with the
--quiet flag.

By default we look over the last hour of data; use --since to modify or provide specific start and end times with --from and --to respectively.

Notice that when using --from and --to then ensure to use RFC3339Nano time format, but without timezone at the end. The local timezone will be added automatically or if using --timezone flag.

Example:

  logcli detected-fields
     --timezone=UTC
     --from="2021-01-19T10:00:00Z"
     --to="2021-01-19T20:00:00Z"
     --output=jsonl
     'my-query'

The output is limited to 100 fields by default; use --field-limit to increase. The query is limited to processing 1000 lines per subquery; use --line-limit to increase.

Flags:
      --help                  Show context-sensitive help (also try --help-long and --help-man).
      --version               Show application version.
  -q, --quiet                 Suppress query metadata
      --stats                 Show query statistics
  -o, --output=default        Specify output mode [default, raw, jsonl]. raw suppresses log labels and timestamp.
  -z, --timezone=Local        Specify the timezone to use when formatting output timestamps [Local, UTC]
      --cpuprofile=""         Specify the location for writing a CPU profile.
      --memprofile=""         Specify the location for writing a memory profile.
      --stdin                 Take input logs from stdin
      --addr="http://localhost:3100"
                              Server address. Can also be set using LOKI_ADDR env var.
      --username=""           Username for HTTP basic auth. Can also be set using LOKI_USERNAME env var.
      --password=""           Password for HTTP basic auth. Can also be set using LOKI_PASSWORD env var.
      --ca-cert=""            Path to the server Certificate Authority. Can also be set using LOKI_CA_CERT_PATH env var.
      --tls-skip-verify       Server certificate TLS skip verify. Can also be set using LOKI_TLS_SKIP_VERIFY env var.
      --cert=""               Path to the client certificate. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_CERT_PATH env var.
      --key=""                Path to the client certificate key. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_KEY_PATH env var.
      --org-id=""             adds X-Scope-OrgID to API requests for representing tenant ID. Useful for requesting tenant data when bypassing an auth gateway. Can also be set using LOKI_ORG_ID env var.
      --query-tags=""         adds X-Query-Tags http header to API requests. This header value will be part of `metrics.go` statistics. Useful for tracking the query. Can also be set using LOKI_QUERY_TAGS env var.
      --nocache               adds Cache-Control: no-cache http header to API requests. Can also be set using LOKI_NO_CACHE env var.
      --bearer-token=""       adds the Authorization header to API requests for authentication purposes. Can also be set using LOKI_BEARER_TOKEN env var.
      --bearer-token-file=""  adds the Authorization header to API requests for authentication purposes. Can also be set using LOKI_BEARER_TOKEN_FILE env var.
      --retries=0             How many times to retry each query when getting an error response from Loki. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_RETRIES env var.
      --min-backoff=0         Minimum backoff time between retries. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_MIN_BACKOFF env var.
      --max-backoff=0         Maximum backoff time between retries. Can also be set using LOKI_CLIENT_MAX_BACKOFF env var.
      --auth-header="Authorization"
                              The authorization header used. Can also be set using LOKI_AUTH_HEADER env var.
      --proxy-url=""          The http or https proxy to use when making requests. Can also be set using LOKI_HTTP_PROXY_URL env var.
      --compress              Request that Loki compress returned data in transit. Can also be set using LOKI_HTTP_COMPRESSION env var.
      --limit=100             Limit on number of fields or values to return.
      --line-limit=1000       Limit the number of lines each subquery is allowed to process.
      --since=1h              Lookback window.
      --from=FROM             Start looking for logs at this absolute time (inclusive)
      --to=TO                 Stop looking for logs at this absolute time (exclusive)
      --step=10s              Query resolution step width, for metric queries. Evaluate the query at the specified step over the time range.

Args:
  <query>    eg '{foo="bar",baz=~".*blip"} |~ ".*error.*"'
  [<field>]  The name of the field.

Use --stdin to query locally

You can use the logcli –stdin argument to run a command against a log file on your local machine, instead of a Loki instance. This lets you use LogQL to query a local log file without having to load the file into Loki, for example if you have downloaded a log file and want to query it outside of Loki.

If you have log files in your local machine, and just want to run some LogQL queries against those log files, --stdin flag can help.

You may use stdin flag to do the following:

  • Use as a quick way to test or validate a LogQL expression against some log data.
  • Learn the basics of LogQL with just local log files and the logcli tool (without needing to set up Loki servers, Grafana, etc.).
  • Enable troubleshooting by letting you run queries without accessing a Loki instance.
  • Use LogQL to parse and extract data from a local log file without ingesting the data into Loki.
  • Enable discussion on public forums, for example submitting questions and answers, and sharing LogQL expressions.

Notes on stdin usage

  1. The --limits flag doesn’t have any meaning when using --stdin (use pager like less for that).
  2. Be aware there are no labels when using --stdin. So the stream selector in the query is optional, for example, just |="timeout"|logfmt|level="error" is same as {foo="bar"}|="timeout|logfmt|level="error".

Note

Currently stdin doesn’t support any type of metric queries.

stdin examples

  • Line filter - cat mylog.log | logcli --stdin query '|="too many open connections"'
  • Label matcher - echo 'msg="timeout happened" level="warning"' | logcli --stdin query '|logfmt|level="warning"'
  • Different parsers (logfmt, json, pattern, regexp) - cat mylog.log | logcli --stdin query '|pattern <ip> - - <_> "<method> <uri> <_>" <status> <size> <_> "<agent>" <_>'
  • Line formatters - cat mylog.log | logcli --stdin query '|logfmt|line_format "{{.query}} {{.duration}}"'

Batching

logcli sends queries to Loki in such a way that query results arrive in batches.

The --limit option for a logcli query command limits the total number of log lines that will be returned for a single query. When not set, --limit defaults to 30. The limit protects the user from overwhelming Loki in cases where the specified query would have returned a large number of log lines. The limit also protects the user from unexpectedly large responses.

Larger result sets can be batched for easier consumption. Use the --batch option to control the number of log line results that are returned in each batch. When not set, --batch defaults to 1000.

Setting a --limit value larger than the --batch value will cause the requests from logcli to Loki to be batched.

When you run a query in Loki, it will return up to a certain number of log lines. By default, this limit is 5000 lines. You can configure this server limit with the limits_config.max_entries_limit_per_query in Loki’s configuration.

Batching lets you query for a results set that is larger than this server-side limit, as long as the --batch value is less than the server limit.

Query metadata is output to stderr for each batch. To suppress the output of the query metadata, set the --quiet option on the logcli query command line.

logcli example queries

Here are some examples of logcli.

Find all values for a label.

bash 
logcli labels job
bash 
https://logs-dev-ops-tools1.grafana.net/api/prom/label/job/values
loki-ops/consul
loki-ops/loki-gw

Print all labels and their unique values. This command is especially useful for finding high-cardinality labels in the index.

bash 
logcli series '{cluster="vinson"}' --analyze-labels
bash 
2024/10/31 13:46:25 https://logs-prod-008.grafana.net/loki/api/v1/series?end=1730382385746344416&match=%7Bcluster%3D%22vinson%22%7D&start=1730378785746344416
Total Streams:  10
Unique Labels:  10

Label Name       Unique Values  Found In Streams
service_name        8          10
pod                 7          7
job                 6          10
app_kubernetes_io_name  6          6
container           5          7
namespace           3          10
stream              2          7
flags               1          7
instance            1          3
cluster             1          10

Get all logs for a given stream

bash 
logcli query '{job="loki-ops/consul"}'
bash 
https://logs-dev-ops-tools1.grafana.net/api/prom/query?query=%7Bjob%3D%22loki-ops%2Fconsul%22%7D&limit=30&start=1529928228&end=1529931828&direction=backward&regexp=
Common labels: {job="loki-ops/consul", namespace="loki-ops"}
2018-06-25T12:52:09Z {instance="consul-8576459955-pl75w"} 2018/06/25 12:52:09 [INFO] raft: Snapshot to 475409 complete
2018-06-25T12:52:09Z {instance="consul-8576459955-pl75w"} 2018/06/25 12:52:09 [INFO] raft: Compacting logs from 456973 to 465169

Print all log streams for the given stream selector. This example shows all known label combinations that match your query.

bash 
logcli series -q --match='{namespace="loki",container_name="loki"}'
bash 
{app="loki", container_name="loki", controller_revision_hash="loki-57c9df47f4", filename="/var/log/pods/loki_loki-0_8ed03ded-bacb-4b13-a6fe-53a445a15887/loki/0.log", instance="loki-0", job="loki/loki", name="loki", namespace="loki", release="loki", statefulset_kubernetes_io_pod_name="loki-0", stream="stderr"}

Troubleshoot logcli

Make sure that the version of Logcli you are using matches your Loki version. You can check your logcli version with the following command:

bash 
logcli –version

If you experience timeouts, you can update the following setting in your logcli-config.yaml file.

yaml 
limits_config:
  query_timeout: 10m