Better Log

VS Code extension for viewing structured JSON log files (.log). Adds syntax highlighting, timestamp tooltips, and one-click JSON formatting.

Features

Syntax Highlighting

Automatically highlights key fields in JSON log lines:

• @timestamp values are displayed in a distinct color for easy scanning
• level values are color-coded by severity:

Timestamp Hover

Hover over an @timestamp value to see the local time in HH:MM:SS format.

Open as JSON

Each log line has a { } Open as JSON CodeLens action. Click it to open the line as a formatted JSON document in a side panel. The tab is named after the timestamp of the entry for easy navigation between multiple open entries.

Supported Log Format

The extension works with .log files where each line is a JSON object containing @timestamp and level fields:

{"@timestamp":"2026-04-04T12:00:00.000Z","level":"info","message":"Server started","port":3000}
{"@timestamp":"2026-04-04T12:00:01.123Z","level":"error","message":"Connection failed","host":"db.local"}

This format is compatible with ECS (Elastic Common Schema), Pino, Bunyan, and other structured logging libraries.

Installation

Search for better-log in the VS Code Extensions panel (Ctrl+Shift+X / Cmd+Shift+X) and click Install.