Developer guide

Understanding log output structure

Learn the JSON schema, categories, and short-key format of ArgusLogs telemetry for dashboards and sinks.

Tutorials are hands-on walkthroughs (prerequisites, install, configuration, code, expected result, explanation, then next steps). Official reference stays in documentation — this is not a full docs clone.

Section 6 of 6 Schema

Byte saving with UseShortKeys

If network overhead or storage indexing cost is a concern, enable options.WithShortKeys(true) in your configuration. This compresses the JSON structure by shortening all key names:

Short-key JSON
{
  "ts": "2026-07-30T19:55:05.120Z",
  "lvl": "Information",
  "cat": "Network",
  "msg": "ENTER - HTTP GET /api/v1/projects",
  "trc": "fa7dedf4-ec83-4b6e-a3f3-01883f7047b6",
  "span": "8b9c2401-26ab-4a1e-8fe5-12a4bdf62002",
  "num": 1,
  "mth": "ProjectsController.GetProjects",
  "dt": { }
}

Key mapping rules

Original KeyShort Key
timestamp ts
level lvl
category cat
message msg
traceId trc
spanId span
parentId pid
logNum num
duration dur
methodName mth
data dt