Spring Boot Logging in 2026: Structured Logs for Production with Logback and JSON

Complete guide to Spring Boot structured logging. Logback JSON configuration, MDC for tracing, production best practices and ELK Stack integration.

Spring Boot structured logging with Logback and JSON

Traditional text-based logs quickly become unmanageable in production. With hundreds of instances generating thousands of lines per second, searching for a specific error becomes a nightmare. Structured JSON logs transform this situation by making every event queryable and automatically analyzable.

Key Takeaway

Spring Boot 3.4+ natively supports structured JSON logging without external dependencies. For earlier versions, Logback Logstash Encoder remains the reference solution.

Why Adopt Structured Logging

Limitations of Traditional Text Logs

A typical text log looks like this:

text
2026-03-27 10:15:32.456 INFO  [order-service,abc123] c.e.s.OrderService - Order created for user john@example.com, amount: 150.00€, items: 3

This format poses several problems in production. Extracting specific information requires complex and fragile regex patterns. Cross-service correlation requires strict conventions that each team interprets differently. Analysis tools like Elasticsearch struggle to efficiently index these unstructured strings.

Benefits of JSON Format

The same event in JSON becomes immediately exploitable:

json
{
  "@timestamp": "2026-03-27T10:15:32.456Z",
  "level": "INFO",
  "logger": "com.example.service.OrderService",
  "message": "Order created",
  "service": "order-service",
  "traceId": "abc123",
  "userId": "john@example.com",
  "orderId": "ORD-789456",
  "amount": 150.00,
  "currency": "EUR",
  "itemCount": 3
}

Every field becomes filterable and aggregable. An Elasticsearch query can instantly find all orders over 100€ from the last fifteen minutes. Kibana dashboards visualize trends without manual parsing.

Native Spring Boot 3.4+ Configuration

Enabling Structured JSON Logs

Spring Boot 3.4 introduces native structured logging support via the logging.structured property. This approach requires no additional dependencies.

yaml
# application.yml
# Native structured logging configuration for Spring Boot 3.4+
logging:
  structured:
    # Output format: ecs (Elastic), logstash, gelf
    format:
      console: ecs
      file: ecs
  file:
    name: /var/log/app/application.log
  level:
    root: INFO
    com.example: DEBUG

The ECS (Elastic Common Schema) format guarantees direct compatibility with Elasticsearch and Kibana without additional configuration.

Customizing JSON Fields

To add business fields to every log, Spring Boot allows configuring additional attributes.

yaml
# application.yml
# Custom fields in structured logs
logging:
  structured:
    format:
      console: ecs
    ecs:
      # Service information added to every log
      service:
        name: ${spring.application.name}
        version: ${app.version:1.0.0}
        environment: ${spring.profiles.active:default}
        node-name: ${HOSTNAME:unknown}
LoggingConfig.javajava
// Programmatic configuration for additional fields
package com.example.logging.config;

import org.springframework.boot.logging.structured.StructuredLogFormatterCustomizer;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;

@Configuration
public class LoggingConfig {

    @Bean
    StructuredLogFormatterCustomizer<EcsStructuredLogFormatter> ecsCustomizer() {
        return formatter -> formatter
            // Adds static fields to all logs
            .addStaticField("team", "backend")
            .addStaticField("region", System.getenv("AWS_REGION"))
            // Customizes exception formatting
            .setIncludeStacktrace(true)
            .setStacktraceMaxLength(5000);
    }
}

These fields appear in every log line, facilitating filtering by team or region in dashboards.

Classic Logback Configuration with JSON Encoder

Logstash Encoder Dependency

For Spring Boot versions before 3.4 or advanced customization needs, Logstash Logback Encoder remains the reference solution.

xml
<!-- pom.xml -->
<!-- Dependency for JSON logging with Logback -->
<dependency>
    <groupId>net.logstash.logback</groupId>
    <artifactId>logstash-logback-encoder</artifactId>
    <version>7.4</version>
</dependency>

Complete Logback Configuration

The logback-spring.xml file offers total control over output format.

xml
<!-- src/main/resources/logback-spring.xml -->
<!-- Logback configuration for structured JSON logs -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
    <!-- Spring Boot properties -->
    <springProperty scope="context" name="appName" source="spring.application.name" defaultValue="app"/>
    <springProperty scope="context" name="appVersion" source="app.version" defaultValue="1.0.0"/>

    <!-- JSON console appender for production -->
    <appender name="JSON_CONSOLE" class="ch.qos.logback.core.ConsoleAppender">
        <encoder class="net.logstash.logback.encoder.LogstashEncoder">
            <!-- Custom fields added to every log -->
            <customFields>{"service":"${appName}","version":"${appVersion}"}</customFields>
            <!-- Includes MDC (tracing context) -->
            <includeMdcKeyName>traceId</includeMdcKeyName>
            <includeMdcKeyName>spanId</includeMdcKeyName>
            <includeMdcKeyName>userId</includeMdcKeyName>
            <includeMdcKeyName>requestId</includeMdcKeyName>
            <!-- ISO8601 timestamp format -->
            <timestampPattern>yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSZ</timestampPattern>
            <!-- Complete stack traces -->
            <throwableConverter class="net.logstash.logback.stacktrace.ShortenedThrowableConverter">
                <maxDepthPerThrowable>30</maxDepthPerThrowable>
                <maxLength>4096</maxLength>
                <shortenedClassNameLength>36</shortenedClassNameLength>
                <rootCauseFirst>true</rootCauseFirst>
            </throwableConverter>
        </encoder>
    </appender>

    <!-- Rolling JSON file appender -->
    <appender name="JSON_FILE" class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.RollingFileAppender">
        <file>/var/log/${appName}/application.json</file>
        <rollingPolicy class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.TimeBasedRollingPolicy">
            <fileNamePattern>/var/log/${appName}/application.%d{yyyy-MM-dd}.%i.json.gz</fileNamePattern>
            <maxHistory>30</maxHistory>
            <maxFileSize>100MB</maxFileSize>
            <totalSizeCap>3GB</totalSizeCap>
        </rollingPolicy>
        <encoder class="net.logstash.logback.encoder.LogstashEncoder">
            <customFields>{"service":"${appName}","version":"${appVersion}"}</customFields>
        </encoder>
    </appender>

    <!-- Text appender for development -->
    <appender name="TEXT_CONSOLE" class="ch.qos.logback.core.ConsoleAppender">
        <encoder>
            <pattern>%d{HH:mm:ss.SSS} %highlight(%-5level) [%thread] %cyan(%logger{36}) - %msg%n</pattern>
        </encoder>
    </appender>

    <!-- Activation by Spring profile -->
    <springProfile name="prod,staging">
        <root level="INFO">
            <appender-ref ref="JSON_CONSOLE"/>
            <appender-ref ref="JSON_FILE"/>
        </root>
    </springProfile>

    <springProfile name="dev,local">
        <root level="DEBUG">
            <appender-ref ref="TEXT_CONSOLE"/>
        </root>
    </springProfile>
</configuration>

This configuration activates JSON logs only in production while preserving readable logs in development.

Spring Profiles

Using <springProfile> allows automatic switching between text and JSON formats based on the environment, without modifying the configuration.

MDC for Distributed Tracing

Trace Context Propagation

MDC (Mapped Diagnostic Context) enriches every log with context information like request or trace identifiers.

TracingFilter.javajava
// Filter for automatic trace context injection
package com.example.logging.filter;

import jakarta.servlet.FilterChain;
import jakarta.servlet.ServletException;
import jakarta.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import jakarta.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
import org.slf4j.MDC;
import org.springframework.core.Ordered;
import org.springframework.core.annotation.Order;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
import org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.UUID;

@Component
@Order(Ordered.HIGHEST_PRECEDENCE)
public class TracingFilter extends OncePerRequestFilter {

    // Standard MDC keys for tracing
    private static final String TRACE_ID_KEY = "traceId";
    private static final String SPAN_ID_KEY = "spanId";
    private static final String REQUEST_ID_KEY = "requestId";
    private static final String USER_ID_KEY = "userId";

    @Override
    protected void doFilterInternal(
            HttpServletRequest request,
            HttpServletResponse response,
            FilterChain filterChain) throws ServletException, IOException {

        try {
            // Retrieve or generate trace identifiers
            String traceId = extractOrGenerate(request, "X-Trace-Id", TRACE_ID_KEY);
            String spanId = generateSpanId();
            String requestId = extractOrGenerate(request, "X-Request-Id", REQUEST_ID_KEY);
            String userId = request.getHeader("X-User-Id");

            // Inject into MDC to appear in all logs
            MDC.put(TRACE_ID_KEY, traceId);
            MDC.put(SPAN_ID_KEY, spanId);
            MDC.put(REQUEST_ID_KEY, requestId);
            if (userId != null) {
                MDC.put(USER_ID_KEY, userId);
            }

            // Propagate to responses for inter-service chaining
            response.setHeader("X-Trace-Id", traceId);
            response.setHeader("X-Request-Id", requestId);

            filterChain.doFilter(request, response);

        } finally {
            // Clean MDC after each request
            MDC.clear();
        }
    }

    private String extractOrGenerate(HttpServletRequest request, String header, String key) {
        String value = request.getHeader(header);
        return value != null ? value : UUID.randomUUID().toString().replace("-", "").substring(0, 16);
    }

    private String generateSpanId() {
        return UUID.randomUUID().toString().replace("-", "").substring(0, 8);
    }
}

Every log emitted during request processing will automatically contain these identifiers.

Using MDC in Business Code

OrderService.javajava
// Business service with enriched contextual logging
package com.example.service;

import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
import org.slf4j.MDC;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Service;

@Service
public class OrderService {

    private static final Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(OrderService.class);

    public Order createOrder(CreateOrderRequest request) {
        // Add business information to MDC context
        MDC.put("orderId", request.getOrderId());
        MDC.put("customerId", request.getCustomerId());

        try {
            log.info("Creating order with {} items", request.getItems().size());

            // Business logic...
            Order order = processOrder(request);

            log.info("Order created successfully, total: {} {}",
                order.getTotal(), order.getCurrency());

            return order;

        } catch (Exception e) {
            // Exception appears with full MDC context
            log.error("Failed to create order", e);
            throw e;
        } finally {
            // Clean business keys added
            MDC.remove("orderId");
            MDC.remove("customerId");
        }
    }
}

The resulting JSON log contains all necessary information for debugging:

json
{
  "@timestamp": "2026-03-27T10:15:32.456Z",
  "level": "INFO",
  "logger": "com.example.service.OrderService",
  "message": "Order created successfully, total: 150.00 EUR",
  "traceId": "a1b2c3d4e5f67890",
  "spanId": "12345678",
  "requestId": "req-abc-123",
  "userId": "user-456",
  "orderId": "ORD-789",
  "customerId": "CUST-321"
}

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Asynchronous Logging for Performance

Thread Pool Configuration

In production, synchronous log writes impact request latency. The asynchronous appender decouples logging from the main thread.

xml
<!-- logback-spring.xml -->
<!-- High-performance asynchronous appender configuration -->
<appender name="ASYNC_JSON" class="ch.qos.logback.classic.AsyncAppender">
    <!-- Pending log buffer size -->
    <queueSize>1024</queueSize>
    <!-- Never block the calling thread -->
    <neverBlock>true</neverBlock>
    <!-- Threshold before dropping DEBUG/TRACE logs -->
    <discardingThreshold>20</discardingThreshold>
    <!-- Include caller information (expensive) -->
    <includeCallerData>false</includeCallerData>
    <!-- Actual appender for writing -->
    <appender-ref ref="JSON_FILE"/>
</appender>

<springProfile name="prod">
    <root level="INFO">
        <appender-ref ref="ASYNC_JSON"/>
    </root>
</springProfile>

Logging System Metrics

Monitoring the logging system itself prevents silent log loss.

LoggingMetrics.javajava
// Exposing Logback metrics via Micrometer
package com.example.logging.metrics;

import ch.qos.logback.classic.Logger;
import ch.qos.logback.classic.LoggerContext;
import ch.qos.logback.classic.spi.ILoggingEvent;
import ch.qos.logback.core.Appender;
import ch.qos.logback.classic.AsyncAppender;
import io.micrometer.core.instrument.Gauge;
import io.micrometer.core.instrument.MeterRegistry;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

import jakarta.annotation.PostConstruct;
import java.util.Iterator;

@Component
public class LoggingMetrics {

    private final MeterRegistry registry;

    public LoggingMetrics(MeterRegistry registry) {
        this.registry = registry;
    }

    @PostConstruct
    void registerMetrics() {
        LoggerContext context = (LoggerContext) LoggerFactory.getILoggerFactory();
        Logger rootLogger = context.getLogger(Logger.ROOT_LOGGER_NAME);

        // Iterate through appenders to find AsyncAppenders
        Iterator<Appender<ILoggingEvent>> it = rootLogger.iteratorForAppenders();
        while (it.hasNext()) {
            Appender<ILoggingEvent> appender = it.next();
            if (appender instanceof AsyncAppender asyncAppender) {
                registerAsyncMetrics(asyncAppender);
            }
        }
    }

    private void registerAsyncMetrics(AsyncAppender appender) {
        String appenderName = appender.getName();

        // Current queue size
        Gauge.builder("logback.async.queue.size", appender, AsyncAppender::getQueueSize)
            .tag("appender", appenderName)
            .description("Current async appender queue size")
            .register(registry);

        // Remaining capacity
        Gauge.builder("logback.async.queue.remaining", appender, AsyncAppender::getRemainingCapacity)
            .tag("appender", appenderName)
            .description("Remaining capacity in async queue")
            .register(registry);

        // Number of dropped logs
        Gauge.builder("logback.async.discarded", appender, AsyncAppender::getNumberOfElementsInQueue)
            .tag("appender", appenderName)
            .description("Number of discarded log events")
            .register(registry);
    }
}

A Prometheus alert on logback.async.queue.remaining < 100 warns of log loss risks.

ELK Stack Integration

Filebeat Configuration

Filebeat collects JSON files and sends them to Elasticsearch without transformation.

yaml
# filebeat.yml
# Filebeat configuration for Spring Boot JSON logs
filebeat.inputs:
  - type: log
    enabled: true
    paths:
      - /var/log/*/application.json
    # Automatic JSON parsing
    json:
      keys_under_root: true
      overwrite_keys: true
      add_error_key: true
      message_key: message

processors:
  # Add Kubernetes metadata if available
  - add_kubernetes_metadata:
      host: ${NODE_NAME}
      matchers:
        - logs_path:
            logs_path: "/var/log/containers/"
  # Parse timestamp
  - timestamp:
      field: "@timestamp"
      layouts:
        - '2006-01-02T15:04:05.000Z'
        - '2006-01-02T15:04:05.000-07:00'
      test:
        - '2026-03-27T10:15:32.456Z'

output.elasticsearch:
  hosts: ["elasticsearch:9200"]
  index: "logs-%{[service]}-%{+yyyy.MM.dd}"
  pipeline: "spring-boot-logs"

setup.template:
  name: "logs"
  pattern: "logs-*"

Elasticsearch Pipeline for Enrichment

json
// PUT _ingest/pipeline/spring-boot-logs
{
  "description": "Spring Boot logs enrichment",
  "processors": [
    {
      "geoip": {
        "field": "client.ip",
        "target_field": "client.geo",
        "ignore_missing": true
      }
    },
    {
      "user_agent": {
        "field": "user_agent.original",
        "target_field": "user_agent",
        "ignore_missing": true
      }
    },
    {
      "set": {
        "field": "event.ingested",
        "value": "{{_ingest.timestamp}}"
      }
    },
    {
      "script": {
        "description": "Classify log level severity",
        "source": """
          def level = ctx.level;
          if (level == 'ERROR') ctx.severity = 4;
          else if (level == 'WARN') ctx.severity = 3;
          else if (level == 'INFO') ctx.severity = 2;
          else ctx.severity = 1;
        """
      }
    }
  ]
}

Production Best Practices

Information to Include Systematically

Every log should contain minimum information for debugging and correlation.

StructuredLogger.javajava
// Helper for consistent structured logs
package com.example.logging;

import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
import org.slf4j.MDC;

import java.util.Map;
import java.util.function.Supplier;

public final class StructuredLogger {

    private final Logger delegate;

    private StructuredLogger(Class<?> clazz) {
        this.delegate = LoggerFactory.getLogger(clazz);
    }

    public static StructuredLogger getLogger(Class<?> clazz) {
        return new StructuredLogger(clazz);
    }

    // Log with temporary business context
    public void info(String message, Map<String, String> context) {
        try {
            context.forEach(MDC::put);
            delegate.info(message);
        } finally {
            context.keySet().forEach(MDC::remove);
        }
    }

    // Log with supplier for lazy evaluation
    public void debug(Supplier<String> messageSupplier, Map<String, String> context) {
        if (delegate.isDebugEnabled()) {
            try {
                context.forEach(MDC::put);
                delegate.debug(messageSupplier.get());
            } finally {
                context.keySet().forEach(MDC::remove);
            }
        }
    }

    // Error log with full context
    public void error(String message, Throwable t, Map<String, String> context) {
        try {
            context.forEach(MDC::put);
            delegate.error(message, t);
        } finally {
            context.keySet().forEach(MDC::remove);
        }
    }
}
java
// Usage in business code
private static final StructuredLogger log = StructuredLogger.getLogger(PaymentService.class);

public void processPayment(Payment payment) {
    log.info("Processing payment", Map.of(
        "paymentId", payment.getId(),
        "amount", String.valueOf(payment.getAmount()),
        "currency", payment.getCurrency(),
        "method", payment.getMethod().name()
    ));
}

Sensitive Information to Exclude

Logs should never contain personal or sensitive data.

SensitiveDataFilter.javajava
// Sensitive data masking filter
package com.example.logging.filter;

import ch.qos.logback.classic.spi.ILoggingEvent;
import ch.qos.logback.core.filter.Filter;
import ch.qos.logback.core.spi.FilterReply;

import java.util.regex.Pattern;

public class SensitiveDataFilter extends Filter<ILoggingEvent> {

    // Sensitive data patterns to mask
    private static final Pattern EMAIL_PATTERN =
        Pattern.compile("[a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}");
    private static final Pattern CREDIT_CARD_PATTERN =
        Pattern.compile("\\b\\d{4}[- ]?\\d{4}[- ]?\\d{4}[- ]?\\d{4}\\b");
    private static final Pattern PASSWORD_PATTERN =
        Pattern.compile("(?i)(password|pwd|secret|token)[\"']?\\s*[:=]\\s*[\"']?[^\\s,}\"']+");
    private static final Pattern PHONE_PATTERN =
        Pattern.compile("\\+?\\d{1,3}[- ]?\\d{6,14}");

    @Override
    public FilterReply decide(ILoggingEvent event) {
        // Accept all logs but modify the message
        // Note: for real masking, use a custom converter
        return FilterReply.NEUTRAL;
    }

    // Utility method to mask data
    public static String maskSensitiveData(String input) {
        if (input == null) return null;

        String result = input;
        result = EMAIL_PATTERN.matcher(result).replaceAll("[EMAIL_MASKED]");
        result = CREDIT_CARD_PATTERN.matcher(result).replaceAll("[CARD_MASKED]");
        result = PASSWORD_PATTERN.matcher(result).replaceAll("$1=[REDACTED]");
        result = PHONE_PATTERN.matcher(result).replaceAll("[PHONE_MASKED]");

        return result;
    }
}
GDPR and Compliance

Logs containing personal data are subject to GDPR. IP addresses, emails, and user identifiers require a retention policy and potentially consent.

Appropriate Log Levels

LogLevelGuidelines.javajava
// Appropriate log level guidelines
package com.example.logging;

public class LogLevelGuidelines {

    // ERROR: Failure requiring intervention
    // - Unrecoverable exceptions
    // - Critical transaction failures
    // - External service unavailability
    log.error("Payment gateway unreachable after 3 retries", exception);

    // WARN: Abnormal but handled situation
    // - Retry in progress
    // - Performance degradation
    // - Resources near limits
    log.warn("Database connection pool at 85% capacity");

    // INFO: Significant business events
    // - Transaction start/end
    // - Important state changes
    // - Key user actions
    log.info("Order {} shipped to customer {}", orderId, customerId);

    // DEBUG: Diagnostic information
    // - Execution details
    // - Important variable values
    // - Branching decisions
    log.debug("Cache miss for key {}, fetching from database", cacheKey);

    // TRACE: Very fine details
    // - Method entry/exit
    // - Complete object contents
    // - Loops and iterations
    log.trace("Processing item {} of {}", index, total);
}

Testing and Validating Logs

Unit Testing JSON Structure

StructuredLoggingTest.javajava
// Structured log validation tests
package com.example.logging;

import ch.qos.logback.classic.Logger;
import ch.qos.logback.classic.spi.ILoggingEvent;
import ch.qos.logback.core.read.ListAppender;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonNode;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeEach;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
import org.slf4j.MDC;

import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;

class StructuredLoggingTest {

    private ListAppender<ILoggingEvent> listAppender;
    private Logger logger;
    private ObjectMapper objectMapper;

    @BeforeEach
    void setUp() {
        logger = (Logger) LoggerFactory.getLogger(StructuredLoggingTest.class);
        listAppender = new ListAppender<>();
        listAppender.start();
        logger.addAppender(listAppender);
        objectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
    }

    @Test
    void shouldIncludeMdcFieldsInLog() {
        // Given
        MDC.put("traceId", "test-trace-123");
        MDC.put("userId", "user-456");

        // When
        logger.info("Test message with MDC context");

        // Then
        ILoggingEvent event = listAppender.list.get(0);
        assertThat(event.getMDCPropertyMap())
            .containsEntry("traceId", "test-trace-123")
            .containsEntry("userId", "user-456");

        MDC.clear();
    }

    @Test
    void shouldLogExceptionWithStackTrace() {
        // Given
        Exception testException = new RuntimeException("Test error");

        // When
        logger.error("Operation failed", testException);

        // Then
        ILoggingEvent event = listAppender.list.get(0);
        assertThat(event.getThrowableProxy()).isNotNull();
        assertThat(event.getThrowableProxy().getMessage()).isEqualTo("Test error");
    }
}

Conclusion

Structured JSON logs transform Spring Boot application observability:

✅ Queryable: every field becomes filterable in Elasticsearch or CloudWatch

✅ Correlatable: MDC propagates trace identifiers between services

✅ Performant: asynchronous appender decouples logging from processing

✅ Secure: sensitive data masking ensures GDPR compliance

✅ Integrated: native compatibility with ELK Stack, Datadog, Splunk

✅ Alertable: structured fields enable precise alert rules

✅ Maintainable: JSON format eliminates fragile parsing regex

This approach forms the foundation of modern observability, alongside metrics (Micrometer) and distributed tracing (OpenTelemetry).

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Tags

#spring boot logging
#logback json
#structured logs
#elk stack
#observability

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