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docs: add debug logging to common-issues troubleshooting page #20725
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| Original file line number | Diff line number | Diff line change | ||||
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@@ -446,6 +446,52 @@ Check logs (`gh aw logs`), audit run (`gh aw audit <run-id>`), inspect `.lock.ym | |||||
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| Enable verbose mode (`--verbose`), set `ACTIONS_STEP_DEBUG = true`, check MCP config (`gh aw mcp inspect`), and review logs. | ||||||
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| ### Enable Debug Logging | ||||||
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| The `DEBUG` environment variable activates detailed internal logging for any `gh aw` command. This reveals what the CLI is doing internally — compilation steps, MCP setup, tool configuration, and more. | ||||||
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| **Enable all debug logs:** | ||||||
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| ```bash | ||||||
| DEBUG=* gh aw compile | ||||||
| ``` | ||||||
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| **Enable logs for a specific package:** | ||||||
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| ```bash | ||||||
| DEBUG=cli:* gh aw audit 123456 | ||||||
| DEBUG=workflow:* gh aw compile my-workflow | ||||||
| DEBUG=parser:* gh aw compile my-workflow | ||||||
| ``` | ||||||
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| **Enable logs for multiple packages at once:** | ||||||
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| ```bash | ||||||
| DEBUG=workflow:*,cli:* gh aw compile my-workflow | ||||||
| ``` | ||||||
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| **Exclude specific loggers:** | ||||||
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| ```bash | ||||||
| DEBUG=*,-workflow:test gh aw compile my-workflow | ||||||
| ``` | ||||||
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| **Disable colors (useful when piping output):** | ||||||
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| ```bash | ||||||
| DEBUG_COLORS=0 DEBUG=* gh aw compile my-workflow 2>&1 | tee debug.log | ||||||
| ``` | ||||||
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| > [!TIP] | ||||||
| > Debug output goes to `stderr`. Pipe with `2>&1 | tee debug.log` to capture it to a file while still seeing it in your terminal. | ||||||
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| Each log line shows: | ||||||
| - **Namespace** – the package and component that emitted it (e.g., `workflow:compiler`) | ||||||
| - **Message** – what the CLI was doing at that moment | ||||||
| - **Time elapsed** – time since the previous log entry (e.g., `+125ms`), which helps identify slow steps | ||||||
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| Log namespaces follow a `pkg:filename` convention. Common namespaces include `cli:compile_command`, `workflow:compiler`, `workflow:expression_extraction`, and `parser:frontmatter`. Wildcards (`*`) match any suffix, so `workflow:*` captures all workflow-package logs. | ||||||
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| Log namespaces follow a `pkg:filename` convention. Common namespaces include `cli:compile_command`, `workflow:compiler`, `workflow:expression_extraction`, and `parser:frontmatter`. Wildcards (`*`) match any suffix, so `workflow:*` captures all workflow-package logs. | |
| Log namespaces typically follow a `pkg:filename` or `pkg:component` convention. Common namespaces include `cli:compile_command`, `workflow:compiler`, `workflow:expression_extraction`, and `parser:frontmatter`. Wildcards (`*`) match any suffix, so `workflow:*` captures all workflow-package logs. |
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The description of the time diff (
+125ms) is slightly inaccurate: the logger trackslastLogper-namespace (perlogger.New(...)instance), so the diff is time since the last message from the same logger/namespace, not necessarily since the previous line in the combined output. Consider rewording to avoid implying it’s always a global “previous log entry” diff, especially when multiple namespaces are enabled and interleave.