nerdlog: Search Logs Across Remote Hosts in a Terminal

Overview

Nerdlog is a terminal-based log viewer for searching system logs on multiple remote machines at once. It connects to hosts over SSH, runs analysis there, and brings matching results together locally, avoiding the need to upload complete log files or operate a central logging server.

Its timeline histogram helps operators see when log activity occurred and narrow a query by time. Nerdlog is aimed at people who need a practical way to investigate logs across a small or distributed fleet, especially when a full centralized logging platform would be unnecessary overhead.

Key Features

• Query logstreams from multiple SSH-accessible hosts in one interface.
• Search log files or journalctl output using time ranges and awk-pattern filters.
• View an interactive timeline histogram and select time ranges from it.
• Analyze logs on remote hosts and transfer limited query results rather than full files.
• Merge results from hosts into a unified, timestamped table.
• Read SSH configuration and support host globs and configurable logstreams.
• Use Vim-like navigation, query history, and commands for refreshing, exporting, and sharing queries.
• Connect through a configurable shell command, including tools such as Teleport.

Use Cases

• System administrators investigating errors across several Linux servers without setting up a central log platform.
• DevOps engineers narrowing incidents to a time window and comparing log activity across hosts.
• Developers diagnosing services that write to system logs or run under systemd.
• Operators working over limited bandwidth who want remote filtering instead of copying large log files locally.

Getting Started

Install the latest release with Go:

go install github.com/dimonomid/nerdlog/cmd/nerdlog@latest

Nerdlog requires SSH access to remote hosts and GNU awk (gawk) on those hosts. See the README for configuration, other installation options, and usage details.

Alternatives

• grafana: Grafana explores logs alongside metrics and traces through shared dashboards and data sources, rather than querying log files directly over SSH in a terminal.

Considerations

Nerdlog is designed around SSH-accessible hosts and Linux-style system logs. Remote hosts need GNU awk, and the client cannot retrieve logs from Windows hosts. It supports local use as well, but its main strength is querying multiple remote machines without a central server. The project describes itself as suitable for production use while noting that parts of the code could be more polished. Consult the documentation for limitations and setup requirements.