Spectral Logs

The fastest, most elegant logging library for Node.js and TypeScript

Spectral is a high-performance, zero-dependency logging library designed to replace console.log with beautiful colors, advanced formatting, and incredible speed.

Official Website Documentation Docs

Features

• Lightning Fast - Optimized stdout writing with internal buffering
• Rich Colors - Full support for HEX, RGB, and named colors with automatic terminal detection
• TypeScript First - Complete type safety and IntelliSense support
• Smart Error Handling - Automatic error tracking, stack trace cleaning, and duplicate detection
• Plugin System - Extensible architecture for custom functionality
• Zero Dependencies - Minimal footprint, maximum performance
• CLI Tools - Built-in diagnostics, benchmarking, and configuration management

📦 Installation

npm install spectrallogs

Quick Start

import spec from 'spectrallogs';

spec.log('Hello Spectral!');
spec.info('Informational message');
spec.success('Operation completed!');
spec.warn('Warning message');
spec.error('Error occurred');
spec.debug('Debug information');

Custom Colors

Spectral supports multiple color formats:

// HEX colors
spec.log('Custom message', '#07d53a');

// RGB colors
spec.info('Blue message', 'rgb(0, 191, 255)');

// Named colors
spec.warn('Orange warning', 'orange');

Supported Named Colors

black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white, gray, grey, orange, purple, pink, brown, lime, navy, teal, olive, maroon

Configuration

import spec from 'spectrallogs';

spec.configure({
  showTimestamp: true,
  showLevel: true,
  debugMode: false,
  codec: 'utf-8',
  timeFormat: 'iso', // 'iso' | 'unix' | 'locale'
  colors: {
    info: '#00bfff',
    success: '#00ff88',
    warn: '#ffaa00',
    error: '#ff5555',
    log: '#dddddd',
    debug: '#cc66ff',
  },
});

Plugins

Spectral includes a powerful plugin system for extending functionality.

FileLogger Plugin

Save logs to files with automatic rotation:

import spec, { FileLoggerPlugin } from 'spectrallogs';

const fileLogger = new FileLoggerPlugin({
  filePath: './logs/app.log',
  maxSize: 10 * 1024 * 1024, // 10MB
  rotate: true,
});

spec.use(fileLogger);

spec.info('This will be logged to console AND file');

Performance Tracker Plugin

Track logging performance metrics:

import spec, { PerformanceTrackerPlugin } from 'spectrallogs';

const perfTracker = new PerformanceTrackerPlugin();
spec.use(perfTracker);

spec.log('Log message 1');
spec.info('Log message 2');
spec.success('Log message 3');

perfTracker.printStats();

Creating Custom Plugins

With TypeScript:

import spec from "spectrallogs"

import { Plugin } from 'spectrallogs';

const myPlugin: Plugin = {
  name: 'MyCustomPlugin',

  init() {
    console.log('Plugin initialized');
  },

  beforeLog(message: string, level: any, options: any) {
    return message.toUpperCase();
  },

  afterLog(message: any, level: any, options: any) {
    console.log('Log completed');
  },
};

spec.use(myPlugin);

With JavaScript:

import spec from "spectrallogs"

const myPlugin = {
  name: 'MyCustomPlugin',

  init() {
    console.log('Plugin initialized');
  },

  beforeLog(message, level, options) {
    return message.toUpperCase();
  },

  afterLog(message, level, options) {
    console.log('Log completed');
  },
};

spec.use(myPlugin);

CLI Tools

Spectral includes a CLI for diagnostics and configuration:

# Show version
npx spec --version

# Show help
npx spec --help

# Show current configuration
npx spec config

# Set configuration
npx spec config set debugMode=true
npx spec config set colors.info=#ff00ff

# Reset configuration
npx spec config reset

# Run performance benchmark
npx spec bench

# Diagnose environment
npx spec doctor

Error Handling

Spectral automatically formats Error objects with clean stack traces:

try {
  throw new Error('Something went wrong');
} catch (error) {
  spec.error(error);
}

Output includes:

• Error name and message
• Clean, filtered stack trace
• Duplicate error tracking

Performance

Spectral is designed for speed. Run the benchmark to see:

npx spec bench

Typical results show Spectral is comparable or faster than console.log while providing significantly more features.

API Reference

Main Logger Methods

• spec.log(message, color?, codec?) - Basic log
• spec.info(message, color?, codec?) - Info level
• spec.success(message, color?, codec?) - Success level
• spec.warn(message, color?, codec?) - Warning level
• spec.error(message, color?, codec?) - Error level
• spec.debug(message, color?, codec?) - Debug level (only when debugMode is enabled)

Utility Methods

• spec.configure(options) - Update configuration
• spec.use(plugin) - Register a plugin
• spec.flush() - Force flush buffered output
• spec.getConfig() - Get current configuration
• spec.getErrorStats() - Get error statistics
• spec.clearErrorCache() - Clear error cache

Examples

Basic Logging

import spec from 'spectrallogs';

spec.log('Application started');
spec.info('Loading configuration...');
spec.success('Configuration loaded successfully');

Object Logging

const user = { id: 1, name: 'John', active: true };
spec.log(user);

Custom Configuration

spec.configure({
  showTimestamp: false,
  colors: {
    success: '#00ff00',
    error: '#ff0000',
  },
});

Using Multiple Plugins

import spec, { FileLoggerPlugin, PerformanceTrackerPlugin } from 'spectrallogs';

const fileLogger = new FileLoggerPlugin();
const perfTracker = new PerformanceTrackerPlugin();

spec.use(fileLogger);
spec.use(perfTracker);

spec.info('Logging with multiple plugins');

Browser Usage

Spectral provides a dedicated web build available under the subpath import spectrallogs/web. This build is optimized for browsers: it uses CSS styling with %c, batching to reduce console overhead, and exposes the same high-level API.

CDN (esm.sh)

Use the CDN to try Spectral quickly without a bundler:

<script type="module">
  import spec from 'https://esm.sh/spectrallogs/web';

  spec.success('Hello from Spectral Web via CDN');
  spec.info('Colors are applied using CSS styles');
</script>

You can also instantiate a logger that writes to the DOM for maximum speed (avoiding DevTools overhead):

<pre id="sink"></pre>
<script type="module">
  import { SpectralLoggerWeb } from 'https://esm.sh/spectrallogs/web';

  const sinkEl = document.getElementById('sink');
  const sink = (args) => { sinkEl.textContent += args.join(' ') + '\n'; };
  const logger = new SpectralLoggerWeb({ batching: true, sink });

  for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) logger.info('Fast DOM logging #' + i);
  logger.flush();
  logger.error(new Error('Example error'));
</script>

Bundlers (Vite, React, etc.)

Install normally and import the web subpath:

npm install spectrallogs

In a Vite/React app:

// src/App.tsx
import { useEffect } from 'react';
import spec, { SpectralLoggerWeb } from 'spectrallogs/web';

export default function App() {
  useEffect(() => {
    spec.success('Spectral Web ready in React');

    // Optional: DOM sink batching
    const sink = (args: any[]) => console.log(...args);
    const logger = new SpectralLoggerWeb({ batching: true, sink });
    logger.info('Batched log via custom sink');
    logger.flush();
  }, []);
  return <div>Open your console to see Spectral logs</div>;
}

Notes:

• Use spectrallogs/web only in browser contexts. The Node build exports remain under spectrallogs.
• The web build uses CSS for colors and supports features like timestamps, levels, and error formatting.
• File-based plugins (e.g., FileLogger) are not available in web. Use web-specific plugins/utilities instead.

Local build (without CDN)

If working within this repository, you can build the web bundle and import locally:

npm run build:web

<script type="module">
  import spec from './dist-web/index.js';
  spec.info('Loaded from local dist-web');
  </script>

Node/Deno Usage (recap)

The Node build (ANSI colors, stdout/stderr buffering) is available at the package root:

import spec from 'spectrallogs';

spec.log('Application started');
spec.info('Loading configuration...');
spec.success('Configuration loaded successfully');

CommonJS:

const spec = require('spectrallogs').default;
spec.warn('CJS usage works as well');

Environment Support

Spectral automatically detects terminal color support:

• TrueColor (24-bit): Full HEX/RGB support
• 256-color: Approximated colors
• No color: Graceful fallback to plain text

Set COLORTERM=truecolor for best results.

TypeScript Support

Spectral is written in TypeScript and includes complete type definitions:

import spec, {
  SpectralLogger,
  SpectralConfigOptions,
  Plugin,
  LogLevel
} from 'spectrallogs';

const logger = new SpectralLogger();
logger.info('Fully typed');

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit issues and pull requests.

License

MIT

Why Spectral?

• Fast: Optimized for performance with minimal overhead
• Beautiful: Rich colors and clean formatting out of the box
• Flexible: Powerful plugin system for any use case
• Simple: Drop-in replacement for console.log
• Reliable: Zero dependencies, battle-tested code