Local Log Debug

local-log-debug

Read and reason over uniclipboard's local logs on one machine, across the three process roles (gui / daemon / cli), using the current platform-conventional log layout.

The helper script .agents/skills/local-log-debug/uc-logs.sh is the only thing you should need to invoke for log work — it resolves the per-platform log directory, picks the latest file per role, and handles tail / grep / structured query / time-merge. Don't hand-roll ls/tail/jq pipelines unless the script genuinely can't express what you need.

When this skill applies (and when it does NOT)

Log layout you must remember (current, post-split)

Single source of truth for where logs live is uc_app_paths::app_log_dir(). Logs are separate from the data root (since the platform-log-dir split) and are written per role so co-resident processes never share a file.

• Directory (<app> = app.uniclipboard.desktop[-<UC_PROFILE>]):
  • macOS: ~/Library/Logs/<app>/
  • Linux: $XDG_STATE_HOME/<app>/logs/ (default ~/.local/state/...; falls back to the data-local root)
  • Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\<app>\logs\
  • portable build: <exe>/data/logs/
• Per-role files, daily rotation, 7-day retention (older pruned on start):
  • uniclipboard-gui.json.<UTC-date> — the Tauri GUI host (uniclipboard)
  • uniclipboard-daemon.json.<UTC-date> — the detached uniclipd daemon
  • uniclipboard-cli.json.<UTC-date> — the uniclip CLI
• Format: JSON Lines. Every line has timestamp (UTC ISO-8601, ends Z, and is always the first field), level, target, message, usually span and device_id, plus flattened span/event fields.
• The date in the filename is UTC, not local time. A ...2026-06-17 file can be the live one while it's still 2026-06-16 in your local evening.

⚠️ Do not trust the older layout. The dual-side-debug skill and some legacy data roots still reference ~/Library/Application Support/.../logs/uniclipboard.json (single file, no role). That is the pre-split layout — wrong for this skill.

Profile resolution

The app dir gets a -<profile> suffix from UC_PROFILE. The local dev default is dev (package.json's tauri:dev sets UC_PROFILE=dev), so the script assumes dev. Override with --profile <name>, or --profile default for the no-suffix app.uniclipboard.desktop dir.

Escape hatch: UC_LOG_DIR

If the script's platform/profile resolution ever disagrees with reality (portable build, WSL reading a Windows app's logs under /mnt/c/..., an unusual mount), set UC_LOG_DIR=/abs/path/to/logs and the script uses it verbatim. This is also the fallback for a pure-PowerShell host where bash can't run: resolve the dir per the table above and read the JSONL with your own tools.

Always run status first

Before answering anything that depends on log content:

.agents/skills/local-log-debug/uc-logs.sh status

Then judge:

1. Does the resolved log dir exist? If not, you're probably on the wrong profile — try --profile default, or check sibling dirs in the parent.
2. For each role, is the latest file live (<2m) / recent (<10m)? Anything stale / old / cold means that process likely isn't running right now — you may be reading a frozen session.

If the user is actively reproducing but the relevant role is cold/(no file), stop and confirm the profile before drawing conclusions. Don't silently analyze stale logs.

Commands

Always invoke via the script, from the repo root:

.agents/skills/local-log-debug/uc-logs.sh <command> [args] [flags]

Flags

• --role gui\|daemon\|cli\|all — restrict to a role (default all).
• --profile <name> — profile override (default dev; default = no suffix).
• --lines N — output cap for tail/grep/query (default 50); per-file scan depth for merge (default 2000).
• --since <ISO8601> — merge only: drop lines older than this UTC timestamp.

Recommended workflow

1. Ground yourself. Run status. Confirm the right profile and that the relevant role is live. Resolve any profile mismatch with the user first.
2. Narrow the time window. Ask when the issue reproduced (or read it from the conversation), convert to UTC, and pass it to merge --since.
3. Start broad, then narrow.
   • Broad cross-role story: merge --since <UTC> --lines 800.
   • Narrow by signal: query --filter '.level=="ERROR" or .level=="WARN"', or by target / span for the suspect subsystem.
4. Correlate by id, don't assume. When the symptom spans roles ("GUI asked, daemon never acted"), grep the same id (request_id, transfer_id, entry_id, device_id, session_token_jti) across roles — the merged view beats two parallel monologues.
5. Quote sparingly. Logs are noisy. In your reply, quote the 3–10 lines that carry signal, with role + timestamp. Never dump raw JSONL walls.

jq cookbook

Plug these straight into query --filter '<jq>':

# Errors and warnings only
.level == "ERROR" or .level == "WARN"

# One subsystem (substring match on target)
.target | test("pairing|file_transfer|clipboard_sync")

# A specific span chain
.span | test("daemon.ws.connection")

# Around a particular id (works for any flattened field)
.request_id == "b6c8588aa8a8699c"
.device_id == "acf2b4da-a6f9-4b77-9074-e13b0ffc9496"

Compact projection for human reading (pipe query/merge output through this):

... | jq -c '{ts:.timestamp, role:.role, lvl:.level, tgt:.target, span:.span, msg:.message}'

Subsystem target / span cheat-sheet

Real strings seen in these logs, to seed your target/span filters:

Note: a lot of iroh* / relay traffic is infra noise. The log profiles already mute the worst of it; when scanning, prefer filtering to uc_* targets first.

Verbosity is controlled elsewhere

Local log level comes from RUST_LOG > UC_LOG_PROFILE > build type (debug→Dev, release→Prod). If a subsystem's lines are missing entirely, the profile may be filtering them — that's a capture problem, not a reading problem, and belongs to how the app was launched (e.g. uniclip debug on, UC_LOG_PROFILE=debug_clipboard), not to this skill.

Relationship to uniclip debug export-logs

The CLI can bundle recent logs for handoff:

uniclip debug export-logs [--since-hours N]   # default 24h; writes a dir + manifest

Use that when the goal is to package logs (attach to an issue, send to the user). Use this skill when the goal is to read and reason about them in place. Related: uniclip debug status|on|off shows/toggles the effective log profile.

Things to avoid

• Don't cat whole log files — daemon files get large.
• Don't conclude "the daemon is broken" without checking its log freshness in status first; a cold file just means the daemon isn't running.
• Don't convert UTC ↔ local time silently. If you convert, say so.
• Don't edit log paths in this doc if the layout changes — fix uc-logs.sh first (and confirm against uc_app_paths::app_log_dir()), then this doc.
• Don't confuse this with dual-side-debug: that skill reads a second host's logs over a mount and still uses the old single-file layout.