Table of Contents

Getting Started

Invex Logging Extensions provides two logging providers for Microsoft.Extensions.Logging. Each plugs into the standard logging pipeline alongside the built-in providers, and they can be used on their own or together:

Package Provider alias Use it for
Invex.Extensions.Logging.FancyConsole FancyConsole Colorful, readable console output with selectable layouts and pretty exceptions.
Invex.Extensions.Logging.File File Plain, parseable log lines in rolling files with retention limits.

Both packages target net10.0, net9.0, net8.0, and netstandard2.0, so they can be used from modern .NET, older .NET (Core) versions, and .NET Framework applications.

Installation

dotnet add package Invex.Extensions.Logging.FancyConsole
dotnet add package Invex.Extensions.Logging.File

Install only the package you need, or both.

Registering the providers

ASP.NET Core / Generic Host

using Invex.Extensions.Logging.FancyConsole;
using Invex.Extensions.Logging.File;

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

builder.Logging.ClearProviders();   // optional: replaces the default console logger
builder.Logging.AddFancyConsole();
builder.Logging.AddFile();

var app = builder.Build();

Clearing providers avoids writing every entry twice to the console when the default Microsoft console logger is also registered.

Console applications (manual LoggerFactory)

using Invex.Extensions.Logging.FancyConsole;
using Invex.Extensions.Logging.File;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;

using var loggerFactory = LoggerFactory.Create(logging =>
{
    logging.AddFancyConsole();
    logging.AddFile();
});

var logger = loggerFactory.CreateLogger<Program>();
logger.LogInformation("Hello, world!");
Important

The file logger buffers entries by default and writes them on a background thread. Make sure the logger factory / host is disposed on shutdown so any pending entries are flushed to disk. Hosted apps do this automatically; with a manual LoggerFactory, the using statement above handles it.

What you get out of the box

Fancy console logger

With no configuration, AddFancyConsole() uses the Standard layout: a header with the date, UTC offset, and category, followed by the local time, level code, and message:

2026-06-11 +10:00 MyApp.Services.OrderService
09:41:23.123  INF Order 42 submitted
Behavior Default
Layout Standard
Colors On, when the console supports them (NO_COLOR is honored)
Scopes Not shown
Exceptions Full (Exception.ToString()), indented and styled
Output Everything to standard output

See the fancy console guide for the other layouts and options.

File logger

With no configuration, AddFile() uses:

Behavior Default
Log directory Logs, relative to the current working directory (created if missing)
File name {ApplicationName}.log
Rollover Daily, or when the file reaches 100 MiB — whichever comes first
Retention Oldest rolled-over file deleted once the total reaches 10 GiB
Write mode Buffered (background thread)

A typical Logs directory after a few days looks like:

Logs/
    MyApp.log                  <- active file
    MyApp_260609-084512.log    <- rolled over
    MyApp_260610-091304.log    <- rolled over

See configuration for the file logger options.

Filtering log levels

Neither provider filters levels itself — both rely on the standard log filtering rules. Use the provider aliases FancyConsole and File to scope rules to each provider:

{
  "Logging": {
    "LogLevel": {
      "Default": "Information"
    },
    "FancyConsole": {
      "LogLevel": {
        "Default": "Debug",
        "Microsoft": "Warning"
      }
    },
    "File": {
      "LogLevel": {
        "Default": "Warning",
        "MyApp.Services": "Information"
      }
    }
  }
}

Next steps

Fancy console logger:

File logger:

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