Logging Philosophy and Lifecycle 🆕
Logging Philosophy and Lifecycle
Why Logging Exists
Logging in Flows for APEX is designed to support three different needs at the same time:
- operators need enough information to understand what a process instance is doing now
- administrators need enough information to investigate failures and unexpected behavior
- organizations may need an audit trail that can be retained beyond the life of the run-time records
These needs overlap, but they are not identical. Good logging balances visibility, performance, storage cost, and retention obligations.
The Core Philosophy
The logging philosophy in Flows for APEX is simple:
- capture enough information to operate safely
- add more detail only when you need it
- archive what you must retain
- purge what you no longer need in the run-time system
This is why Flows for APEX provides flexible levels rather than treating every process instance as a full forensic capture.
The Logging Lifecycle
The normal lifecycle of logging is:
- Capture Runtime events are written while the process instance is executing.
- Observe Operators and administrators use Flow Monitor and related views to understand current and recent behavior.
- Archive After the process instance completes or terminates, an instance archive JSON document can be created for long-term retention.
- Purge Raw run-time log records can be deleted after they are no longer needed operationally.
- Analyze Archived records and aggregated statistics can be used for audit, trend analysis, and process improvement.
Why Retention Should Differ by Layer
Run-time logs and long-term archives solve different problems.
- raw run-time logs are optimized for immediate investigation and Flow Monitor visibility
- archive documents are optimized for retention and later retrieval
- summary statistics are optimized for trend analysis rather than case-by-case forensics
Keeping all raw logs forever is usually unnecessary and expensive. Archiving first, then purging raw logs, is the normal operational pattern.
Environment Strategy
Different environments should normally use different logging strategies.
Development
Development systems often benefit from higher logging levels because developers are actively testing process behavior, expressions, and task routing.
Test and UAT
Test and UAT systems usually benefit from enough logging to diagnose failed test runs without creating unnecessary noise.
Production
Production systems should normally use a moderate default logging level and then temporarily raise logging only for the instance that needs investigation.
Audit, Privacy, and Discipline
Logging is powerful because it records behavior that might otherwise be invisible. That also means it should be managed intentionally.
Consider:
- how much user-identifying information should be stored
- how long raw logs should remain in the database
- where archive documents should be stored
- which teams are allowed to increase logging levels on live instances
The best operational posture is deliberate, not maximal.
Where to Read Next
This page explains the mental model. For implementation details, use the admin pages: