Release Notes

Every LogRaker release, newest first.

1.20July 10, 2026

Added

  • Launch at login (Settings ▸ General): LogRaker can start automatically when you log in, optionally with its window hidden — streams set to Auto-stream begin tailing and the MCP server starts in the background.
  • MCP server for AI agents (Settings ▸ MCP Server): Claude Code and other Model Context Protocol clients can now list your streams, read local and remote live log tails, search scrollback and check connection status. Multiple agents can be connected at the same time. Off by default; listens locally only (127.0.0.1) and requires an access token. Ready-made setup snippets for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI, and GitHub Copilot — pick your agent and copy.

Changed

  • The diagnostic log no longer records the full AWS access key ID on CloudWatch requests — only a short prefix, enough to identify which key was used.

Fixed

  • Much faster, smoother startup when streams load a large backlog of history at once.
  • Reduced startup stutter when a Monitor matches a large backlog of history at once (e.g. a busy journald stream).

1.19July 9, 2026

Changed

  • Web edition: the Dock and Cmd-Tab icon now shows LogRaker's free-form icon instead of the squircle-framed app icon.
  • Web edition: the Dock icon carries a small status LED showing the overall health of your streams — green when everything is flowing, yellow/orange while connecting or reconnecting, red when a stream has failed — matching the sidebar's status LEDs.

1.18July 8, 2026

Changed

  • The diagnostic log (lograker.log) no longer grows without limit: at launch, once it exceeds 5 MB it is rotated to lograker.log.old (one previous generation kept) and a fresh log is started.

Fixed

  • The sidebar's "Update available" and trial cards now follow the Text Size setting — previously the label and button could render at mismatched sizes after a Text Size change, and the cards didn't grow to fit larger text.

1.17July 7, 2026

Added

  • Amazon S3 as a log source. Point LogRaker at an S3 bucket/prefix and it live-tails the log objects delivered there (ALB / CloudFront access logs, CloudTrail, Firehose, plain text / NDJSON) — polling for new objects, auto-decompressing gzip, with the same filtering, layouts, and Monitors as any other source. Uses your existing AWS credentials.
  • Layouts with no streams now show a warning badge in the sidebar — the same one source-less Monitors get — so an empty layout (every slot empty) is obvious at a glance instead of silently showing nothing.

Fixed

  • Various sidebar, empty-state, and layout elements now scale correctly at large accessibility text sizes.

1.16July 5, 2026

Added

  • The first-run Add Your First Source now opens a chooser where you pick the kind of source — Local, SSH, Firebase, Google Cloud, or Amazon CloudWatch — each with its icon and a short description, instead of jumping straight into the SSH editor.
  • Right-clicking a sidebar section header (Sources, Layouts, or Monitors) or a layout row now offers that section's New… actions, so you can add a source, layout, or monitor without opening the toolbar + menu.
  • Monitors now show a warning badge in the sidebar when they have no source to watch — so a Monitor whose source was deleted (or one you haven't added a source to yet) is obvious at a glance instead of silently matching nothing.

Changed

  • The Welcome screen's intro now mentions Amazon CloudWatch alongside the other supported log sources.
  • Deleting a stream, server, or source group now removes it from any Monitor that referenced it, rather than leaving a "(deleted …)" placeholder in the Monitor's source bar. Undo restores both the deleted item and its place in the Monitor.

Fixed

  • Pointing a stream at a file it can't read now explains why — for example Permission denied for a root-owned or system-protected file, or that the path is a folder, not a file — and stops retrying on errors that won't fix themselves, instead of looping "Couldn't read file" forever. A file that doesn't exist still retries, in case it re-appears later.

1.15July 4, 2026

Changed

  • Settings reorganized: the stream-display defaults (new-stream icon, initial history, scrollback limit) moved to a new Streams tab. General now holds appearance, the default-app setting, and update checks.

Added

  • LogRaker now honors the system Reduce Motion accessibility setting (System Settings ▸ Accessibility ▸ Display). When it's on, non-essential animation is minimized — the sidebar activity/status indicators, drag-and-drop affordances, status cards, About-window trace, and window transitions stop moving while still conveying the same information. It follows the system setting live, with no separate switch.
  • New Settings ▸ General option to set LogRaker's appearance independently of macOS: choose Automatic (follow the system Light/Dark setting, the default), Light, or Dark. The override applies to every LogRaker window and affects only LogRaker.
  • Filter pills can now be edited in place — double-click a pill (or press Return while it's selected) to change it; Return commits, Esc restores the original. Works in every pill field: stream filters, journal units, and AWS log streams.

Fixed

  • Monitor match lists now show lines at full length with a horizontal scroll bar.
  • Scrolling right to read the end of long log lines no longer snaps back to the left edge whenever a new line arrives — live output now keeps your horizontal position while following the tail, in both stream panes and merged layout panes.

1.14July 4, 2026

Added

  • New Settings ▸ Timestamps option "Hide duplicate timestamps" (on by default): when a service embeds its own timestamp in every message — so journald / syslog lines show the time twice — the embedded copy is hidden and the log system's timestamp is kept. Applies only when the two timestamps agree to within a few seconds, so replayed or forwarded events keep their original time visible.

Changed

  • Journal (journald) streams now capture timestamps at the journal's full microsecond precision; sub-seconds show when your timestamp format includes a fractional field. Hosts too old to support it automatically fall back to whole-second timestamps.

Fixed

  • Sub-second digits on ISO 8601 timestamps that carry a time zone (journald, os_log dumps) were counted twice in the parsed time used by time-sync and merge-by-time ordering; they are now exact.
  • The "🔑 Auto-detected …" key status line now appears once per streaming session instead of repeating on every reconnect attempt while a server is down (it still reappears if the detected key changes).
  • Tailing a log fed by progress-style output (rsync, curl, pv — tools that redraw their status line with bare carriage returns) no longer freezes the app; each progress snapshot now renders as its own line instead of piling up invisibly until the copy finishes.
  • A Monitor's "No matches yet" placeholder now picks up live changes: it re-scales when the Accessibility text size is adjusted, and updates its title and icon when the Monitor is renamed or given a new icon.
  • A deleted Monitor's page no longer lingers in the main window when the deletion arrives from Undo/Redo, Restore Configuration, or an iCloud sync from another Mac — the pane now swaps to the empty state (or rebinds to the restored Monitor) automatically.

1.13July 2, 2026

Added

  • Adjustable text size — a new Accessibility tab in Settings with a slider that scales the main window (log output and sidebar) from 70% to 200% in 5% steps, with 100% the standard size. Changes apply live as you drag. Menus, dialogs, and editor sheets keep the system text size, per the macOS convention of scaling content rather than chrome.
  • Mac App Store edition — in-app purchase to unlock LogRaker (one-time, via StoreKit), with Restore Purchase for buyers who reinstall or set up a new Mac. The 14-day free trial works the same as the Web edition.

Changed

  • Dark Mode log colors — softened the main log text from pure white to a calmer off-white, and made the default / debug severity labels clearly legible. Light Mode is unchanged.

Fixed

  • Fixed an issue with out-of-order cloud logs — GCP / Firebase live logs now always display in chronological order. Cloud Logging streams entries in ingestion order, so a late-arriving infrastructure log (e.g. an autoscaling message) could appear below newer lines; it's now slotted into its correct spot by timestamp.
  • Paused cloud streams now keep everything on resume — lines buffered while a GCP / Firebase stream was paused now retain their chronological sorting, execution coloring, and log-entry details after unpausing.

1.12June 30, 2026

Added

  • Window menu — standard macOS window-tiling commands (Fill, Center, Move & Resize, Enter Full Screen), matching Apple's HIG.

Changed

  • Help — added a top-level Desktop Widgets topic to the Help home page so the widget docs are easier to find.
  • File menu — renamed Close to Close Window for clarity.

1.11June 30, 2026

Added

  • Monitor colors — each Monitor now has a Color (red, orange, or green) in its editor. The match count uses that color both in the desktop widget and on the Monitor's sidebar badge, so a "good news" Monitor can read green instead of alarm-red. Red is the default, so existing Monitors are unchanged.
  • Deleting a Monitor that's shown in a desktop widget now asks for confirmation first, warning that the widget will show "Monitor not found." (A widget on another Mac can't be detected — its tile shows that state on its own.)

Fixed

  • Renaming a Stream, Server, or Server Group now updates its name in a Monitor's source area immediately.
  • A desktop widget whose chosen Monitor was later deleted now shows a clear "Monitor not found" message instead of going blank or silently switching to a different Monitor. Tap it to open LogRaker and select another.

1.10.1June 29, 2026

Fixed

  • Desktop widgets that stayed blank after updating the app now recover on their own: a stale widget left running by the system is recycled more reliably, and a newer app build tells an out-of-date widget to relaunch itself.
  • Fixed an issue with iCloud Keychain syncing.

1.10June 29, 2026

Added

  • Server credentials (SSH private key, GCP service-account key, AWS credentials-file profile) now sync across your Macs via iCloud Keychain, so a server set up on one Mac connects on another without re-picking the key file.
  • Help ▸ Send Diagnostics… — opens an email with the diagnostic log attached, so reporting an issue is a couple of clicks. If no default mail app is set up, it reveals the log in Finder instead.

Fixed

  • Updated status LEDs to look better in macOS Dark Mode.
  • Small fixes related to trial handling.
  • Desktop widgets should no longer go blank after an app update.
  • Added additional logging to diagnose any potential desktop widget issues.

1.9June 28, 2026

Added

  • Open Layouts from Shortcuts, Siri & Spotlight — your multi-pane layouts now appear in Apple's automation alongside streams, monitors, and servers. Use the Open Layout action in the Shortcuts app, ask Siri for a layout by name, or type its name in Spotlight to jump straight to it. The more you open a layout, the more macOS suggests it.
  • Groups in Shortcuts, Siri & Spotlight — your sidebar folders (Source Groups, Stream Groups, Layout Groups, and Monitor Groups) can now be opened by name from Shortcuts, Siri, and Spotlight. New Start Streams in… actions start every stream in a Source Group, Stream Group (including nested groups), or Layout Group in one step.
  • Monitor alarm actions in Shortcuts & Siri — new Silence Monitor Alarm (silence one specific monitor), Is Monitor Alarming, and Is Anything Alarming actions, plus ask Siri “Is anything alarming in LogRaker.” A monitor's Is Alarming state and Last Match time are now readable from a Shortcut too, so an automation can react when one fires.
  • Stop + list actions to match Start, in Shortcuts — new Stop Streams on Server and, for groups, Stop Streams in… and Get Streams in… actions (Source, Stream, and Layout Groups), rounding out the existing Start and Get-Streams-on-Server actions.
  • More Shortcuts actions — Restart All Streams (also a Siri phrase; restarts the streams that are currently running), Get Monitors in Monitor Group, and Get Monitor Matches now returns each match with its line, time, and pattern (readable via *Get Details of*) instead of just the text.

Fixed

  • Cloud sources read correctly in Shortcuts — in the Shortcuts *Get Details* action, a server now shows a single source-aware Location (the AWS region or GCP/Firebase project for cloud sources, an SSH host otherwise) and a stream shows Source, instead of the Host/User fields that were blank for AWS and GCP sources.
  • License activation now validates the key shape — the Activate button stays disabled until the entered text actually matches the license-key format, instead of enabling for any non-empty text.

1.8June 28, 2026

Added

  • Monitor desktop widget — a widget for your Mac desktop and Notification Center showing your Monitors' match counts as cards, without opening LogRaker. In the widget's edit sheet you choose which Monitors appear on each size: the small size shows a single Monitor; the medium and large sizes show a grid of the Monitors you pick. A count turns red when a Monitor has matches; click a card to jump straight to that Monitor in LogRaker.
  • Reorder sidebar groups by dragging — Server Groups, Layout Groups, and Monitor Groups can now be dragged up and down to reorder them within their section.
  • Help button on overview panes — the detail pane for a source (local system, SSH server, or cloud source) and for a Source/Layout/Monitor/Stream group now has a ? button at the trailing edge of the header that opens the matching Help page.
  • Deactivate any Mac from the License tab — the activated-Macs list now has a Deactivate button on each of your other Macs, so you can free a seat from any Mac — handy if you sold or erased a Mac, or deleted LogRaker on it without deactivating first. Your current Mac is marked *(This Mac)* and still uses the Deactivate This Mac button.
  • Your other Macs activate automatically — after you activate LogRaker on one Mac, your other Macs pick up the license over iCloud and unlock without re-entering your key (each signs in to its own seat). If all your seats are in use, free one with the per-Mac Deactivate.

Fixed

  • Duplicating a Monitor no longer inflates its match count — the copy's badge was double-counted (e.g. 45 → 76 → 107 on repeated duplicates) because the live backlog was scanned in addition to the original's matches. The duplicate now mirrors the original's count exactly.
  • Undo of deleting a Monitor now restores everything — previously the Monitor came back empty: its watch list (sources), patterns, and alert settings were lost. Undo now revives the full Monitor, and Redo re-deletes it. Create and Duplicate Monitor round-trip their content the same way.
  • Drag to reorder Monitors — Monitors in the sidebar can now be dragged up and down to reorder them, and dragged into, between, or out of Monitor Groups — matching Streams, Servers, and Layouts. Fully undoable.

1.7June 26, 2026

Added

  • Overview pane for "Ungrouped" collections — clicking the *Ungrouped* row under Sources, Layouts, or Monitors now opens an overview in the detail pane (name, count, and a table of the ungrouped items).

Changed

  • Monitor group overview now matches Sources and Layouts — selecting a Monitor group shows a header plus a table of its monitors (Name · Sources · Patterns), consistent with the other sections.
  • Layouts overview shows "Slots Available" — the Layout group table's slot column now counts open slots (capacity minus filled and closed) instead of filled ones, so you can see at a glance how much room a layout has left.
  • Sidebar match badges line up — a Monitor row's match-count badge now aligns vertically with the badges on container rows above it, leaving the status-dot column reserved so the trailing edge reads as one tidy column.
  • Sidebar cards slide in — the "Update available" and trial cards now slide and fade in from the left when they appear, instead of popping in.

Fixed

  • "Update available" card now appears promptly — when a new version is ready, the sidebar card shows up right after you open LogRaker (and refreshes when you return to the app or wake your Mac) instead of waiting for the next periodic update check. (Direct-download edition only; the Mac App Store handles its own updates.)

1.6June 26, 2026

Added

  • Status roll-up on collapsed groups — when you collapse a source, a Stream Group, or a Source Group, its status dot now summarizes the streams hidden inside it: green when all is well, yellow/orange while connecting or reconnecting, and red for any stream errors. Red propagates all the way to the top, so you can keep things collapsed to save space and still spot trouble at a glance.
  • Match-count roll-up on collapsed Monitor groups — collapse a Monitor group and its row shows the combined match count of the monitors inside (and show an alarm bell if any of them is alarming), so you can keep groups tidy without losing sight of the totals.
  • Roll-up on Layouts — every Layout row now summarizes its sources at a glance: a status dot for the worst status across its streams, plus a match badge (and alarm bell) for its monitors — so your saved dashboards read as healthy, erroring, or alerting without opening them. A collapsed Layout Group aggregates across all the layouts inside it.
  • Reorder the sidebar sections — drag the *Sources*, *Layouts*, or *Monitors* header up or down to arrange the sections however suits you (say, Monitors on top). The order — and whether each section is collapsed — syncs across your Macs via iCloud.

Changed

  • Monitor badges show the exact match count — the sidebar match-count pill no longer caps at "99+"; it always shows the full number.

Fixed

  • Fix trial-card flash for licensed users — if you bought a license while still inside your trial window, the green trial card no longer flashes in the sidebar for a split second at launch.
  • Fix lagging sidebar card buttons — the *Update* and *Buy* buttons on the sidebar's update/trial cards no longer lag behind when you drag the sidebar wider or narrower.
  • Fix collapsing a group losing its contents' expansion — collapse a source or group and expand it again, and everything inside reappears exactly as you left it (sub-sources and stream groups kept their open/closed state), instantly — instead of springing back collapsed later.

1.5June 25, 2026

Added

  • Stream Groups — organize a source's streams into named, nestable folders in the sidebar. Right-click a source (or a group) ▸ *New Stream Group…*, then drag streams in or use *Move to Stream Group*.
  • iCloud sync — your servers, streams, groups, layouts, monitors, trusted hosts, and connection credentials now sync securely across your Macs via iCloud.

1.4June 24, 2026

Added

  • Initial support for AWS CloudWatch Logs.

1.3.1June 23, 2026

Changed

  • Direct downloads now ship as a .zip instead of a disk image (.dmg) — quicker to open, nothing to eject. Existing installs keep updating as usual.

1.3June 23, 2026

Added

  • Support for systemd journals over SSH (journald) — an SSH source's stream can now follow the host's systemd journal with journalctl instead of tailing a file. In the stream editor, set *Source* to *Journal*, then pick the units to follow, a severity floor, and an optional current-boot limit, with a live preview of the command. (Reading the full system journal requires the SSH user to be in the host's systemd-journal group.)

1.2June 22, 2026

Added

  • Filter: match wildcards or literal text — a Filter field's magnifying-glass dropdown menu now lets you choose how your pattern is read: *Wildcards (\* and ?)* (the default) or *Contains literally*, which matches * and ? as ordinary characters. Lets you search for lines that contain real asterisks (e.g. * starting vrmlogger *). Available on every filter field — the toolbar and a layout pane's own filter — as one shared, app-wide setting, remembered between launches.
  • Support for daemontools-style rotated logs — when a stream points at a current file written by a daemontools-style logger (multilog, svlogd, s6-log, or cyclog — as used by systems like Victron Venus OS), the initial history now reads back across the rotated @… archive files in the same folder (both cleanly-saved .s and interrupted .u chunks). Archives that the logger's processor gzip-compressed are decompressed automatically over SSH.

Fixed

  • Filters no longer freeze the app - certain filter patterns (for example several * wildcards) matched against long log lines could pin LogRaker with a spinning beachball. Wildcard matching now uses a linear matcher that can't stall, everywhere filters are applied - the per-stream filter, the toolbar filter, merged-layout panes, and monitors.
  • Filter fields scroll as you type — editable filter, search, and pattern fields now scroll horizontally to keep the cursor visible when the text runs past the field's width, instead of clipping. Affects the per-pane filter in layouts, the stream-filter / monitor-pattern entry, and the search fields.
  • Monitor pane honors the filter mode — the toolbar Filter applied to a Monitor's match list now uses the same matcher as every other pane, so wildcard patterns (e.g. HTTP*) and the Wildcards / Contains-literally mode work there too — previously it only matched (and highlighted) as a literal substring.

1.1.2June 21, 2026

Fixed

  • Help reliability — fixed an issue with the in-app Help (? buttons and the Help menu) showing "The selected content is currently unavailable" on first use after a fresh install.
  • Settings help — the Settings help now covers all four tabs, including the new License page.

Added

  • Update available, quietly — when a new version is ready, LogRaker now shows an unobtrusive "Update available" card at the bottom of the sidebar (alongside any trial countdown) instead of interrupting you with a dialog. (Direct-download edition only; the Mac App Store handles its own updates.)

1.1.1June 19, 2026

Fixed

  • About ▸ LogRaker ▸ Release Notes now renders properly.

1.1June 19, 2026

Added

  • Automation with Shortcuts & Siri — LogRaker now works with the Shortcuts app, Siri, and Spotlight. Start/stop/restart streams, read a stream's recent output or status, get a monitor's match count or recent matched lines, open a source, or start/stop everything — with Siri phrases for the common actions. See the new Help chapter for details.

1.01June 18, 2026

Added

  • Help ▸ Send Feedback… — opens a pre-addressed email so you can send feedback, report a bug, or request a feature in a couple of clicks.
  • License tab now lists the Macs your license is activated on, each with its activation date, plus a Refresh button to update the list and seat count on demand.

Fixed

  • License tab could show "0 of 3 Macs" right after activating; the activated-Mac count now reflects the server correctly.

1.0June 18, 2026

Added

  • Initial release of LogRaker — a native, highly optimized macOS app for monitoring live log output from local and remote systems.