Log

Last updated 5 August 2026

The Log window shows a live, scrollable log of all Backstage messages, with per-severity filtering, text search, and the ability to import saved log files for analysis.

The Message column cannot be hidden; every other column is optional.

Tabs

The tab bar manages one or more log views.

Tab	Description
Current session	Always the first tab. Its label shows the current date and time and updates continuously. It cannot be closed
Imported log	Added with the + button at the right of the tab bar — tooltip Open Log File — which opens a file picker for a saved log. The tab is labelled with the file name and closes with its X

Each tab keeps its own filter bar, so different search terms and severity filters can be applied per tab.

Filter bar

Setting	Description	Values / Range
Log level	Minimum severity shown. Entries below it are hidden	Dropdown: Trace, Debug, Info, Notice, Warning, Error, Critical, Fatal. Default Notice
Search	Hides rows that do not contain the text. Matches are highlighted in yellow in the Message column	Free text
Match Case	Makes the search case-sensitive	Checkbox. Default off

Changing the log level keeps your selection. If the selected row is filtered out, the view scrolls to the nearest entry in time.

Columns

Seven columns. All except Message can be toggled from the right-click menu, and all are resizable by dragging their header borders.

Column	Description
Level	Severity, colour-coded: red for Error, Critical and Fatal; yellow for Warning; white otherwise
Uptime	Time elapsed since Backstage started
Global Clock	Wall-clock timestamp when the entry was recorded
Local Clock	Local clock timestamp
Clock Diff	Difference between Global Clock and Local Clock
Scope	The subsystem or thread that produced the entry
Message	The message text, with search matches highlighted. Always visible

Selecting rows

Click a row to select it.
Shift+click another row to extend the selection into a range from the first.
Right-click selects the row and opens the context menu.
Hover a row to read the full message in a tooltip — useful when it is too long for the column.

With a range selected, the copy entry reads Copy N selected lines. A range does not survive a change of filter: it collapses back to a single line, because the rows either side may no longer be shown.

Context menu

Setting	Description	Values / Range
Auto-scroll	Follows the newest entry as messages arrive. Paused temporarily when the view scrolls to a specific line, for instance after changing the log level	Checkbox. Default on
Colored text	Colours the whole row by severity, not just the Level column	Checkbox. Default off
Level, Uptime, Global Clock, Local Clock, Clock Diff, Scope	Show or hide that column	Checkbox
Copy selected	Copies the selected lines to the clipboard	Menu item
Clear	Clears the entries from the current view	Menu item

Column visibility is saved to your user config and persists across sessions.

Common Mistakes

The log jumps to the bottom while you are reading — Auto-scroll is on. Turn it off while investigating, on again for live monitoring.
An expected message is missing — the Log level filter hides everything below it, and the default is Notice. Lower it to Debug or Trace to see the rest.
A selected range shrinks to one row — changing the filter invalidates the range, so it collapses deliberately.

Tips

Import a log with + to compare two sessions side by side in separate tabs.
Global Clock is the timestamp to use when correlating entries with external events such as show triggers or network commands.
Leave Match Case off for broad searches; turn it on for identifiers that differ only by case.
Colored text makes warnings and errors easy to spot when scanning a lot of entries.

Performance Overview — real-time performance metrics and GPU utilisation

Settings — application-wide configuration, including log file output

Log