Datadog Logs

Search, process, and archive logs with cost awareness.

Prerequisites

Datadog Pup (dd-pup/pup) should already be installed:

cargo install --git https://github.com/DataDog/pup

Quick Start

pup auth login

Search Logs

# Basic search
pup logs search --query="status:error" --from="1h"

# With filters
pup logs search --query="service:api status:error" --from="1h" --limit 100

# JSON output is the default
pup logs search --query="@http.status_code:>=500" --from="1h"

Search Syntax

Trace IDs in Log Results

Logs that show a linked trace in the Datadog UI may not include dd.traceid / dd.spanid in API results. When a trace ID attribute is remapped for trace correlation (via JSON preprocessing or a Trace Remapper processor), the source attribute is removed and the value is stored as an internal attribute that the Logs Search API does not return. The UI's "trace" link reads that internal attribute, so UI and API results differ.

This is expected Datadog Log Management behavior, not a pup bug or an instrumentation problem. Do not retry queries or change instrumentation to "fix" it. Datadog is tracking making these values queryable (support reference FRLOGSS-4306).

Workarounds until then:

• Emit the trace ID under a separate attribute that is not remapped (e.g.

@custom.trace_id) and query that.

• Pivot the other way: search spans by the log's service/time window via

pup traces search, or use the trace link in the Datadog UI.

Pipelines

Process logs before indexing:

# List pipelines
pup obs-pipelines list

# Create pipeline (JSON)
pup obs-pipelines create --file pipeline.json

Common Processors

{
  "name": "API Logs",
  "filter": {"query": "service:api"},
  "processors": [
    {
      "type": "grok-parser",
      "name": "Parse nginx",
      "source": "message",
      "grok": {"match_rules": "%{IPORHOST:client_ip} %{DATA:method} %{DATA:path} %{NUMBER:status}"}
    },
    {
      "type": "status-remapper",
      "name": "Set severity",
      "sources": ["level", "severity"]
    },
    {
      "type": "attribute-remapper",
      "name": "Remap user_id",
      "sources": ["user_id"],
      "target": "usr.id"
    }
  ]
}

⚠️ Exclusion Filters (Cost Control)

Index only what matters:

{
  "name": "Drop debug logs",
  "filter": {"query": "status:debug"},
  "is_enabled": true
}

High-Volume Exclusions

# Find noisiest log sources
pup logs search --query="*" --from="1h" | jq 'group_by(.service) | map({service: .[0].service, count: length}) | sort_by(-.count)[:10]'

Archives

Store logs cheaply for compliance:

# List archives
pup logs archives list

# Archive config (S3 example)
{
  "name": "compliance-archive",
  "query": "*",
  "destination": {
    "type": "s3",
    "bucket": "my-logs-archive",
    "path": "/datadog"
  },
  "rehydration_tags": ["team:platform"]
}

Log-Based Metrics

Inspect log-based metrics:

# List existing log-based metrics
pup logs metrics list

⚠️ Cardinality warning: Group by bounded values only.

Sensitive Data

Scrubbing Rules

{
  "type": "hash-remapper",
  "name": "Hash emails",
  "sources": ["email", "@user.email"]
}

Never Log

# In your app - sanitize before sending
import re

def sanitize_log(message: str) -> str:
    # Remove credit cards
    message = re.sub(r'\b\d{4}[-\s]?\d{4}[-\s]?\d{4}[-\s]?\d{4}\b', '[REDACTED]', message)
    # Remove SSNs
    message = re.sub(r'\b\d{3}-\d{2}-\d{4}\b', '[REDACTED]', message)
    return message

Troubleshooting

References/Documentation

• Log Search Syntax
• Pipelines
• Exclusion Filters
• Archives