Kubetail

Kubetail is a real-time logging dashboard for Kubernetes, optimized for tailing logs across multi-container workloads. It merges container logs into a single chronological timeline and can be used from a web UI or directly in the terminal.

Key Features

• Merge logs from all containers in a workload (e.g., Deployments, DaemonSets, StatefulSets, CronJobs) into one unified timeline
• Real-time streaming in a browser dashboard or via a CLI output mode
• Filtering by workload, absolute/relative time range, node properties, and grep-style searching
• Tracks container lifecycle changes to keep the log stream consistent as pods/containers are replaced
• Uses the Kubernetes API to fetch logs directly (no requirement to forward logs to an external service)
• Can run locally on a desktop or be installed into a cluster
• Desktop mode supports switching between multiple clusters

Use Cases

• Debugging production incidents by tailing logs across multiple pods and containers in real time
• Following request flows across ephemeral containers during rollouts or autoscaling events
• Day-to-day Kubernetes workload troubleshooting without setting up a full log shipping pipeline

Limitations and Considerations

• Primarily focused on real-time tailing; historic log retention and advanced analytics depend on additional components and are still evolving

Kubetail provides a practical, privacy-friendly way to explore Kubernetes logs in real time using a polished dashboard and CLI. It is well-suited for teams that want immediate visibility into workload logs without introducing a separate logging backend.