vtail

Vendor-aware tail for Laravel logs with stack trace formatting and vendor frame collapsing.

vtail is an interactive TUI for real-time log monitoring that intelligently collapses vendor frames in stack traces, making it easier to focus on your application code.

Features

• Vendor Frame Collapsing - Hide vendor frames in stack traces with a single keypress, collapsing them into a count like #… (5 vendor frames)
• Smart Stack Trace Formatting - Stack traces are visually grouped with borders and dimmed decorations
• Line Wrapping Toggle - Switch between wrapped and truncated long lines
• Follow Mode - Auto-scroll to new log entries as they arrive
• Keyboard Navigation - Vim-style navigation (j/k/g/G) plus page up/down
• ANSI & Unicode Aware - Proper handling of colored output and wide characters (CJK, emoji)

Vendor Frame Collapsing

Press v to toggle vendor frame visibility. Consecutive vendor frames collapse into a single line showing the count:

Vendor frames shown (default)

[2024-01-15 10:23:45] production.ERROR: User not found
 {"exception":"[object] (App\\Exceptions\\UserNotFoundException(code: 0):
 User not found at /app/Services/UserService.php:128)
 ╭─Trace────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
 │ #00 /app/Http/Controllers/UserController.php(42): store()                │
 │ #01 /vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Routing/Router.php(693)     │
 │ #02 /vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Routing/Router.php(670)     │
 │ #03 /vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Routing/Router.php(636)     │
 │ #04 /vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Pipeline/Pipeline.php(183)  │
 │ #05 /vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Pipeline/Pipeline.php(119)  │
 │ #06 /app/Services/UserService.php(128): createUser()                     │
 ╰══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╯

Vendor frames hidden (press v)

[2024-01-15 10:23:45] production.ERROR: User not found
 {"exception":"[object] (App\\Exceptions\\UserNotFoundException(code: 0):
 User not found at /app/Services/UserService.php:128)
 ╭─Trace────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
 │ #00 /app/Http/Controllers/UserController.php(42): store()                │
 │ #… (5 vendor frames)                                                     │
 │ #06 /app/Services/UserService.php(128): createUser()                     │
 ╰══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╯

Your application code stands out while framework internals are summarized.

Installation

composer global require soloterm/vtail

Or install locally in your project:

composer require --dev soloterm/vtail

Usage

vtail [options] <file>

Options:
  -h, --help       Show help message
  -n <lines>       Initial tail count (default: 100)
  --no-vendor      Start with vendor frames hidden
  --no-wrap        Start with line wrapping disabled

Examples:
  vtail storage/logs/laravel.log
  vtail --no-vendor laravel.log
  vtail -n 50 /var/log/app.log

Hotkeys

Key	Action
v	Toggle vendor frame visibility
w	Toggle line wrapping
t	Truncate (clear) the log file
f / Space	Toggle follow mode
j / Down	Scroll down one line
k / Up	Scroll up one line
g	Jump to top
G	Jump to bottom (enables follow)
PgUp	Page up
PgDn	Page down
q / Ctrl-C	Quit

Architecture

                              vtail Data Flow
    ============================================================

    ┌─────────────────┐
    │   laravel.log   │
    │   (Log File)    │
    └────────┬────────┘
             │
             │ tail -f -n <count>
             ▼
    ┌─────────────────┐
    │  Tail Process   │  Subprocess via proc_open()
    │  (Non-blocking) │  with async pipe reading
    └────────┬────────┘
             │
             │ Raw log lines (strings)
             ▼
    ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
    │                    LogFormatter                         │
    │  ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────┐  │
    │  │  • Detect stack frames (#N pattern)               │  │
    │  │  • Detect exception headers                       │  │
    │  │  • Identify vendor frames (/vendor/ path)         │  │
    │  │  • Group consecutive vendor frames                │  │
    │  │  • Apply ANSI styling (borders, dim text)         │  │
    │  │  • Wrap/truncate to terminal width                │  │
    │  └───────────────────────────────────────────────────┘  │
    └────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
             │
             │ Line objects with metadata
             ▼
    ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
    │                   LineCollection                        │
    │  ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────┐  │
    │  │  • Store formatted Line objects                   │  │
    │  │  • Apply hideVendor filter                        │  │
    │  │  • Collapse vendor groups → "#... (N frames)"     │  │
    │  │  • Calculate scroll position adjustments          │  │
    │  └───────────────────────────────────────────────────┘  │
    └────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
             │
             │ Display-ready strings
             ▼
    ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
    │                    Application                          │
    │  ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────┐  │
    │  │  Event Loop (25ms / 40 FPS)                       │  │
    │  │  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐  │  │
    │  │  │ 1. Collect output from tail subprocess      │  │  │
    │  │  │ 2. Process lines if new data or dirty flag  │  │  │
    │  │  │ 3. Render viewport to terminal              │  │  │
    │  │  │ 4. Wait for user input (25ms timeout)       │  │  │
    │  │  │ 5. Handle hotkey → update state → repeat    │  │  │
    │  │  └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘  │  │
    │  └───────────────────────────────────────────────────┘  │
    └────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
             │
             │ ANSI escape sequences
             ▼
    ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
    │                      Terminal                           │
    │  ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────┐  │
    │  │  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐  │  │
    │  │  │ STATUS BAR                                  │  │  │
    │  │  │ laravel.log | Lines: 247 | VENDOR: hidden   │  │  │
    │  │  ├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤  │  │
    │  │  │ CONTENT AREA                                │  │  │
    │  │  │ ╭─Trace──────────────────────────────────╮  │  │  │
    │  │  │ │ #01 /app/Http/Controllers/Api.php(42)  │  │  │  │
    │  │  │ │ #… (5 vendor frames)                   │  │  │  │
    │  │  │ │ #07 /app/Models/User.php(128)          │  │  │  │
    │  │  │ ╰────────────────────────────────────────╯  │  │  │
    │  │  ├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤  │  │
    │  │  │ HOTKEY BAR                                  │  │  │
    │  │  │ v vendor  w wrap  t truncate  f follow      │  │  │
    │  │  └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘  │  │
    │  └───────────────────────────────────────────────────┘  │
    └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

                           ▲
                           │ Keyboard input
                           │
                    ┌──────┴──────┐
                    │    User     │
                    └─────────────┘

Component Overview

Component	File	Responsibility
Application	src/Application.php	Event loop, state management, rendering
LogFormatter	src/Formatting/LogFormatter.php	Parse logs, detect vendors, apply styling
LineCollection	src/Formatting/LineCollection.php	Filter lines, collapse vendor groups
Line	src/Formatting/Line.php	Data class for formatted lines
AnsiAware	src/Formatting/AnsiAware.php	ANSI-safe string operations
Terminal	src/Terminal/Terminal.php	TTY control, raw mode, cursor
KeyPressListener	src/Input/KeyPressListener.php	Hotkey bindings

Vendor Detection

A stack frame is considered "vendor" if:

1. The path contains /vendor/ (except when BoundMethod.php is calling app code)
2. The frame is {main} (root of execution)

Consecutive vendor frames are grouped and can be collapsed into a single line showing the count.

Requirements

• PHP 8.1+
• Extensions: pcntl, posix, mbstring
• Unix-like OS (Linux, macOS)

License

MIT

Related Projects

vtail is part of the SoloTerm project:

• Solo - All-in-one Laravel command for local development
• Screen - Pure PHP terminal renderer
• Dumps - Laravel command to intercept dumps
• Grapheme - Unicode grapheme width calculator
• Notify - PHP package for desktop notifications via OSC escape sequences
• Notify Laravel - Laravel integration for soloterm/notify
• TNotify - Standalone, cross-platform CLI for desktop notifications