> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://lightdash-mintlify-4096358d.mintlify.site/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Configure logging for Lightdash 🛠 This page is for engineering teams self-hosting their own Lightdash instance. If you want to monitor usage and analytics, go to the [Usage analytics](/references/workspace/usage-analytics) guide. By default Lightdash logs to the console in a human readable format. You can configure the logging behaviour, such as logging to a file or using a JSON format, by using the following environment variables: | Variable | Description | Required? | Default | | :------------------------------------ | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | :-------: | :--------------------: | | `LIGHTDASH_LOG_LEVEL` | The minimum level of log messages to display | | `INFO` | | `LIGHTDASH_LOG_FORMAT` | The format of log messages | | `pretty` | | `LIGHTDASH_LOG_OUTPUTS` | The outputs to send log messages to | | `console` | | `LIGHTDASH_LOG_CONSOLE_LEVEL` | The minimum level of log messages to display on the console | | `LIGHTDASH_LOG_LEVEL` | | `LIGHTDASH_LOG_CONSOLE_FORMAT` | The format of log messages on the console | | `LIGHTDASH_LOG_FORMAT` | | `LIGHTDASH_LOG_FILE_LEVEL` | The minimum level of log messages to write to the log file | | `LIGHTDASH_LOG_LEVEL` | | `LIGHTDASH_LOG_FILE_FORMAT` | The format of log messages in the log file | | `LIGHTDASH_LOG_FORMAT` | | `LIGHTDASH_LOG_FILE_PATH` | The path to the log file | | `./logs/all.log` | | `LIGHTDASH_LOG_AUDIT_ACTOR_AS_STRING` | When `true`, audit log events serialize the `actor` field to a JSON string instead of a nested object. Enable this if your log indexer (e.g. Elasticsearch) maps `actor` as text and would otherwise drop it. | | `false` |