Log Monitoring Usage Guide

Quick Start

Scenario 1: You're Watching (Manual Monitoring)

# Start process in background
bash management/test-install.sh -p wsl --keep > /dev/null 2>&1 &

# Monitor in your terminal
tail -f test-wsl-docker.log

# When done, ask Claude to summarize:
# "Summarize the WSL test results"

Claude will run:

bash management/scripts/summarize-log.sh test-wsl-docker.log

Scenario 2: You're Away (Auto-Monitoring)

# Start with auto-monitoring wrapper
bash management/scripts/run-and-summarize.sh \
  "bash management/test-install.sh -p wsl --keep" \
  test-wsl-docker.log

This will:

  1. Run the test in background
  2. Check progress every 60 seconds
  3. Auto-generate summary when complete
  4. Write to test-wsl-docker.log.summary

When you return, Claude reads: cat test-wsl-docker.log.summary

Scenario 3: Check Progress Mid-Run

# Get quick status while process is running
bash management/scripts/summarize-log.sh test-wsl-docker.log

Shows current errors, warnings, last phase, and status.

What the Summarizer Shows

  • File info: Size, line count
  • Phases/Steps: STEP 1/7, Phase 2/5, etc.
  • Status counts: ✓ successes, ✗ failures, ⚠ warnings
  • Errors: Last 10 unique errors
  • Warnings: Last 5 unique warnings
  • Final status: Completed/Failed/Running/Incomplete
  • Timing: Duration, phase completion times
  • Last 20 lines: Recent context

Benefits for Claude Code

Without Summarizer

  • Must read entire log file (10,000+ lines)
  • Context bloat from verbose apt/npm output
  • Hard to extract key information
  • Wastes tokens on irrelevant details

With Summarizer

  • ~200 line summary (98% reduction)
  • Only errors, warnings, status shown
  • Quick assessment of success/failure
  • More context available for follow-up questions

Integration with Workflow

For Claude Code Sessions

When you start a long process:

User: "Start the WSL test with auto-monitoring"
Claude: [Runs run-and-summarize.sh]
        "Test running in background. I'll check status every 60s.
         Summary will be at test-wsl-docker.log.summary when complete."

When Claude checks status:

Claude: [Reads test-wsl-docker.log.summary]
        "Test completed successfully!
         ✓ 83 checks passed
         ✗ 3 failures: glow, duf, 7zz
         Duration: 12m 34s

         Should I investigate the 3 failures?"

User away, returns later:

User: "What happened with the WSL test?"
Claude: [Reads test-wsl-docker.log.summary]
        [Provides concise summary from the file]

Advanced Usage

Custom Check Intervals

# Check every 30 seconds instead of 60
bash management/scripts/run-and-summarize.sh \
  "bash build.sh" \
  build.log \
  30

Multiple Parallel Processes

# Start multiple tests
for platform in wsl arch macos; do
  bash management/scripts/run-and-summarize.sh \
    "bash management/test-install.sh -p $platform --keep" \
    "test-$platform.log" &
done

# Later: check all summaries
for platform in wsl arch macos; do
  echo "=== $platform ==="
  cat "test-$platform.log.summary"
done

Shell Into Kept Container

After WSL test with --keep:

# Find container name
docker ps -a | grep dotfiles-wsl-test

# Shell in
docker exec -it dotfiles-wsl-test-TIMESTAMP bash

# Fix and re-run inside container
bash ~/dotfiles/install.sh
bash ~/dotfiles/management/verify-installation.sh

See Also