I hated working with log files. They were obtuse, easy to search yet hard to filter, and just plain difficult to look at for long periods of time. But with how much logging we do (some might say too much), we should at least treat viewing them as a first class consideration.

This project came about as I was working with the (ever wonderful) BubbleTea and was getting lost in the flow of messages. I wanted to use normal logging strategies, but obviously that won't work with an app taking the standard I/O. Using tail to monitor logs in realtime just felt so... inelegant, especially given the goal is to make the terminal pretty and fun!

Enter... campfire!

Make your log files helpful instead of scary and cumbersome.

• Monitor files as they update in real time

• Filter your files by log type or keyword, hiding things you don't care about

• Continously monitor files by name, whether they exist or not

• All of the above at once!

• Just run campfire [file] with whatever file you want to monitor. That's it!

Github Releases 🐙

• Go to the Releases tab of the repo here
• Download the latest archive for your OS/architecture
• Extract it and place the resulting binary on your $PATH and ensure it is executable

cd ~/Downloads                          # ... or wherever else you downloaded it
tar -xvf campfire_[etc].tar.gz          # x: Extract; v: Verbose output; f: Give filename
chmod +x campfire                       # Make file executable
mv campfire [somewhere on your $PATH]   # Move the file to somewhere on your path

Homebrew 🍺

• Have brew installed (brew.sh)
• Run the following:

brew install --cask daltonsw/tap/campfire

Go 🖥️

• Have Go
• Have your Go install location on your $PATH
• Run the following:

go install go.dalton.dog/campfire@latest

• Campfire Icon - Created by Freepik/Flaticon

Copyright 2025 - Dalton Williams
Check LICENSE in repo for full details