---
title: Configure Runtime Log Storage
description: Set, inspect, and reset Kitaru's global runtime log-store backend
---

This guide shows how to configure Kitaru's preferred runtime log backend.

## What this controls

Kitaru has two separate observability channels:

- `kitaru.log(...)` writes **structured metadata** to executions/checkpoints.
- `kitaru log-store ...` configures the backend for **runtime logs**.

By default, runtime logs use `artifact-store`.

## Important: preference vs active stack

`kitaru log-store set` stores a Kitaru-side preference. Runtime log capture
still follows the active stack's log-store component. If they differ,
Kitaru now shows a warning in:

- `kitaru log-store show`
- `kitaru status`

Use those warnings as a signal that your saved preference and active runtime
destination are different.

## Show current log-store backend

```bash
kitaru log-store show
```

This command shows the effective preferred backend and where it came from
(`default`, `global user config`, or `environment`).

## Set a global backend override

```bash
kitaru log-store set datadog \
  --endpoint https://logs.datadoghq.com \
  --api-key "{{ DATADOG_KEY }}"
```

This stores a global user-level override and applies to all flows on that
machine.

## Reset to default behavior

```bash
kitaru log-store reset
```

Reset removes the persisted global override and returns to default
`artifact-store` behavior.

## Environment overrides

Environment variables take precedence over the persisted global setting:

- `KITARU_LOG_STORE_BACKEND`
- `KITARU_LOG_STORE_ENDPOINT`
- `KITARU_LOG_STORE_API_KEY`

Example:

```bash
export KITARU_LOG_STORE_BACKEND=datadog
export KITARU_LOG_STORE_ENDPOINT=https://logs.datadoghq.com
export KITARU_LOG_STORE_API_KEY="${DATADOG_API_KEY}"
kitaru log-store show
```

To force default behavior via environment, set:

```bash
export KITARU_LOG_STORE_BACKEND=artifact-store
unset KITARU_LOG_STORE_ENDPOINT
unset KITARU_LOG_STORE_API_KEY
kitaru log-store show
```

## Related reference pages

- [View execution runtime logs](/guides/execution-logs)
- [CLI log-store commands](/cli/log-store)
- [Python logging reference](/reference/python/logging)
