Custom Drains

A drain is the terminal step of evlog's pipeline: a function that receives wide events and ships them somewhere: an HTTP API, a message queue, a database, a webhook, a local file. evlog ships built-in drains for popular providers (Adapters overview). When you need a destination that isn't covered, you write your own.

Two factories cover every case:

Both come from evlog/toolkit and are the exact factories every built-in adapter uses.

defineHttpDrain (the HTTP recipe)

The recipe every built-in adapter follows. Two pure functions: resolve() returns the config (or null to skip), encode() returns the HTTP request payload.

import {
  defineHttpDrain,
  resolveAdapterConfig,
  type ConfigField,
} from 'evlog/toolkit'

interface MyServiceConfig {
  apiKey: string
  endpoint?: string
  timeout?: number
}

const FIELDS: ConfigField<MyServiceConfig>[] = [
  { key: 'apiKey', env: ['MYSERVICE_API_KEY'] },
  { key: 'endpoint', env: ['MYSERVICE_ENDPOINT'] },
  { key: 'timeout' },
]

export function createMyServiceDrain(overrides?: Partial<MyServiceConfig>) {
  return defineHttpDrain<MyServiceConfig>({
    name: 'myservice',
    resolve: async () => {
      const cfg = await resolveAdapterConfig<MyServiceConfig>('myservice', FIELDS, overrides)
      if (!cfg.apiKey) {
        console.error('[evlog/myservice] Missing apiKey')
        return null
      }
      return cfg as MyServiceConfig
    },
    encode: (events, cfg) => ({
      url: `${cfg.endpoint ?? 'https://api.myservice.com'}/v1/ingest`,
      headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        Authorization: `Bearer ${cfg.apiKey}`,
      },
      body: JSON.stringify(events),
    }),
  })
}

That's it. defineHttpDrain handles batching, retries (default 2), timeouts (default 5000ms), error isolation, and the identity headers (User-Agent: evlog/<version> + X-Evlog-Source: <name>). Your app pipeline keeps running even if your destination is down.

A 5-minute example — internal Loki drain

A complete working drain in 25 lines, with no external config helper:

import { defineHttpDrain } from 'evlog/toolkit'

export function createLokiDrain(overrides?: { url?: string, token?: string }) {
  return defineHttpDrain<{ url: string, token: string }>({
    name: 'loki',
    resolve: () => ({
      url: overrides?.url ?? process.env.LOKI_URL!,
      token: overrides?.token ?? process.env.LOKI_TOKEN!,
    }),
    encode: (events, config) => ({
      url: `${config.url}/loki/api/v1/push`,
      headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        Authorization: `Bearer ${config.token}`,
      },
      body: JSON.stringify({
        streams: events.map(e => ({
          stream: { service: e.service, level: e.level },
          values: [[String(Date.parse(e.timestamp) * 1e6), JSON.stringify(e)]],
        })),
      }),
    }),
  })
}

Standardized config priority

resolveAdapterConfig(namespace, fields, overrides) walks the standard chain so users get the same configuration UX as built-in adapters:

1. Explicit overrides passed to your factory
2. runtimeConfig.evlog.<namespace> (Nuxt/Nitro)
3. runtimeConfig.<namespace> (legacy Nuxt/Nitro)
4. <NS>_<FIELD> env vars (list NUXT_<NS>_<FIELD> in ConfigField.env for silent Nuxt compat; show only <NS>_<FIELD> in error messages via formatPublicEnvKeys)

Field names should follow the project conventions: apiKey, endpoint, serviceName, timeout. If you're renaming an existing field (e.g. token → apiKey), keep both as ConfigField entries for one major version. See axiom.ts and better-stack.ts for the deprecation pattern.

Wiring the drain into your framework

Once createMyServiceDrain() returns the drain, wire it like any other:

// server/plugins/evlog-drain.ts
import { createMyServiceDrain } from '~/server/utils/my-drain'

const drain = createMyServiceDrain()

export default defineNitroPlugin((nitroApp) => {
  nitroApp.hooks.hook('evlog:drain', drain)
})

// lib/evlog.ts
import { createEvlog } from 'evlog/next'
import { createMyServiceDrain } from './my-drain'

export const { withEvlog, useLogger, log, createError } = createEvlog({
  service: 'my-app',
  drain: createMyServiceDrain(),
})

import { createMyServiceDrain } from './my-drain'
app.use(evlog({ drain: createMyServiceDrain() }))

await app.register(evlog, { drain: createMyServiceDrain() })

EvlogModule.forRoot({ drain: createMyServiceDrain() })

import { initLogger } from 'evlog'
import { createMyServiceDrain } from './my-drain'

initLogger({ drain: createMyServiceDrain() })

For production, wrap it once in createDrainPipeline so events are batched and retried.

Filtering and transforming events

encode() receives the full batch of WideEvent[] plus the resolved config. Filter or transform inline, and returning null is a clean opt-out for that batch:

encode: (events, cfg) => {
  const filtered = events.filter(e => e.level === 'error' && e.path !== '/health')
  if (filtered.length === 0) return null

  const payload = filtered.map(e => ({
    ts: new Date(e.timestamp).getTime(),
    severity: e.level.toUpperCase(),
    attributes: { method: e.method, path: e.path, status: e.status, durationMs: e.durationMs },
  }))

  return {
    url: `${cfg.endpoint}/v1/push`,
    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
    body: JSON.stringify(payload),
  }
}

defineDrain (non-HTTP transports)

If your destination requires gRPC, a vendor SDK, a queue client, a WebSocket, or a raw socket, drop one level lower with defineDrain. You own the transport; the toolkit still gives you config resolution, error isolation, and a consistent shape.

import { defineDrain } from 'evlog/toolkit'

export const createCustomTransportDrain = () =>
  defineDrain<{ apiKey: string }>({
    name: 'custom',
    resolve: async () => ({ apiKey: process.env.MY_KEY! }),
    send: async (events, cfg) => {
      await myVendorSdk.publish(events, { token: cfg.apiKey })
    },
  })

When you fall back to defineDrain, follow the same rules manually that defineHttpDrain enforces: wrap the transport in try/catch, log with console.error('[evlog/<name>] …'), and never re-throw.

DrainContext reference

When evlog calls your drain through evlog:drain, it passes a DrainContext per event:

interface DrainContext {
  /** The complete wide event with all accumulated context */
  event: WideEvent

  /** Request metadata */
  request?: {
    method: string
    path: string
    requestId: string
  }

  /** Safe HTTP headers (sensitive headers filtered) */
  headers?: Record<string, string>
}

interface WideEvent {
  timestamp: string
  level: 'debug' | 'info' | 'warn' | 'error'
  service: string
  environment?: string
  version?: string
  region?: string
  commitHash?: string
  requestId?: string
  // ... plus all fields added via log.set()
  [key: string]: unknown
}

In the batched form your encode() / send() receives, you get WideEvent[] directly (the toolkit unwraps event from each context).

Toolkit helpers

evlog/toolkit exposes the same helpers every built-in adapter uses. The ones relevant to drains:

Identity headers

defineHttpDrain automatically tags every request with two headers so receivers can identify the traffic:

If you build a drain on top of httpPost directly, you can override or suppress them. See Identity headers.

Error handling — already done for you

defineHttpDrain enforces every best practice automatically:

1. Never throws — failures are caught and logged with the [evlog/<name>] prefix.
2. Retries — defaults to 2 attempts on transient errors (configurable via retries).
3. Timeouts — defaults to 5000ms (configurable via timeout).
4. Graceful degradation — resolve() returning null makes the drain a no-op.

If you fall back to defineDrain, follow the same rules manually.

Publishing as a community package

Recommended structure for a community drain:

my-evlog-drain/
├─ src/
│  ├─ drain.ts        # createMyDrain via defineHttpDrain
│  └─ index.ts        # re-exports
├─ test/              # vitest, mock fetch
├─ package.json       # peerDependency: "evlog"
└─ README.md

Add evlog as a peerDependency (not a dependency), so your package will not pull in a copy of evlog at install time.

Next steps

• Drain Pipeline — wrap your drain in batch + retry + fanout for production
• Adapters Overview — see how the built-in adapters use defineHttpDrain
• Custom Enrichers — same toolkit shape for derived event fields
• Custom Framework Integration — same toolkit shape for HTTP frameworks
• Best Practices — security and production tips