mr-karan

logchef

Go2025–2026

mr-karan / logchef

logchef

Lightweight, single-binary log analytics interface for ClickHouse, focused on high-performance querying and visualization

Data & Databases Observability

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6Mentions

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931GitHub stars

REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

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What it is

Lightweight, single-binary log analytics interface for ClickHouse, focused on high-performance querying and visualization

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use has been verified yet.

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This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.

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Mentions over time

HN mentions by month6 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2025-04-27 15:15:40 UTC to 2026-02-27 17:57:30 UTC.

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

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Period	Start (UTC)	End (exclusive, UTC)	Mentions	Submissions	Comments
Apr 2025	2025-04-01 00:00:00 UTC	2025-05-01 00:00:00 UTC	1	1	0
May 2025	2025-05-01 00:00:00 UTC	2025-06-01 00:00:00 UTC	2	0	2
Jun 2025	2025-06-01 00:00:00 UTC	2025-07-01 00:00:00 UTC	0	0	0
Jul 2025	2025-07-01 00:00:00 UTC	2025-08-01 00:00:00 UTC	0	0	0
Aug 2025	2025-08-01 00:00:00 UTC	2025-09-01 00:00:00 UTC	0	0	0
Sep 2025	2025-09-01 00:00:00 UTC	2025-10-01 00:00:00 UTC	1	0	1
Oct 2025	2025-10-01 00:00:00 UTC	2025-11-01 00:00:00 UTC	0	0	0
Nov 2025	2025-11-01 00:00:00 UTC	2025-12-01 00:00:00 UTC	0	0	0
Dec 2025	2025-12-01 00:00:00 UTC	2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	1	1	0
Jan 2026	2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2026-02-01 00:00:00 UTC	0	0	0
Feb 2026	2026-02-01 00:00:00 UTC	2026-03-01 00:00:00 UTC	1	0	1

What Hacker News says

6 sources

mr-karan·Feb 27, 2026

Agreed on SQL being the best exploratory interface for agents. I've been building Logchef[1], an open-source log viewer for ClickHouse, and found the same thing — when you give an LLM the table schema, it writes surprisingly good ClickHouse SQL. I support both a simpler DSL (LogchefQL, compiles to type-aware SQL on the backend) and raw SQL, and honestly raw SQL wins for the agent use case — more flexible, more training data in the corpus. I took this a few steps further beyond the web UI's AI assistant. There's an MCP server[2] so any AI assistant (Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.) can discover your log sources, introspect schemas, and query directly. And a Rust CLI[3] with syntax highlighting and `--output jsonl` for piping — which means you can write a skill[4] that teaches the agent to triage incidents by running `logchef query` and `logch

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ef sql` in a structured investigation workflow (count → group → sample → pivot on trace_id). The interesting bit is this ends up very similar to what OP describes — an agent that iteratively queries logs to narrow down root cause — except it's composable pieces you self-host rather than an integrated product. [1] https://github.com/mr-karan/logchef [2] https://github.com/mr-karan/logchef-mcp [3] https://logchef.app/integration/cli/ [4] https://github.com/mr-karan/logchef/tree/main/.agents/skills...

In We gave terabytes of CI logs to an LLM

mr-karan·Dec 22, 2025Submission

Show HN: Logchef – Open-source schema-agnostic log viewer for ClickHouse

Hey HN, I'm Karan. I built Logchef because we moved our log workloads to ClickHouse at Zerodha and found the ecosystem lacking for actual log exploration. Tools like Metabase and Grafana are great for dashboards, but log exploration is a different workflow. The Grafana ClickHouse plugin requires manual column configuration for logs, has no field sidebar, and its ad-hoc filters are slow on large tables. Grafana's RBAC is Enterprise-only, and even then it's datasource-level and not at table-level. If someone has access to the ClickHouse datasource, they can query any table. In Logchef, you create Sources (pointing to specific tables) and assign them to Teams. Team A only sees their logs, Team B only theirs. Fine-grained access control without any Enterprise license :) Metabase has no concept of log-specific features at all. We kept falling

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back to raw SQL in clickhouse-client, which works but isn't something you want to hand to your whole team. So I built Logchef — a log viewer designed specifically for ClickHouse. Schema-agnostic, so you can start filtering immediately without migrations. What it does: - Point at any ClickHouse table – no schema migrations/no OTEL requirement - LogchefQL query language (simpler than SQL for filtering) - Field sidebar like Kibana – click values to add filters - SQL-based alerting that routes to Alertmanager - AI assistant that turns natural language queries like "find slow POST requests" into working SQL - MCP server for querying logs from your favourite LLM assistant tool - Single Go binary (~15MB), embeds the frontend We've been running this in production for 8 months and I'm excited to ship v1.0 today. Demo: https://demo.logchef.app GitHub: https://github.com/mr-karan/logchef Docs: https://logchef.app Happy to answer questions about ClickHouse for logs, the architecture, or anything else.

5 points · Open discussion

mr-karan·Sep 30, 2025

I've been working on LogChef (https://logchef.app) - a specialized log analytics UI for ClickHouse that focuses on powerful querying and exploration without the complexity of full observability platforms. The core idea is to leverage ClickHouse's incredible columnar performance for log analytics while providing a schema-agnostic interface that works with any log table structure. It supports both simple search syntax for quick queries and full ClickHouse SQL for complex analytics. Also it has proper RBAC: Team-based access controls for multi-tenant environments. Off late I have also added some AI features: - AI-powered SQL generation - write queries in natural language - MCP (Model Context Protocol) server integration for AI assistants to query your logs It's open source (AGPLv3) and deliberately doesn't handle log collection - inste

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ad it integrates with existing tools like Vector, Fluentd, or OpenTelemetry Collector. The roadmap includes REST APIs, client libraries, visualizations, and alerting. Built with Go + Vue.js + TypeScript. Currently handles millions of log entries daily in production environments at my org. The deployment is just a single binary deployment with a SQLite DB. Would love feedback from the community! GitHub: https://github.com/mr-karan/logchef

In Ask HN: What are you working on? (September 2025)

stanac·May 26, 2025

Github URL should be: https://github.com/mr-karan/logchef (found in announcement post) Edit: ok, I see you have edited your comment

In Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2025)

mr-karan·May 26, 2025

I'm working on Logchef: https://github.com/mr-karan/logchef It's an open-source (AGPLv3), purpose-built log analytics UI specifically for ClickHouse. I've been using ClickHouse for logs and love its power, but found the existing UIs either too heavy, too focused on ingestion (which we already have covered with tools like Vector/Promtail/Fluentbit/Logstash etc), or not ClickHouse-native enough. Logchef aims to be a lightweight, powerful log explorer that sits on top of your existing ClickHouse setup. Key things: - Schema-agnostic: Works with your existing ClickHouse log tables. No need to change how you store things. - Dual Query Modes: Simple search syntax (e.g., level=error service=api) for quick looks, and full SQL for complex analysis when you need to dig deep. - Lightweight & Focused: Single binary, easy to deploy. It doesn't do inges

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tion, letting you use best-of-breed tools for that. - Team-centric: Built with multi-tenancy for teams and access controls for different log sources from the get-go. I've got a demo running at https://demo.logchef.app if you'd like to try it out. It's still evolving, so feedback (especially from other ClickHouse users) would be super valuable! Wrote an announcement post with a bit more detail: https://mrkaran.dev/posts/announcing-logchef/

In Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2025)

mr-karan·Apr 27, 2025Submission

Show HN: Logchef – Schema-agnostic log viewer for ClickHouse

Hey HN! I’m Karan, creator of Logchef (https://logchef.app), an open-source log viewer built specifically for exploring logs stored in ClickHouse. This tool grew directly out of my $day job managing massive log volumes. Like many orgs, we migrated our log workloads to ClickHouse for its performance, but found the ecosystem lacked dedicated UI tooling for actually browsing and analyzing those logs effectively. We were using Metabase, and while great for general BI, it wasn't designed for log exploration workflows. Common pain points included: - Clunky Ad-hoc Querying: Writing/modifying raw ClickHouse SQL for quick checks was slow and error-prone, especially during incidents. - Disconnect Between Viz & Raw Logs: Visualizing trends (like error counts) then drilling down to the specific raw logs often required separate, complex queries and wr

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estling with row limits. The intuitive "slice-and-dice" was missing. - UI Friction: Simple things like selecting precise time ranges ("last 90 minutes"), easily viewing surrounding log context, or dealing with truncated columns added unnecessary friction. Debugging sessions were taking longer than they should. So, over the last 3-4 months, I built Logchef to scratch this itch. Logchef's Core Ideas: - Purpose-Built for ClickHouse Logs: Designed from the ground up for the specific task of log exploration on top of ClickHouse, focusing on speed and intuitive workflows. - Schema-Agnostic: Logchef doesn't force OTEL or any other schema. Connect it directly to your existing ClickHouse log tables (it just needs a timestamp column). Bring your own schema! - Focus on Viewing/Querying: Logchef intentionally doesn't handle log collection/ingestion. It complements great tools like Vector, Fluentbit, etc., by focusing purely on the exploration layer once data is in ClickHouse. - Simple Search Syntax: Includes a simple query syntax (e.g., `status=200 and path~"/api/"`) that translates to efficient ClickHouse SQL behind the scenes, integrated with the Monaco editor. Tech Stack: Go backend, SQLite for metadata, Vue.js + shadcn/ui + Tailwind CSS frontend. You can try a live public demo here: https://demo.logchef.app (It's pre-populated with sample data using Vector, so you can dive right in. Uses Dex for OIDC auth - creds are on the login page). What's Next & Getting Involved: Logchef is already used internally at Zerodha, and I'm driving towards v1.0 this year. The roadmap includes features like Alerting, Live Tail Logs, and Enhanced Dashboarding. It's open source (AGPLv3), and I'd love to get more eyes on it and build a community. Check out the repo: https://github.com/mr-karan/logchef I’d love to hear your feedback, whether positive or negative. Please open issues on GitHub with suggestions or bug reports! Thanks so much, HN!

41 points · Open discussion