Getting Started

How to use the online tailer.

The zero-install online tailer requires a Chromium based web browser (e.g. Chrome, Edge, Brave, etc).

Additionally, the File System API must be enabled. This is the case by default for Chrome and Edge, but some browsers (e.g. Brave) require the user to enable the API.

Start by visiting the Tailed home page and choosing the Zero-Code tab.

You can then choose a file from your computer by either dragging a single file into the drop zone, or by clicking the hyperlink to launch a file picker.

Optionally, you can choose some highlighting rules to colorize the log content as it's streamed to the Cloud.

Then, click the Start Tailing! button.

You'll then be shown your session link, both as a hyperlink and as a QR code:

As your log file changes, the additions will be streamed to the Cloud. When you're ready to stop, click the Stop button.

The log file must exist at the point of configuration for the Zero-Install tailer to work. This might mean that you need to create an empty log file by hand to begin the process. Your software process can append to that log file once it starts up.

To avoid leaving your browser tied up, the tailer will back off when there have been no changes to your log file before trying to find new changes again. The back-off will increase by 500 milliseconds on each attempt, up to a maximum of 5 seconds.

This might mean there are occasional delays of up to 5 seconds (plus network latency) in streaming changes to log files that are only written to very occasionally.