Context Variables#

The contextvars module in the Python standard library allows having a global structlog context that is local to the current execution context. The execution context can be thread-local if using threads, or using primitives based on asyncio, or greenlet respectively.

For example, you may want to bind certain values like a request ID or the peer’s IP address at the beginning of a web request and have them logged out along with the local contexts you build within our views.

For that structlog provides the structlog.contextvars module with a set of functions to bind variables to a context-local context. This context is safe to be used both in threaded as well as asynchronous code.

The general flow is:

We’re sorry the word context means three different things in this itemization depending on … context.

>>> from structlog.contextvars import (
...     bind_contextvars,
...     bound_contextvars,
...     clear_contextvars,
...     merge_contextvars,
...     unbind_contextvars,
... )
>>> from structlog import configure
>>> configure(
...     processors=[
...         merge_contextvars,
...         structlog.processors.KeyValueRenderer(key_order=["event", "a"]),
...     ]
... )
>>> log = structlog.get_logger()
>>> # At the top of your request handler (or, ideally, some general
>>> # middleware), clear the contextvars-local context and bind some common
>>> # values:
>>> clear_contextvars()
>>> bind_contextvars(a=1, b=2)
{'a': <Token var=<ContextVar name='structlog_a' default=Ellipsis at ...> at ...>, 'b': <Token var=<ContextVar name='structlog_b' default=Ellipsis at ...> at ...>}
>>> # Then use loggers as per normal
>>> # (perhaps by using structlog.get_logger() to create them).
>>> log.info("hello")
event='hello' a=1 b=2
>>> # Use unbind_contextvars to remove a variable from the context.
>>> unbind_contextvars("b")
>>> log.info("world")
event='world' a=1
>>> # You can also bind key-value pairs temporarily.
>>> with bound_contextvars(b=2):
...    log.info("hi")
event='hi' a=1 b=2
>>> # Now it's gone again.
>>> log.info("hi")
event='hi' a=1
>>> # And when we clear the contextvars state again, it goes away.
>>> # a=None is printed due to the key_order argument passed to
>>> # KeyValueRenderer, but it is NOT present anymore.
>>> clear_contextvars()
>>> log.info("hi there")
event='hi there' a=None

Support for contextvars.Token#

If e.g. your request handler calls a helper function that needs to temporarily override some contextvars before restoring them back to their original values, you can use the Tokens returned by bind_contextvars() along with reset_contextvars() to accomplish this (much like how contextvars.ContextVar.reset() works):

def foo():
    bind_contextvars(a=1)
    _helper()
    log.info("a is restored!")  # a=1

def _helper():
    tokens = bind_contextvars(a=2)
    log.info("a is overridden")  # a=2
    reset_contextvars(**tokens)

Example: Flask and Thread-Local Data#

Let’s assume you want to bind a unique request ID, the URL path, and the peer’s IP to every log entry by storing it in thread-local storage that is managed by context variables:

import logging
import sys
import uuid

import flask

from .some_module import some_function

import structlog

logger = structlog.get_logger()
app = flask.Flask(__name__)

@app.route("/login", methods=["POST", "GET"])
def some_route():
    # You would put this into some kind of middleware or processor so it's set
    # automatically for all requests in all views.
    structlog.contextvars.clear_contextvars()
    structlog.contextvars.bind_contextvars(
        view=flask.request.path,
        request_id=str(uuid.uuid4()),
        peer=flask.request.access_route[0],
    )
    # End of belongs-to-middleware.

    log = logger.bind()
    # do something
    # ...
    log.info("user logged in", user="test-user")
    # ...
    some_function()
    # ...
    return "logged in!"


if __name__ == "__main__":
    logging.basicConfig(
        format="%(message)s", stream=sys.stdout, level=logging.INFO
    )
    structlog.configure(
        processors=[
            structlog.contextvars.merge_contextvars,  # <--!!!
            structlog.processors.KeyValueRenderer(
                key_order=["event", "view", "peer"]
            ),
        ],
        logger_factory=structlog.stdlib.LoggerFactory(),
    )
    app.run()

some_module.py:

from structlog import get_logger

logger = get_logger()

def some_function():
    # ...
    logger.error("user did something", something="shot_in_foot")
    # ...

This would result among other the following lines to be printed:

event='user logged in' view='/login' peer='127.0.0.1' user='test-user' request_id='e08ddf0d-23a5-47ce-b20e-73ab8877d736'
event='user did something' view='/login' peer='127.0.0.1' something='shot_in_foot' request_id='e08ddf0d-23a5-47ce-b20e-73ab8877d736'

As you can see, view, peer, and request_id are present in both log entries.