How it works
What Tailwise does,
What Tailwise does,
and what it stores.
No black box. Here's exactly what runs on your server, what travels to us, what we keep, and what we never touch.
The flow, start to finish
- You run one install command.It finds the readable log files on your server and asks which ones to watch. Nothing is sent until you choose.
- A small agent runs on a schedule.Installed as a cron job, it checks your chosen logs every minute. It remembers where it left off, so it only ever sends new lines, never the whole file. On the very first run it takes just the last 500 lines for context.
- New log lines travel to Tailwise over HTTPS.Tied to your private access token, which keeps your data separate from everyone else's. One token covers the servers on your plan.
- We scan each line for real problems.Fatal errors, warnings, database errors. Routine noise like access logs and harmless notices is ignored, so the signal stays clean.
- You get an email when something new breaks.Grouped and summarised, with the error and how often it happened. Repeats are throttled, so a recurring error alerts you once, not every minute.
What Tailwise stores
- Recent log lines. The lines from the files you chose, kept on a rolling basis so older ones drop off as new ones arrive.
- Detected issues. For each one we keep the flagged line (trimmed), its severity (fatal, error or warning), which log it came from, how often it happened, and the timestamps.
- Your contact details. Your alert email and your server's hostname, so we know where to reach you and which machine reported.
- A little housekeeping state. Which errors you've already been told about, so we don't repeat ourselves.
What Tailwise never touches
- Your source code. We don't read it, copy it, or sync it.
- Your database. Never connected to, never exported.
- Logs you didn't pick. Only the files you select. Access logs are off by default.
- Your data, for anything else. Never sold, never shared with third parties, no ads.
Logs can still contain sensitive details, so send only the files you're comfortable with and skip anything holding secrets or customer data. Automatic redaction before send is on our roadmap; until then, you stay in control by choosing what to share.
You stay in control
Your subscription has one access token that you use across your servers. Remove the agent from a server and it stops sending right away. Cancel anytime, and ask us to delete your stored data. Everything between your servers and Tailwise travels over HTTPS.