---
name: log-analysis
description: >
  Analyze application and infrastructure logs to identify errors, performance
  issues, and security anomalies. Use when debugging incidents in web apps,
  APIs, background jobs, operating systems, Apache/Nginx, or JSON/text logs.
  Triggers on: access.log, nginx error log, server logs, incident log review,
  suspicious traffic, response-time spikes. Not for engine-specific Unity or
  Unreal build logs when a dedicated game-dev triage skill is available.
allowed-tools: Read Grep Glob
metadata:
  tags: logs, analysis, debugging, monitoring, grep, patterns
  platforms: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini
---


# Log Analysis


## When to use this skill

- **Error debugging**: analyze the root cause of application errors
- **Performance analysis**: analyze response times and throughput
- **Security audit**: detect anomalous access patterns
- **Incident response**: investigate the root cause during an outage

## Instructions

### Step 1: Locate Log Files

```bash
# Common log locations
/var/log/                    # System logs
/var/log/nginx/              # Nginx logs
/var/log/apache2/            # Apache logs
./logs/                      # Application logs
```

### Step 2: Search for Error Patterns

**Common error search**:
```bash
# Search ERROR-level logs
grep -i "error\|exception\|fail" application.log

# Recent errors (last 100 lines)
tail -100 application.log | grep -i error

# Errors with timestamps
grep -E "^\[.*ERROR" application.log
```

**HTTP error codes**:
```bash
# 5xx server errors
grep -E "HTTP/[0-9.]+ 5[0-9]{2}" access.log

# 4xx client errors
grep -E "HTTP/[0-9.]+ 4[0-9]{2}" access.log

# Specific error code
grep "HTTP/1.1\" 500" access.log
```

### Step 3: Pattern Analysis

**Time-based analysis**:
```bash
# Error count by time window
grep -i error application.log | cut -d' ' -f1,2 | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn

# Logs for a specific time window
grep "2025-01-05 14:" application.log
```

**IP-based analysis**:
```bash
# Request count by IP
awk '{print $1}' access.log | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20

# Activity for a specific IP
grep "192.168.1.100" access.log
```

### Step 4: Performance Analysis

**Response time analysis**:
```bash
# Extract response times from Nginx logs
awk '{print $NF}' access.log | sort -n | tail -20

# Slow requests (>= 1 second)
awk '$NF > 1.0 {print $0}' access.log
```

**Traffic volume analysis**:
```bash
# Requests per minute
awk '{print $4}' access.log | cut -d: -f1,2,3 | uniq -c

# Requests per endpoint
awk '{print $7}' access.log | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20
```

### Step 5: Security Analysis

**Suspicious patterns**:
```bash
# SQL injection attempts
grep -iE "(union|select|insert|update|delete|drop).*--" access.log

# XSS attempts
grep -iE "<script|javascript:|onerror=" access.log

# Directory traversal
grep -E "\.\./" access.log

# Brute force attack
grep -E "POST.*/login" access.log | awk '{print $1}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn
```

## Output format

### Analysis report structure

```markdown
# Log analysis report

## Summary
- Analysis window: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM ~ YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM
- Total log lines: X,XXX
- Error count: XXX
- Warning count: XXX

## Error analysis
| Error type | Occurrences | Last seen |
|----------|-----------|----------|
| Error A  | 150       | 2025-01-05 14:30 |
| Error B  | 45        | 2025-01-05 14:25 |

## Recommended actions
1. [Action 1]
2. [Action 2]
```

## Best practices

1. **Set time range**: clearly define the time window to analyze
2. **Save patterns**: script common grep patterns
3. **Check context**: review logs around the error too (`-A`, `-B` options)
4. **Log rotation**: search compressed logs with zgrep as well

## Constraints

### Required Rules (MUST)
1. Perform read-only operations only
2. Mask sensitive information (passwords, tokens)

### Prohibited (MUST NOT)
1. Do not modify log files
2. Do not expose sensitive information externally

## References

- [grep manual](https://www.gnu.org/software/grep/manual/)
- [awk guide](https://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/manual/)
- [Log analysis best practices](https://www.loggly.com/ultimate-guide/)

## Examples

### Example 1: Basic usage
<!-- Add example content here -->

### Example 2: Advanced usage
<!-- Add advanced example content here -->