Open Source Swift Logging Software

There is always this friction when it comes to debugging native apps: you can’t inspect anything that happens behind the scenes unless you use special tools, not even network requests. That’s not the case on the web with tools like Safari Web Inspector. I wanted to bring something similar to native apps. What is Pulse? It’s a persistent logger with a network inspector, but not just a tool. It’s also a framework. PulseCore.framework (iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS) provides a logger itself and a network proxy for automatically capturing network requests. PulseUI.framework (iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS) containing all the UI components you’ll see on the screenshots. Document-based Pulse apps (iOS, macOS) to view logs shared from other devices. As a developer, you integrate the frameworks into your app and configure them to capture logs and network traffic. You then add a way to display a Pulse console to view logs right on the device.

swift-log is the official, vendor-neutral logging API for Swift, providing a small, performant core that libraries and applications adopt to avoid logger lock-in. It defines common logging semantics and levels, plus a lightweight façade that backends can implement—so the same application code can run with different logging engines (e.g., OSLog on Apple platforms or custom sinks on servers). The package embraces Swift Package Manager, offers a clean Logger API, and is widely used across the Swift on server and Apple-platform ecosystems. The repo’s release notes and ecosystem links show active maintenance, CI coverage for recent Swift versions, and community-supplied backends. By decoupling the API from any one implementation, swift-log simplifies composition: frameworks can log consistently without dictating the logging stack to end users. It’s a foundational building block for production Swift services, tools, and apps looking for consistent, structured telemetry.