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Filters and Highlighting

Grep Badger includes filtering and highlighting tools to help you focus on the lines that matter.

Filters and highlighting are applied to the chunk, not the entire file.

Use these tools when a log is noisy and you want to narrow down what you are looking at.

1. Use filters to narrow the view

Filters help you control which lines are shown in the viewer.

This is useful when you want to focus on:

  • a specific error message
  • a request ID or correlation ID
  • a hostname or service name
  • a user, path, or keyword

2. Include filter

Use an include filter when you want to focus on lines that match your text.

This is useful when you only want to work with lines related to a specific term or pattern.

3. Exclude filter

Use an exclude filter when you want to hide lines that match your text.

This is useful when the log contains repeated noise that is not relevant to your investigation.

Examples might include:

  • health checks
  • routine polling messages
  • repeated debug lines
  • known harmless warnings

4. Highlight filter

Use a highlight filter when you still want to see all lines, but want matching text to stand out.

This is useful when you want to keep full context while making important terms easier to spot.

Highlighting works well for:

  • exceptions
  • status codes
  • request IDs
  • timestamps
  • service names

5. Combine filtering with tailing

Filters and highlighting are especially useful while tailing live logs.

As new lines arrive, they can help you quickly spot the lines you care about without manually scanning every message.

They are also useful when reviewing older chunks of the file.

6. Tips for better results

  • Start with a simple keyword before trying a more specific search term.
  • Use highlight first if you do not want to lose surrounding context.
  • Use exclude to remove repeated noise from busy logs.
  • Use a request ID, error code, or class name when possible for more precise filtering.
  • Adjust your filter as you learn more about the issue.

Important notes

  • Filtering and highlighting are meant to help investigation, not replace reviewing the surrounding context.
  • If a filter is too broad, it may hide useful lines or highlight too much.
  • For best results, combine filtering with chunk navigation, tailing, and selected lines for AI.
  • Filters and highlighting are applied to the chunk only, not the entire file.