Getting Started

This guide explains how to add HTTP access logging to your Spring Boot application.

Prerequisites

• Java 21 or later
• Spring Boot 4.0 or later
• Tomcat or Jetty embedded server

Module Structure

The library consists of two Maven artifacts:

Artifact	Description
logback-access-spring-boot-starter	Auto-configuration and server integrations (Tomcat, Jetty, Security, TeeFilter)
logback-access-spring-boot-starter-core	Public API classes (transitive dependency — no need to declare separately)

Most users only need to declare the starter dependency. The core module is automatically included as a transitive dependency.

Installation

Add the dependency to your build file:

Replace VERSION with the latest version from Maven Central.

Gradle (Kotlin)

implementation("io.github.seijikohara:logback-access-spring-boot-starter:VERSION")

Gradle (Groovy)

implementation 'io.github.seijikohara:logback-access-spring-boot-starter:VERSION'

Maven

<dependency>
    <groupId>io.github.seijikohara</groupId>
    <artifactId>logback-access-spring-boot-starter</artifactId>
    <version>VERSION</version>
</dependency>

Basic Configuration

Create a logback-access.xml file in src/main/resources:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
    <appender name="console" class="ch.qos.logback.core.ConsoleAppender">
        <encoder>
            <pattern>%h %l %u [%t] "%r" %s %b</pattern>
        </encoder>
    </appender>
    <appender-ref ref="console"/>
</configuration>

This configuration outputs access logs in the Common Log Format (CLF).

Pattern Variables

The following pattern variables are available:

Variable	Description
%h	Remote host (IP address)
%a	Remote IP address
%A	Local IP address
%p	Local port
%l	Remote log name (always -)
%u	Remote user (from authentication)
%t	Request timestamp
%r	Request line (method, URI, protocol)
%s	HTTP status code
%b	Response body size in bytes
%D	Request processing time in milliseconds
%T	Request processing time in seconds
%I	Thread name
%{xxx}i	Request header xxx
%{xxx}o	Response header xxx
%{xxx}c	Cookie value xxx
%{xxx}r	Request attribute xxx
%queryString	Query string (includes ? prefix, e.g., ?name=value)
%requestContent	Request body (requires TeeFilter)
%responseContent	Response body (requires TeeFilter)

Alternative Syntax

For header, cookie, and attribute patterns, both %{name}i and %i{name} forms are supported. The examples in this documentation use the %i{name} form.

Combined Log Format

For a more detailed output similar to Apache's Combined Log Format:

<pattern>%h %l %u [%t] "%r" %s %b "%i{Referer}" "%i{User-Agent}"</pattern>

Verify Installation

1. Start your Spring Boot application
2. Make an HTTP request to any endpoint
3. Check the console output for access log entries

Example output:

127.0.0.1 - - [01/Jan/2026:12:00:00 +0000] "GET /api/users HTTP/1.1" 200 1234

Next Steps

• Configuration Reference - Learn about all configuration options
• Tomcat Integration - Tomcat-specific settings
• Jetty Integration - Jetty-specific settings
• Advanced Topics - TeeFilter, URL filtering, and more