FAQ

When should I use Kelora instead of grep, jq, or awk?

When the job involves structure: parsing a format, filtering on fields, counting, comparing events, or several of those in one pass. For finding a string, grep/rg are simpler and faster; for reshaping JSON documents, jq is more expressive. Kelora composes with both — see Output and Integration.

Does Kelora store, index, or follow logs?

No. It reads input once, streams it, and exits. To follow a growing file, pipe it in: tail -F app.log | kelora -j -l error. For an interactive, indexed log viewer, use a tool like lnav alongside Kelora.

How do I filter "WARN and above"?

-l takes a set of level names, not a threshold. List the levels you want (-l warn,error,critical,fatal) or exclude the ones you don't (-L trace,debug,info). For a numeric cutoff across many level names, map levels to numbers:

kelora examples/simple_json.jsonl --freq level --filter '(#{"trace": 0, "debug": 1, "info": 2, "warn": 3, "error": 4, "critical": 5, "fatal": 5}.get(e.level.to_lower()) ?? -1) >= 3'

level        (3 values):
  value     count
  ERROR         3
  WARN          3
  CRITICAL      1

I fed Kelora JSON. Why isn't the output JSON?

The default output is a readable key='value' view for every input format. Add -J for JSON Lines, or -F csv, -F logfmt, and so on.

Which compressed files can it read?

gzip (.gz) and zstd (.zst), detected by content and decompressed on the fly. For .zip or .tar, extract first or pipe: unzip -p logs.zip | kelora ….

Does it work on Windows?

Yes. Shell quoting is the hard part: run kelora with no arguments to get an interactive prompt with history and normal quoting.

Why Rhai?

Rhai is a small scripting language embedded in Rust: sandboxed (scripts can't write files unless you pass --allow-fs-writes, and Kelora has no network code), fast to start, and familiar to anyone who has written JavaScript or Rust. Kelora's built-in functions cover most log work, so scripts stay short. See Transform with Scripts.

Does Kelora phone home?

No. Kelora has no networking code and sends no telemetry; a CI check (just check-no-networking) keeps it that way.

Was Kelora built with AI?

Yes. AI agents write the implementation and the tests, while the maintainer sets requirements and validates behavior. An extensive test suite, cargo audit, and cargo deny run on every change. The security policy lists all safeguards and where to send security reports.

Where do I report bugs or ask questions?

GitHub issues. Include kelora --version, the command, and a few sample lines. Kelora is a spare-time project; support is best-effort.