# Connection Logs

> [!NOTE]
> Connection logs require a
> [Premium license](https://coder.com/pricing#compare-plans).
> For more details, [contact your account team](https://coder.com/contact).

The **Connection Log** page in the dashboard allows Auditors to monitor workspace agent connections.

## Workspace App Connections

The connection log contains a complete record of all workspace app connections.
These originate from within the Coder deployment, and thus the connection log
is a source of truth for these events.

## Browser Port Forwarding

The connection log contains a complete record of all workspace port forwarding
performed via the dashboard.

## SSH and IDE Sessions

The connection log aims to capture a record of all workspace SSH and IDE sessions.
These events are reported by workspace agents, and their receipt by the server
is not guaranteed.

## How to Filter Connection Logs

You can filter connection logs by the following parameters:

- `organization` - The name or ID of the organization of the workspace being
     connected to.
- `workspace_owner` - The username of the owner of the workspace being connected
    to.
- `type` - The type of the connection, such as SSH, VS Code, or workspace app.
    For more connection types, refer to the
    [CoderSDK documentation](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/coder/coder/v2/codersdk#ConnectionType).
- `username`: The name of the user who initiated the connection.
   Results will not include SSH or IDE sessions.
- `user_email`: The email of the user who initiated the connection.
   Results will not include SSH or IDE sessions.
- `connected_after`: The time after which the connection started.
   Uses the RFC3339Nano format.
- `connected_before`: The time before which the connection started.
   Uses the RFC3339Nano format.
- `workspace_id`: The ID of the workspace being connected to.
- `connection_id`: The ID of the connection.
- `status`: The status of the connection, either `ongoing` or `completed`.
     Some events are neither ongoing nor completed, such as the opening of a
     workspace app.

## Capturing/Exporting Connection Logs

In addition to the Coder dashboard, there are multiple ways to consume or query
connection events.

### REST API

You can retrieve connection logs via the Coder API.
Visit the
[`get-connection-logs` endpoint documentation](../../reference/api/enterprise.md#get-connection-logs)
for details.

### Service Logs

Connection events are also dispatched as service logs and can be captured and
categorized using any log management tool such as [Splunk](https://splunk.com).

Example of a [JSON formatted](../../reference/cli/server.md#--log-json)
connection log entry, when an SSH connection is made:

```json
{
    "ts": "2025-07-03T05:09:41.929840747Z",
    "level": "INFO",
    "msg": "connection_log",
    "caller": "/home/coder/coder/enterprise/audit/backends/slog.go:38",
    "func": "github.com/coder/coder/v2/enterprise/audit/backends.(*SlogExporter).ExportStruct",
    "logger_names": ["coderd"],
    "fields": {
        "request_id": "916ad077-e120-4861-8640-f449d56d2bae",
        "ID": "ca5dfc63-dc43-463a-bb3e-38526866fd4b",
        "OrganizationID": "1a2bb67e-0117-4168-92e0-58138989a7f5",
        "WorkspaceOwnerID": "fe8f4bab-3128-41f1-8fec-1cc0755affe5",
        "WorkspaceID": "05567e23-31e2-4c00-bd05-4d499d437347",
        "WorkspaceName": "dev",
        "AgentName": "main",
        "Type": "ssh",
        "Code": null,
        "Ip": "fd7a:115c:a1e0:4b86:9046:80e:6c70:33b7",
        "UserAgent": "",
        "UserID": null,
        "SlugOrPort": "",
        "ConnectionID": "7a6fafdc-e3d0-43cb-a1b7-1f19802d7908",
        "DisconnectReason": "",
        "Time": "2025-07-10T10:14:38.942776145Z",
        "ConnectionStatus": "connected"
    }
}
```

Example of a [human readable](../../reference/cli/server.md#--log-human)
connection log entry, when `code-server` is opened:

```console
[API] 2025-07-03 06:57:16.157 [info]  coderd: connection_log  request_id=de3f6004-6cc1-4880-a296-d7c6ca1abf75  ID=f0249951-d454-48f6-9504-e73340fa07b7  Time="2025-07-03T06:57:16.144719Z"  OrganizationID=0665a54f-0b77-4a58-94aa-59646fa38a74  WorkspaceOwnerID=6dea5f8c-ecec-4cf0-a5bd-bc2c63af2efa  WorkspaceID=3c0b37c8-e58c-4980-b9a1-2732410480a5  WorkspaceName=dev  AgentName=main  Type=workspace_app  Code=200  Ip=127.0.0.1  UserAgent="Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/100.0.4896.127 Safari/537.36"  UserID=6dea5f8c-ecec-4cf0-a5bd-bc2c63af2efa  SlugOrPort=code-server  ConnectionID=<nil>  DisconnectReason=""  ConnectionStatus=connected
```

## Data Retention

Coder supports configurable retention policies that automatically purge old
Connection Logs. To enable automated purging, configure the
`--connection-logs-retention` flag or `CODER_CONNECTION_LOGS_RETENTION`
environment variable. For comprehensive configuration options, see
[Data Retention](../setup/data-retention.md).

## How to Enable Connection Logs

This feature is only available with a [Premium license](../licensing/index.md).