How to Integrate Go Logging with ELK, Datadog, or Grafana Loki

Go does not natively integrate with ELK, Datadog, or Grafana Loki; you must use third-party logging libraries to format and ship logs. Install a structured logger like zap and configure it to output JSON, then use a sidecar or agent to forward logs to your target system.

import (
	"go.uber.org/zap"
	"go.uber.org/zap/zapcore"
)

func init() {
	encoder := zapcore.NewJSONEncoder(zap.NewProductionEncoderConfig())
	core := zapcore.NewCore(encoder, zapcore.AddSync(os.Stdout), zapcore.InfoLevel)
	log := zap.New(core)
	log.Info("Hello, world!")
}

Go programs print logs to the console by default. To send these logs to tools like ELK or Datadog, you need a helper library that formats the logs as JSON and a separate service to collect and forward them. Think of the library as a translator and the service as a mail carrier.