TSPIN(1) tailspin TSPIN(1)

tspin - A log file highlighter

tspin [OPTION]... [FILE]...

tailspin is a command line tool that highlights log files.

-f, --follow

Follow (tail) the contents of the file. Always true when using the --exec flag.

-p, --print

Print the output to stdout instead of viewing the contents in the pager less. Always true if using stdin.

--theme PATH

Specify the path to a custom theme file. Defaults to XDG_CONFIG_HOME/tailspin/theme.toml or ~/.config/tailspin/theme.toml if not set. On Windows, defaults to %APPDATA%\tailspin\theme.toml. Can also be set via the TAILSPIN_THEME environment variable.

-e, --exec COMMAND

Run command and view the output in a pager. The command traps the interrupt signal to allow for cancelling and resuming follow mode while inside less.

Example:

tspin --exec 'kubectl logs -f pod_name'

--highlight COLOR1:word1,word2,... COLOR2:word3,word4,...

Highlight the provided comma-separated words in the specified color. Possible colors are black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, and white, optionally prefixed with bright_ (e.g. bright_red).

Example:

tspin logfile.txt --highlight red:error,fail --highlight green:success,ok

--enable=[HIGHLIGHT_GROUP]

Disable all highlighting groups except the ones specified. Comma separated list of groups. Cannot be used with --disable=[HIGHLIGHT_GROUP]. Possible groups: numbers, urls, emails, pointers, dates, durations, paths, quotes, key-value-pairs, uuids, ipv4, processes, json, keywords.

--disable=[HIGHLIGHT_GROUP]

Disable the specified highlighting groups. Comma separated list of groups. Cannot be used with --enable=[HIGHLIGHT_GROUP]. The keywords group controls the builtin keywords (booleans, nulls, log severities and common REST verbs); keywords from the config file and the --highlight flag always apply. Possible groups: numbers, urls, emails, pointers, dates, durations, paths, quotes, key-value-pairs, uuids, ipv4, processes, json, keywords.

--extras=[EXTRA]

Enable extra highlighters. Comma separated list of extras. Possible values: ipv6, jvm-stack-trace. Can also be set via the TAILSPIN_EXTRAS environment variable.

--pager COMMAND

Override the default pager command used by tspin. The command must include the string [FILE] which will be replaced with the file path internally.

Example:

tspin logfile.txt --pager "ov -f [FILE]"

--completions SHELL

Print shell completions to stdout. Possible values: bash, elvish, fish, powershell, zsh.

--generate-default-theme

Print the default theme as a theme.toml to stdout. Every value in the output is a default: copy it to ~/.config/tailspin/theme.toml and edit the styles you want to override.

TAILSPIN_PAGER

Set the TAILSPIN_PAGER environment variable to override the default pager. Equivalent to the --pager flag. The command must include the string [FILE] which will be replaced with the file path internally. For example, "ov -f [FILE]".

TAILSPIN_EXTRAS

Comma separated list of extras to enable by default. Equivalent to the --extras flag. For example, "jvm-stack-trace" or "ipv6,jvm-stack-trace".

TAILSPIN_THEME

Path to the theme file to use. Equivalent to the --theme flag.

less(1), tail(1)

Ben Sadeh (github.com/bensadeh/tailspin)

Released under the MIT License

2026-07-14 tailspin 7.0.0