feat(log): add CONFLUENT_VERBOSITY and TTY color

[Dave Shoup (shouples)]

Release Notes

New Features

• Added the CONFLUENT_VERBOSITY environment variable to set log verbosity without repeating -v (same 0-4 scale as the -v count flag; a -v flag on the command line always wins).
• CLI log output is now colorized when it is written to a terminal, and left plain when redirected to a file or pipe.

Checklist

• I have successfully built and used a custom CLI binary, without linter issues from this PR.
• I have clearly specified in the What section below whether this PR applies to Confluent Cloud, Confluent Platform, or both.
• I have verified this PR in Confluent Cloud pre-prod or production environment, if applicable.
• I have verified this PR in Confluent Platform on-premises environment, if applicable.
• I have attached manual CLI verification results or screenshots in the Test & Review section below.
• I have added appropriate CLI integration or unit tests for any new or updated commands and functionality.
• I confirm that this PR introduces no breaking changes or backward compatibility issues.
• I have indicated the potential customer impact if something goes wrong in the Blast Radius section below.
• I have put checkmarks below confirming that the feature associated with this PR is enabled in:
  • Confluent Cloud prod
  • Confluent Cloud stag
  • Confluent Platform
  • Check this box if the feature is enabled for certain organizations only

Applies to both Cloud and Platform (shared logging). Feature-flag items are N/A - this ships on by default, not behind a flag.

What

Two logging quality-of-life changes, both in pkg/log.

CONFLUENT_VERBOSITY lets you set log verbosity from the environment instead of passing -v every time - handy for a debugging session or CI. It uses the same 0-4 scale as the -v count flag and only applies when no -v is passed, since -v is a count flag where 0 cannot be distinguished from "not set". A value that is not a non-negative integer is ignored with a one-line [WARN] to stderr, because someone who set the variable meant to raise verbosity and would otherwise get silence with no hint why. (The advice caps at 4, not 5: level 5 is UNSAFE_TRACE, which is credential-bearing and stays gated behind the separate --unsafe-trace flag.)

TTY color: log output is colorized only when the writer is an actual terminal, decided explicitly via isatty rather than hclog's AutoColor - which left color on for any file-descriptor-less writer and seeded ANSI escape codes into buffers (for example, test output).

Applies to: both Confluent Cloud and Confluent Platform.

Blast Radius

Small and diagnostic-only. Both changes affect log presentation, not command behavior, output formats, or exit codes. Worst case for the env var is unexpected log verbosity in a session where CONFLUENT_VERBOSITY was left set; worst case for color is ANSI codes appearing where they are not wanted (mitigated by the explicit TTY check). No customer command would break.

References

• Stacked on fix-log-flush; last of the logging-fix stack.

Test & Review

• pkg/log/logger_test.go covers: the env var setting verbosity when no flag is passed, a -v flag overriding it, an unset variable being a silent no-op, and an invalid value being ignored with the warning.
• Manual: CONFLUENT_VERBOSITY=3 confluent ... raises verbosity with no -v; CONFLUENT_VERBOSITY=x confluent ... prints the [WARN] and proceeds at the default level; log output is colored in a terminal and plain when piped to a file.
• go test ./pkg/log/... passes.

Why the env var is not documented in --verbose's flag help

That help string renders in every command's global-flags block, so mentioning the env var there would rewrite ~1139 help golden files for a one-line note. The VerbosityEnvVar doc comment records it in source instead. The name CONFLUENT_VERBOSITY (numeric, mirroring -v) was chosen over *_LOG_LEVEL, which would imply named levels the code does not parse.

[confluent-cla-assistant]

🎉 All Contributor License Agreements have been signed. Ready to merge.
_{Please push an empty commit if you would like to re-run the checks to verify CLA status for all contributors.}

[sonarqube-confluent]

Quality Gate passed

Issues
2 New issues
0 Accepted issues

Measures
0 Security Hotspots
95.5% Coverage on New Code
0.0% Duplication on New Code

See analysis details on SonarQube