Log tab not displaying messages due to incorrect JSON field parsing

[jbrinkman]

Summary

This PR fixes a bug where the log tab in the TUI was showing empty messages despite logs being correctly written to files. The issue was a JSON field name mismatch in the log parsing logic.

Problem

The loggingMultiWriter.Write() function in internal/tui/tui.go was looking for a JSON field named "message", but charmbracelet/log's JSONFormatter actually uses "msg". This caused all log messages to be extracted as empty strings, resulting in an empty log tab viewport.

Solution

Updated two lines in internal/tui/tui.go:

• Line 1337: Changed rawEntry["message"] to rawEntry["msg"]
• Line 1346: Changed metadata exclusion from k != "message" to k != "msg"

Files Modified

• internal/tui/tui.go - Fixed JSON field name parsing
• .kiro-krew/specs/issue-257-log-tab-json-field-fix.md - Design specification

Testing

All QA checks passed:

• ✅ Format check: task fmt:check
• ✅ Template sync: task sync:check
• ✅ Lint: task lint
• ✅ TUI Tests: 51/51 passed
• ✅ Build: task build

Verification

• Log tab now displays messages that match log file content
• Timestamps, log levels, and metadata are preserved
• File logging functionality remains unchanged
• No regressions in existing functionality

Closes #257

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes

  • Fixed an issue where logs could fail to appear in the TUI log tab.
  • Log messages now display correctly with their timestamps, levels, and metadata.
  • Preserved existing log file output, color coding, and automatic scrolling behavior.

• Documentation

  • Added implementation and validation guidance for the log display fix.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Run ID: 5461e93c-17a8-4b09-af55-258548d93c7f

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between e17a8d0 and 800d610.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• .kiro-krew/specs/issue-257-log-tab-json-field-fix.md
• internal/tui/tui.go

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The log writer now reads messages from the JSON formatter’s msg field and excludes that field from metadata. A design specification documents the root cause, acceptance criteria, validation steps, rollout, and success metrics.

Changes

Log tab message parsing

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Align log parsing with JSON output .kiro-krew/specs/issue-257-log-tab-json-field-fix.md, internal/tui/tui.go	loggingMultiWriter.Write extracts message text from msg and excludes msg from additional structured fields while preserving file writes and other parsing behavior.
Document acceptance and validation .kiro-krew/specs/issue-257-log-tab-json-field-fix.md	The specification defines acceptance criteria, manual and automated validation options, rollout details, dependencies, and success metrics.

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~10 minutes

Possibly related issues

• Log tab displays no messages: refactor logging to use JSON formatter instead of parsing formatted text #252 — The issue concerns the JSON formatter change that introduced the message/msg parsing mismatch addressed here.

Possibly related PRs

• jbrinkman/kiro-krew#240 — Introduced the structured logging, multi-writer, ring buffer, and log viewer flow that this parsing fix updates.
• jbrinkman/kiro-krew#254 — Contains the same loggingMultiWriter.Write JSON field parsing logic targeted by this change.

Suggested reviewers: copilot

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly describes the main fix: the log tab's messages were missing due to JSON field parsing.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	The fix updates loggingMultiWriter.Write() to read msg, matching the reported root cause while leaving file logging unchanged.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	The added spec document is directly related to the issue and no unrelated code changes are present.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.

✨ Finishing Touches

📝 Generate docstrings

• Create stacked PR
• Commit on current branch

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch spec/issue-257-67240

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