Read its logs

Last updated 3 November 2026

Read what your Machine’s program printed, and what Tonbo did to the Machine, from its last few days or live, across sleeps and wakes. Reading never wakes the Machine.

Read and follow

curl -sS "https://api.us-east-1.tonbo.sh/v1/machines/hello/logs?limit=100" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TONBO_API_KEY"

# Follow new lines as they come, across sleeps and wakes
curl -sSN "https://api.us-east-1.tonbo.sh/v1/machines/hello/logs?follow=true&cursor=<seq>" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TONBO_API_KEY"

The answer is one JSON object per line, oldest first:

{"type":"line","seq":41,"t":"2026-11-03T09:30:02Z","activation":"0193a6c4e8a07d2c9f3b5a1e6d4c2b10","stream":"stdout","line":"starting","continued":false}
{"type":"line","seq":42,"t":"2026-11-03T09:30:03Z","activation":"0193a6c4e8a07d2c9f3b5a1e6d4c2b10","stream":"stdout","line":"listening on :8080","continued":false}
{"type":"eof","next_cursor":"42"}

• cursor takes a line’s seq and reads after it, and since takes a time. limit is 500 by default and at most 5,000.
• Without follow the answer ends with an eof line and the next_cursor to read from next. With follow=true it streams new lines, with a tick line every 30 seconds, for at most 24 hours a connection; read on from the last seq you read.
• A line holds at most 16 KiB; longer output is split, and every part but the last is marked continued.
• activation reads one boot’s lines, the Tonbo-Activation other answers name.

What the logs hold

• stdout and stderr: what the Machine’s own program, its command, printed.
• platform: what Tonbo did, written by Tonbo and never by the Machine: each wake and why one was refused, the image pulled, the program started and its exit code, a run out of memory, and each stop with its reason. A line a program prints claiming to be platform is shown as stdout.

The output of commands and background processes is never logged: read it from their answer or their output (see Read its output).

How long they are kept

7 days, or the last 1 GiB a Machine, and deleted with the Machine. Writing them counts as the Machine’s stream writes (see Pricing). Reading them needs machines.connect, which every role holds, because what a program prints can include secrets.