Configuring logs as JSON through Dapr CLI does not work

[alkofahi]

I want to initialize Dapr and set all logs to be in JSON format. I installed Dapr on my k8s cluster using the CLI, my command was dapr init -k --log-as-json. I am using CLI v1.15.1. The argument --log-as-json can be seen in the help documentation for the CLI (see below)

Expected Behavior

• I expect the Dapr control plane services and my dapr services to have logs as JSON.

Actual Behavior

• My logs are in text format for both the control plane and my services

Steps to Reproduce the Problem

• Have a k8s cluster available
• Install Dapr using the CLI command dapr init -k --log-as-json
• Install a mock dapr service
• View the logs for any of the Dapr control plane services (e.g., kubectl logs <pod-name> -n dapr-system)
• You will see them as text (see below

time="2025-07-30T16:16:48.581730274Z" level=info msg="Scheduler stream connected for [JOB_TARGET_TYPE_JOB JOB_TARGET_TYPE_ACTOR_REMINDER]" app_id=main-service instance=main-service-666d47f549-ppqp2 scope=dapr.runtime.scheduler.cluster type=log ver=1.15.8
time="2025-07-30T16:16:48.592725259Z" level=info msg="Skipping migration, no missing scheduler reminders found" app_id=main-service instance=main-service-666d47f549-ppqp2 scope=dapr.runtime.actors.reminders.migration type=log ver=1.15.8
time="2025-07-30T16:16:48.592759959Z" level=info msg="Found 0 missing scheduler reminders from state store" app_id=main-service instance=main-service-666d47f549-ppqp2 scope=dapr.runtime.actors.reminders.migration type=log ver=1.15.8
time="2025-07-30T16:16:48.592769759Z" level=info msg="Migrated 0 reminders from state store to scheduler successfully" app_id=main-service instance=main-service-666d47f549-ppqp2 scope=dapr.runtime.actors.reminders.migration type=log ver=1.15.8

• Same thing can be noticed for the dapr services

Release Note

RELEASE NOTE: FIX Log as JSON flag in the CLI

[twinguy]

@alkofahi It looks like the --log-as-json flag only switches the CLI’s output to JSON; it does not configure Helm values for the control plane or default sidecar logging.

I agree that when used with the -k flag the expected result would be for the deployments to properly configure pods using JSON format. It should not be that difficult to propagate the flag to the Helm installation by setting the appropriate chart value(s).

Have you attempted to use the dapr annotate command as an option?
kubectl annotate deployment dapr-operator dapr.io/log-as-json=true -n dapr-system

If that does not work, let me know and I will see if I can put some cycles toward this.

[twinguy]

Minor update:
I was also able to get the control plane pods working with the following command:
dapr init -k --set global.logAsJson=true, I did not test the sidecar injection output format though. Let me know if this helps.

[dapr-bot]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had activity in the last 30 days. It will be closed in the next 7 days unless it is tagged (pinned, good first issue, help wanted or triaged/resolved) or other activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.