Watch Patterns

Watch patterns let you define text or regex patterns that LogScope matches against every incoming log line. When a line matches, it gets a colored dot marker and a live hit counter appears in the sidebar.

This gives you instant visibility into recurring events, errors, or state changes without scrolling through thousands of lines.

Adding Watch Patterns

From the Sidebar (Recommended)

Click Add Watch Pattern in the LogScope sidebar. You’ll see a list of curated presets plus a custom option:

Preset	Pattern	Type
Errors	failed|error|fault|CRC|timeout	Regex
Warnings	threshold|exceeded|critical|low|drift	Regex
Retransmission	Retransmission	Substring
BLE State	Connected|Disconnected|Advertising	Regex
Heartbeat	Heartbeat	Substring

Click a preset to add it instantly (one click). Presets you’ve already added are automatically hidden.

Select Custom pattern… to define your own with the interactive flow: name, pattern text, match type (substring or regex), and optional module scope.

From VS Code Settings

Add patterns directly in your settings.json:

"logscope.watchPatterns": [
  {
    "name": "Errors",
    "pattern": "failed|error|fault|CRC|timeout",
    "regex": true,
    "color": "#f44336"
  },
  {
    "name": "Retransmission",
    "pattern": "Retransmission",
    "color": "#ff9800"
  },
  {
    "name": "Crypto Only",
    "pattern": "failed",
    "module": "crypto_mgr",
    "color": "#9c27b0"
  }
]

Pattern Options

Field	Required	Description
name	Yes	Display label shown in the sidebar counter and dot tooltip
pattern	Yes	Text to match. Case-insensitive.
regex	No	Set true to treat pattern as a regular expression. Default: false (substring match).
module	No	Only match log entries from this module (case-insensitive). Omit to match all modules.
color	No	Hex color for the marker dot (e.g., #ff9800). Auto-assigned from a palette if omitted.

How It Works

Colored Dot Markers

When a log line matches a watch pattern, a small colored dot appears at the beginning of the row. If a line matches multiple patterns, multiple dots appear.

Hover over a dot to see the pattern name in the tooltip.

Sidebar Counters

Each watch pattern gets a live counter in the sidebar showing how many times it has matched. Counters update every 500ms.

Click a counter to scroll the log viewer to the last matching line. The line briefly flashes to draw your attention.

Counter Reset

Counters reset to 0 when you:

• Click Clear in the log viewer
• Start a new connection

Settings Changes

Watch patterns reload immediately when you change them in settings. You don’t need to reconnect. New patterns start matching from the next incoming log line (they don’t retroactively match existing lines).

Removing Watch Patterns

• From the command palette: Run LogScope: Remove Watch Pattern and select the pattern to remove.
• From settings: Remove the entry from the logscope.watchPatterns array in settings.json.

Free Tier Limit

LogScope Free supports up to 3 watch patterns. The sidebar shows a “3/3 free” indicator and the Add Watch Pattern button shows usage (e.g., “2/3 used”).

When you try to add a 4th pattern, LogScope offers to upgrade to Pro for unlimited patterns. If you add patterns directly in settings.json beyond the limit, only the first 3 are active.

Upgrade to Pro for unlimited watch patterns.

Tips

• Use regex for multiple terms: failed|error|timeout matches any of those words
• Scope to a module when the same keyword appears in multiple modules but you only care about one
• Auto-assigned colors work well. You don’t need to pick colors unless you want specific ones.
• Watch patterns work in all parser modes (Zephyr, nRF5 SDK, Raw)