---
name: cloud-logs-livetail
title: Using Livetail
description: IBM® Cloud Logs provides a Livetail view where you can view the data that is ingested by IBM Cloud Logs as the data is received.
last-updated: 2025-11-25
---

> ## Documentation Index
> The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/cloud-logs?format=markdown
> The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use these files to discover more information as needed.

# Using Livetail
{: #livetail}

IBM® Cloud Logs provides a Livetail view where you can view the data that is ingested by IBM Cloud Logs as the data is received.
{: shortdesc}

A Livetail view can run continuously for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes the Livetail will stop and you will need to access the Livetail again to restart the view.
{: restriction}

## Accessing Livetail
{: #livetail-access}

To access Livetail:

1. In the console, click the **Navigation Menu** icon ![Navigation Menu icon](../icons/icon_hamburger.svg) **> Resource list**.

2. Select your instance of IBM Cloud Logs.

3. In the IBM Cloud Logs navigation, click the **Livetail** icon ![Livetail icon](/icons/livetail.svg "Livetail").

## Livetail options
{: #livetail-options}

The following options are available when you are interacting with Livetail.

| Option | Usage |
|--------|-------|
| **Start** | Click to start the display of Livetail data. When selected, Livetail data starts being displayed and the option changes to **Pause**. |
| **Pause** | Pauses running Livetail data. When selected, the Livetail data pauses being is displayed and the option changes to **Start**. |
| **Clear** | Deletes the displayed data to the point when **Clear** is clicked. If **Clear** is clicked when the Livetail is still running, new data is displayed as it is ingested. |
| **Prettify** | Structures the displayed data as formatted objects. When selected the option changes to **Unprettify**.|
| **Unprettify** | Structures the displayed data as raw data lines. When selected the option changes to **Prettify**. |
| **Choose fields** | Limits the displayed data to the specified fields. One or more fields can be specified.
| **All Applications** | Limits the displayed data to the selected [application names](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/cloud-logs?topic=cloud-logs-metadata&format=markdown#md-app-name). |
| **All Subsystems** | Limits the displayed data to the selected [subsystem names](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/cloud-logs?topic=cloud-logs-metadata&format=markdown#md-sys-name). |
{: caption="Livetail options" caption-side="bottom"}

## Querying data
{: #livetail-query}

You can use grep, exact text, or a regex expressions to search for specific data within the Livetail.

The following example shows how text and regex searches can be combined. First, a case-insensitive regex search of `mydata.io` is done. The search results are then filtered with an exact text search of `schemas`. Finally, a case-insensitive search of `TimE` is applied to the filtered results.

```text
| grep -i mydata\.io | grep "schemas" | grep -i TimE
```
{: codeblock}