Preserve and display context / extra keys properly (LogsHandler)

[sebastienfontaine]

Problem Statement

Hi 👋

I've noticed a small improvement in the LogsHandler::doWrite() method.

$this->logger->info('Log_'.random_int(1000, 9999), [
    'message' => 'This is a proof of concept command.',
    'from' => 'Console Command',
]);

Currently, when logs are sent with a context, the method merges context and extra into a single flat array:

\Sentry\logger()->aggregator()->add(
    self::getLogLevelFromSeverity(
        self::getSeverityFromLevel($record['level'])
    ),
    $record['message'],
    [],
    array_merge($record['context'], $record['extra'])
);

sentry/sentry: [info] Logs item: Log_3130 {"sentry.environment":"local","sentry.server.address":"a082dca84397","sentry.message.template":"Log_3130","sentry.sdk.name":"sentry.php.laravel","sentry.sdk.version":"4.15.1","message":"This is a proof of concept command.","from":"Console Command"}

This approach causes the original context key to be lost, which prevents the Sentry UI from displaying it properly in a “context” section.

Solution Brainstorm

When I wrap the context and extra in their own keys:

\Sentry\logger()->aggregator()->add(
    self::getLogLevelFromSeverity(
        self::getSeverityFromLevel($record['level'])
    ),
    $record['message'],
    [],
    [
        'context' => $record['context'],
        'extra' => $record['extra'],
    ]
);

sentry/sentry: [info] Logs item: Log_4184 {"sentry.environment":"local","sentry.server.address":"a082dca84397","sentry.message.template":"Log_4184","sentry.sdk.name":"sentry.php.laravel","sentry.sdk.version":"4.15.1","context.message":"This is a proof of concept command.","context.from":"Console Command"}

This keeps the structure intact and improves the visibility and usability of the logs in the Sentry interface.

---

However, even with theses changes, I’ve noticed that the Sentry UI doesn’t render the context key in the Table unless we manually json_encode() it:

[
    'context' => json_encode($record['context']),
    'extra' => json_encode($record['extra']),
]

Thanks!

[cleptric]

Isn't the real problem that we currently drop the message context?

[sebastienfontaine]

You’re absolutely right — the root issue is that the context gets dropped entirely due to array_merge($record['context'], $record['extra']), which flattens everything and loses the top-level context key.

There are actually multiple issues here:

1. Loss of structure: the context key is no longer preserved, so it’s not recognized or displayed properly in the Sentry UI.
2. Key collisions: if our context contains a message key, it’s silently overwritten by message.template, which causes data loss and confusion in the UI.

[cleptric]

We are looking into this already, I'll get back to you 🙂