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Cover image for CerbiStream: .NET Logging with Governance Enforcement, Queue Routing, and Developer-First Config
Thomas Nelson
Thomas Nelson

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CerbiStream: .NET Logging with Governance Enforcement, Queue Routing, and Developer-First Config

Hey,

I'm new to the site. I created this account because I wanted to gather some feedback on a product I've been building.

Over the past few months, I’ve been working on a .NET logging framework that solves a handful of pain points I’ve consistently run into on large-scale enterprise systems:

  • Logging that's too open-ended or poorly structured
  • Inconsistent developer output across microservices
  • Centralized routing to multiple observability tools
  • Difficulty enforcing governance or auditing policies

So I built CerbiStream β€” a governance-first, developer-friendly logging solution for .NET 8 and beyond.

What Is CerbiStream?

CerbiStream is a structured logging library built to help teams enforce log structure, send logs through queues, and stay secure and consistent.

πŸ”Ή CerbiStream on NuGet

πŸ”Ή Governance Analyzer Add-on

πŸ”Ή GitHub Repo (MIT)

πŸ”Ή CerbiSuite Website

Key Features

βœ… Out-of-the-box support for ILogger<T>

βœ… Works with RabbitMQ, Kafka, Azure Service Bus, AWS SQS, GCP Pub/Sub

βœ… Optional encryption (Base64, AES with custom keys or Azure Key Vault)

βœ… Governance Analyzer for compile-time structured logging enforcement

βœ… External validator support for EF Core/Blazor-safe validation

βœ… Presets for development, benchmarking, and telemetry-enabled modes

Quick Example

builder.Logging.AddCerbiStream(options =>
{
    options.WithQueue("AzureServiceBus", "sb://...", "audit-logs")
           .WithEncryptionMode(EncryptionType.Base64)
           .EnableDeveloperModeWithTelemetry();
});
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βœ… To enable governance without using the Roslyn analyzer:

options.WithGovernanceValidator((profile, log) =>
{
    return log.ContainsKey("UserId") && log.ContainsKey("IPAddress");
});
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Why Cerbi?
CerbiStream is part of a bigger ecosystem I'm working on:

CerbiStream – Dev-first logging SDK
CerbiStream.GovernanceAnalyzer – Optional Roslyn analyzer
CerbIQ – Routing & observability pipeline (pulls from queue, sends to sinks like Splunk, Elastic, etc.)
CerbiShield – (Coming soon!) Governance rule dashboard with RBAC & audit logging

πŸ“ˆ Adoption & Status
πŸ“¦ Over 2,000+ downloads on NuGet

Used by Checkmarx, Artifactory, CI systems, and private mirrors

Benchmarked Against Other Loggers

CerbiStream was built with performance in mind. It’s benchmarked alongside:

  • πŸͺ΅ Serilog
  • 🧱 NLog
  • πŸ”© Log4Net

Benchmarks show CerbiStream achieving competitive performance while offering additional features like:

  • Governance rule enforcement (optional Roslyn or runtime validator)
  • Queue-first routing (Kafka, RabbitMQ, Azure, AWS, GCP)
  • Minimal dev-mode presets for fast local iteration

We’re actively working on a public benchmark suite that compares:

Feature Serilog NLog Log4Net CerbiStream
Structured logging βœ… βœ… ❌ βœ…
Governance enforcement ❌ ❌ ❌ βœ…
Queue-first routing ❌ ❌ ❌ βœ…
Roslyn analyzer for log rules ❌ ❌ ❌ βœ… (optional)
Encryption support ❌ ❌ ❌ βœ… (AES/Base64)
Minimal dev mode toggle ❌ ❌ ❌ βœ…

Let me know what else you'd like to see compared in future benchmarks!

In development: Azure Marketplace onboarding & enterprise governance dashboard

πŸ™ I Need Your Feedback!
I'd love your thoughts on:

API clarity β€” is it intuitive enough?

Would you use this for audit or security logs?

What features would make this more useful to you?

Would a CerbiShield dashboard help your team?

Thanks for checking it out β€” and if you install it or give it a test, I’d really appreciate your feedback!

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