diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index c423ecb38..482a106b1 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+swanlab_minimal_output
 # Byte-compiled / optimized / DLL files
 __pycache__/
 *.py[cod]
diff --git a/sae_lens/config.py b/sae_lens/config.py
index 08ad37c7f..7edaf88db 100644
--- a/sae_lens/config.py
+++ b/sae_lens/config.py
@@ -3,11 +3,10 @@
 import warnings
 from dataclasses import asdict, dataclass, field
 from pathlib import Path
-from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Any, Generic, Literal, TypeVar, cast
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Any, Generic, Literal, TypeVar
 
 import simple_parsing
 import torch
-import wandb
 from datasets import (
     Dataset,
     DatasetDict,
@@ -25,6 +24,7 @@
 from sae_lens.registry import get_sae_training_class
 from sae_lens.saes.sae import TrainingSAEConfig
 from sae_lens.util import str_to_dtype
+from sae_lens.wandb_compat import BACKEND, generate_id, wandb
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
     pass
@@ -97,6 +97,8 @@ def log(
         sparsity_path: Path | str | None,
         wandb_aliases: list[str] | None = None,
     ) -> None:
+        if BACKEND == "swanlab":
+            return
         # Avoid wandb saving errors such as:
         #   ValueError: Artifact name may only contain alphanumeric characters, dashes, underscores, and dots. Invalid name: sae_google/gemma-2b_etc
         sae_name = trainer.sae.get_name().replace("/", "__")
@@ -315,9 +317,7 @@ def __post_init__(self):
 
         unique_id = self.logger.wandb_id
         if unique_id is None:
-            unique_id = cast(
-                Any, wandb
-            ).util.generate_id()  # not sure why this type is erroring
+            unique_id = generate_id()
         self.checkpoint_path = f"{self.checkpoint_path}/{unique_id}"
 
         if self.verbose:
diff --git a/sae_lens/llm_sae_training_runner.py b/sae_lens/llm_sae_training_runner.py
index deb970d84..75fe8aca0 100644
--- a/sae_lens/llm_sae_training_runner.py
+++ b/sae_lens/llm_sae_training_runner.py
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@
 from typing import Any, Generic
 
 import torch
-import wandb
 from safetensors.torch import save_file
 from simple_parsing import ArgumentParser
 from transformer_lens.hook_points import HookedRootModule
@@ -32,6 +31,7 @@
 from sae_lens.training.activations_store import ActivationsStore
 from sae_lens.training.sae_trainer import SAETrainer
 from sae_lens.training.types import DataProvider
+from sae_lens.wandb_compat import wandb
 
 
 class InterruptedException(Exception):
diff --git a/sae_lens/training/sae_trainer.py b/sae_lens/training/sae_trainer.py
index 6cc926fbc..2fb2ef5a6 100644
--- a/sae_lens/training/sae_trainer.py
+++ b/sae_lens/training/sae_trainer.py
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@
 from typing import Any, Callable, Generic, Protocol
 
 import torch
-import wandb
 from safetensors.torch import save_file
 from torch.optim import Adam
 from tqdm.auto import tqdm
@@ -28,6 +27,7 @@
 from sae_lens.training.optim import CoefficientScheduler, get_lr_scheduler
 from sae_lens.training.types import DataProvider
 from sae_lens.util import path_or_tmp_dir
+from sae_lens.wandb_compat import BACKEND, wandb
 
 
 def _log_feature_sparsity(
@@ -398,8 +398,9 @@ def _run_and_log_evals(self):
                 if self.evaluator is not None
                 else {}
             )
-            for key, value in self.sae.log_histograms().items():
-                eval_metrics[key] = wandb.Histogram(value)  # type: ignore
+            if BACKEND != "swanlab":
+                for key, value in self.sae.log_histograms().items():
+                    eval_metrics[key] = wandb.Histogram(value)  # type: ignore
 
             wandb.log(
                 eval_metrics,
@@ -410,13 +411,16 @@ def _run_and_log_evals(self):
     @torch.no_grad()
     def _build_sparsity_log_dict(self) -> dict[str, Any]:
         log_feature_sparsity = _log_feature_sparsity(self.feature_sparsity)
-        wandb_histogram = wandb.Histogram(log_feature_sparsity.numpy())  # type: ignore
-        return {
+        log_dict = {
             "metrics/mean_log10_feature_sparsity": log_feature_sparsity.mean().item(),
-            "plots/feature_density_line_chart": wandb_histogram,
             "sparsity/below_1e-5": (self.feature_sparsity < 1e-5).sum().item(),
             "sparsity/below_1e-6": (self.feature_sparsity < 1e-6).sum().item(),
         }
+        if BACKEND != "swanlab":
+            log_dict["plots/feature_density_line_chart"] = wandb.Histogram(
+                log_feature_sparsity.numpy()
+            )
+        return log_dict
 
     @torch.no_grad()
     def _reset_running_sparsity_stats(self) -> None:
diff --git a/sae_lens/wandb_compat.py b/sae_lens/wandb_compat.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..8fd32d5b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sae_lens/wandb_compat.py
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import os
+import uuid
+from typing import Any
+
+
+def _load_backend() -> tuple[Any, str]:
+    backend = os.getenv("SAE_LENS_LOGGING_BACKEND", "auto").lower()
+    if backend not in {"auto", "wandb", "swanlab"}:
+        backend = "auto"
+
+    if backend in {"auto", "swanlab"}:
+        try:
+            import swanlab as backend_module  # type: ignore
+
+            return backend_module, "swanlab"
+        except Exception:
+            if backend == "swanlab":
+                raise
+
+    import wandb as backend_module  # type: ignore
+
+    return backend_module, "wandb"
+
+
+wandb, BACKEND = _load_backend()
+
+
+def generate_id() -> str:
+    util = getattr(wandb, "util", None)
+    if util is not None:
+        generator = getattr(util, "generate_id", None)
+        if callable(generator):
+            try:
+                return generator()
+            except Exception:
+                pass
+    return uuid.uuid4().hex
diff --git a/tests/test_swanlab_log.py b/tests/test_swanlab_log.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..56a3c3bb8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_swanlab_log.py
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import os
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import pytest
+
+from sae_lens.config import LoggingConfig
+from sae_lens.llm_sae_training_runner import LanguageModelSAETrainingRunner
+from sae_lens.wandb_compat import BACKEND
+from tests.helpers import (
+    NEEL_NANDA_C4_10K_DATASET,
+    TINYSTORIES_MODEL,
+    build_runner_cfg_for_arch,
+)
+
+
+def run_minimal_standard_sae_training(output_dir: Path) -> None:
+    cfg = build_runner_cfg_for_arch(
+        architecture="standard",
+        d_in=64,
+        d_sae=128,
+        training_tokens=64,
+        store_batch_size_prompts=2,
+        train_batch_size_tokens=4,
+        context_size=10,
+        n_batches_in_buffer=2,
+        n_eval_batches=1,
+        dataset_path=NEEL_NANDA_C4_10K_DATASET,
+        hook_name="blocks.0.hook_resid_post",
+        model_name=TINYSTORIES_MODEL,
+        n_checkpoints=0,
+        save_final_checkpoint=False,
+        output_path=str(output_dir),
+        logger=LoggingConfig(
+            log_to_wandb=True,
+            wandb_project=os.getenv("WANDB_PROJECT", "swanlab-minimal"),
+            wandb_entity=os.getenv("WANDB_ENTITY"),
+            wandb_log_frequency=1,
+            eval_every_n_wandb_logs=1,
+        ),
+    )
+
+    LanguageModelSAETrainingRunner(cfg).run()
+
+
+def test_swanlab_logging_runs(tmp_path: Path) -> None:
+    if BACKEND != "swanlab":
+        pytest.skip("swanlab backend not active; set SAE_LENS_LOGGING_BACKEND=swanlab")
+    os.environ.setdefault("SAE_LENS_LOGGING_BACKEND", "swanlab")
+    os.environ.setdefault("SWANLAB_MODE", "offline")
+    os.environ.setdefault("WANDB_MODE", "offline")
+    run_minimal_standard_sae_training(tmp_path / "swanlab_output")
+
+
+def main() -> None:
+    os.environ.setdefault("SAE_LENS_LOGGING_BACKEND", "swanlab")
+    os.environ.setdefault("SWANLAB_MODE", "offline")
+    os.environ.setdefault("WANDB_MODE", "offline")
+    output_dir = Path(os.getenv("SAE_OUTPUT_DIR", "swanlab_minimal_output"))
+    run_minimal_standard_sae_training(output_dir)
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()