README.md

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 │ tail │ tail │ tail │   ╚══██╔══╝██╔══██╗██║██║     ██╔════╝ ██╔══██╗██║██╔══██╗
 ├──────┼──────┼──────┤      ██║   ███████║██║██║     ██║  ███╗██████╔╝██║██║  ██║
 │ tail │ tail │ tail │      ██║   ██╔══██║██║██║     ██║   ██║██╔══██╗██║██║  ██║
 ├──────┼──────┼──────┤      ██║   ██║  ██║██║███████╗╚██████╔╝██║  ██║██║██████╔╝
 │ tail │ tail │ tail │      ╚═╝   ╚═╝  ╚═╝╚═╝╚══════╝ ╚═════╝ ╚═╝  ╚═╝╚═╝╚═════╝
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                       watch multiple files · grid-view · auto-discover logs via Claude

A minimal, dependency-free Python tool to monitor multiple log files simultaneously in a tiled grid layout. Like tail -f, but for up to 9 files at once. Claude Code can auto-discover relevant logs to monitor. Tested on Ubuntu and macOS. Created with the help of Claude Code (Opus 4.5).

Features

• Zero dependencies — Python 3.10+ standard library only
• Quick path — tailgrid /path/ auto-selects log files (configurable via config.json)
• Claude integration — tailgrid --claude lets Claude identify relevant logs to monitor
• Up to 9 tiles — auto-layout, auto-height
• Scroll mode — Enter to enter, ↑↓/u/d/gg/G to scroll
• Session restore — saves last 10 sessions

Viewer: ←→↑↓: Nav | Enter: Scroll mode (↑↓ u/d gg/G) | q: Quit

Quick start

From PyPI:

pip install tailgrid
tailgrid

From source:

git clone https://github.com/ferreirafabio/tailgrid.git
cd tailgrid
python -m tailgrid

Usage

With directory (auto-selects .txt/.log/.out/.err files, newest first):

tailgrid /var/log/       # selects up to 9 files (newest)
tailgrid /var/log/ 4     # 4 newest files in 2x2 grid

With multiple files:

tailgrid train.log eval.log debug.log   # auto-arranges in grid

Claude integration

Requires Claude Code CLI to be installed and available in your PATH. Let Claude intelligently select relevant log files:

tailgrid --claude

Claude analyzes your current session, recent experiments, and active projects to find the most relevant log files. Each tile shows Claude's reasoning for why it selected that file:

┌─ 1:...server.log ─────────┐┌─ 2:...error.log ────────────┐
│ [2024-01-15] Starting...  ││ [ERROR] Connection failed   │
└───────────────────────────┘└─────────────────────────────┘
 Claude: Production server - main application logs, request handling
 [1] 42 lines │ w: Wrap │ Enter: Scroll │ ←→↑↓: Nav │ q: Quit

Menu

  tailgrid - Multi-file tail viewer

    1) Browse directory
    2) Add paths manually
    3) Resume session

  Select 1-3 (q=quit):

Browse directory

Select 1 to browse a directory and pick files interactively:

  Directory path (b=back, q=quit): /var/log/

The file picker lets you select multiple files:

 Select files from: /var/log/
 ─────────────────────────────────────
 [x] auth.log
 [ ] boot.log
 [x] syslog
 [ ] kern.log
 [x] dpkg.log

 3/9 selected │ ↑↓/jk nav │ SPACE sel │ a all │ ENTER ok │ q quit

Layout is auto-selected based on file count:

• 1 file → Single
• 2 files → Choose vertical or horizontal
• 3-4 files → 2×2 grid
• 5-9 files → 3×3 grid

Resume session

Select 3 from menu to restore one of the last 10 sessions:

  Recent sessions:

    0) 2 file(s), 10 lines
       • /var/log/syslog
       • /var/log/auth.log
    1) 4 file(s), 10 lines
       • ~/app/logs/error.log
       • ~/app/logs/access.log
       • ~/app/logs/debug.log
       • ~/app/logs/info.log

  Select 0-1 (b=back, q=quit):

Sessions are stored in ~/.config/tailgrid/sessions.json.

Config

Customize settings via ~/.config/tailgrid/config.json:

{
  "extensions": [".txt", ".log", ".out", ".err", ".json"],
  "show_full_path": false,
  "claude_prompt": "Return absolute paths to FILES..."
}

• extensions: File types for quick-start (default: .txt, .log, .out, .err)
• show_full_path: Show full path in tile headers instead of filename (default: false)
• claude_prompt: Custom prompt for --claude mode (default: asks for relevant logs with descriptions)

Add paths manually

Select 2 to manually enter paths and pick a layout:

  Select layout:

    1) Single        2) Vertical      3) Horizontal    4) 2x2 Grid     5) 3x3 Grid
       ┌─────┐          ┌──┬──┐          ┌─────┐          ┌──┬──┐         ┌──┬──┬──┐
       │  1  │          │ 1│ 2│          │  1  │          │ 1│ 2│         │ 1│ 2│ 3│
       └─────┘          └──┴──┘          ├─────┤          ├──┼──┤         ├──┼──┼──┤
                                         │  2  │          │ 3│ 4│         │ 4│ 5│ 6│
                                         └─────┘          └──┴──┘         ├──┼──┼──┤
                                                                          │ 7│ 8│ 9│
                                                                          └──┴──┴──┘

  Layout 1-5 (b=back, q=quit): 4

  Enter 4 file path(s) (b=back, q=quit):

    [1] /var/log/syslog
    [2] /var/log/auth.log
    [3] ~/app/logs/error.log
    [4] ~/app/logs/access.log

  Starting with 4 file(s)...

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• Linux or macOS (curses is not available on Windows)

License

Apache-2.0