Scrubbed extract of Structured-Logging-Go/Epic-2-Stories/US-2.2-Emoji-Level-Mapping.md — cited by the Chronicle (02-first-instruments). Redactions: phone / service detail / secrets / clearance / personal / internal hosts.

type: story category: Work project: Structured-Logging-Go priority: High status: backlog created: 2026-03-23 epic: Epic-2-Domain-Extensions-Emoji user-story: US-2.2 effort: 4h precedence:

• “[[US-1.1-Module-Scaffolding-Logger-Options]]” parallel_group: Presentation tokens: 0 model: null tags:
• user-story
• epic-2
• emoji

US 2.2: Emoji Level Mapping

Epic: [[Epic-2-Stories/README|Epic 2: Domain Extensions & Emoji]]
Agent: Unassigned
Effort: 4 hours
Priority: 🔼 High
Status: 🔵 Backlog

User Story

As a developer reading console logs during local development
I want each log line prefixed with a level-appropriate emoji
So that I can instantly spot warnings and errors while scanning output

Acceptance Criteria

• emoji.go created with level → emoji mapping function 🔼
• Level mapping: Debug→🔍 Info→ℹ️ Warn→⚠️ Error→❌ DPanic/Panic/Fatal→💥
• EmojiForLevel(level zapcore.Level) string exported function
• Custom zapcore.Encoder wrapper that prepends emoji to console output when WithEmojiOutput(true) is set
• WithEmojiOutput(true) option in options.go activates the emoji encoder
• Emoji only added in console/dev output — JSON encoding is unaffected
• Optional LevelEmoji field added to JSON output (opt-in via WithEmojiField(true))
• Unit tests verify correct emoji for all zap levels
• go test ./... passes

Definition of Done

• Emoji encoder wrapper compiles and works with zap’s console encoder
• All levels produce the correct emoji in unit tests
• JSON output unaffected unless WithEmojiField is explicitly enabled

Technical Notes

func EmojiForLevel(level zapcore.Level) string {
    switch level {
    case zapcore.DebugLevel:
        return "🔍"
    case zapcore.InfoLevel:
        return "ℹ️"
    case zapcore.WarnLevel:
        return "⚠️"
    case zapcore.ErrorLevel:
        return "❌"
    case zapcore.DPanicLevel, zapcore.PanicLevel, zapcore.FatalLevel:
        return "💥"
    default:
        return "ℹ️"
    }
}

Encoder wrapper approach: Wrap zapcore.Encoder and override EncodeEntry to prepend the emoji to the log line. This avoids modifying the output template and works with any console encoder config.

Related Documentation

• [[US-1.1-Module-Scaffolding-Logger-Options]] — WithEmojiOutput option defined here
• [[Projects/Structured-Logging/Epic-2-Stories/US-2.1-Emoji-Enricher|C# Reference: US 2.1]]

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