Getting Started on Windows

Seq is a Windows service that provides an API that accepts incoming logs, and hosts the Seq web user interface (UI).

Using winget

You can use winget to install Seq:

winget install datalust.seq

Download the Seq Installer

Download the latest Seq .msi installer here.

Install Seq

Opening the installer MSI file will start the Setup Wizard:

Step through each page of the wizard. On a developer workstation, the defaults are fine.

After the wizard completes, browse the Seq UI at http://localhost:5341.

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Before deploying to a server

If you're hosting Seq on a shared server for your team, check out the System Requirements.

If you're installing Seq on a production or "live" server, check out the Production Deployment Checklist.

Unattended installation and advanced configuration on Windows

• Installing Seq on your local machine or GUI server
• Installing Seq on a headless server

Installing Seq on Windows cloud platforms

• Installing Seq on a Microsoft Azure virtual machine (you can also use an App Service, but this isn't recommended for critical workloads)

Enabling authentication

A fresh installation of Seq does not require a username and password, nor authentication on API requests.

A local development instance that isn't exposed to the outside world might be fine without authentication.

In most cases, though, your next step should be visiting Settings > Users and enabling authentication.

Ingesting log events

Before you can benefit from Seq, your applications need to be configured to send log events through one of the supported logging libraries.

• Using Serilog - Serilog is a modern logging library for the .NET platform with deep support for structured event data.
• Using ASP.NET Core - the Microsoft.Extensions.Logging library included in ASP.NET Core works well with Seq.
• Using Node.js - on Node.js, we support the Pino, Winston, and Bunyan logging libraries.

Seq integrates with a range of languages, libraries and frameworks, and has a simple HTTP API for receiving log data. Learn more about getting logs into Seq.

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If you're unsure where to start, we recommend Serilog.

What's next?

Once your apps are happily sending events to Seq, you can:

• Search your logs more effectively by getting to know the Seq query syntax
• Save your search filters by creating signals
• Manage your disk usage with retention policies

Happy logging!