Default JSON Logging vs. Plain console.log: Which is Better for Clustered Deployment Log Rotation?

The primary goal is to reliably diagnose deployment failures in a Node.js application that uses KrakenJS’s kraken-logger. In a clustered or PM2 environment, each worker writes to its own log file, and the built‑in rotation option only limits the size of a single process’s file.

When logs are rotated independently, stale files can accumulate and duplicate entries obscure the failure timeline. Conversely, plain console.log writes unstructured text to stdout, which is easier to view locally but harder for automated ingestion.

Because there is no out‑of‑the‑box mechanism to coordinate rotation or consolidate logs across workers, the team must decide how to balance readability, aggregation, and file management.

How can we coordinate log rotation across PM2 cluster workers when using kraken-logger?
What is the recommended approach to consolidate logs from multiple processes for a single aggregation pipeline?
How does the trade‑off between JSON logging and plain console output affect parsing by services like Loki?