Roadmap: switching from Docker API to journald — will this affect you?

[bertbaron]

Hi everyone,

I am planning a series of improvements to Logspout that will ultimately allow it to run without requiring Docker API access and without disabling protection mode and increasing the security rating.

The current situation

The app currently reads container logs via the Docker API, which requires:

• protection_mode: false in the app config
• docker_api: true

This gives the app full access to the Docker socket, resulting in a warning banner and a low security rating as a result.

The plan

The idea is to switch to reading logs from systemd-journald instead:

• HassOS runs on systemd, and Docker container logs are available via the journal
• No Docker socket access is needed
• The app can run in protection mode

The transition will be gradual:

1. Add journal support as an alternative log source (log_source: journal), enabling it when the Docker API is not available, which is the case when protection mode is on
2. We might add a configuration setting, defaulting to journald but still allowing the use of the Docker API if the above condition does not work for all users (i.e. they have a setup where the Docker API is available anyways but prefer to use journald)
3. Remove Docker API support in a future release (breaking change only if users depend on this)

What I need from you

Before removing Docker API support, I want to know: are there Home Assistant installations where journal logging is NOT available?

For example:

• Very old or custom HA installations
• Non-standard setups (container-in-container, non-systemd hosts)
• Any other reason you’d still need the Docker API

If removing Docker API support would break your setup, please comment below. That feedback will directly influence the timeline.

Thanks!