Junction Logger

The junction logger fires before and after each junction in a train, logging structured JunctionMetadata entries. This gives you per-junction observability: which junction is running, how long it took, what its Railway state was, and optionally what it returned.

Registration

dotnet add package Trax.Effect.JunctionProvider.Logging

services.AddTrax(trax => trax
    .AddEffects(effects => effects
        .AddJunctionLogger(serializeJunctionData: true)
    )
);

The serializeJunctionData Option

When serializeJunctionData is false (the default), the junction logger records timing, types, and Railway state but not the actual output values.

When true, after each junction completes, the logger serializes the junction’s output to JSON and stores it in JunctionMetadata.OutputJson. This is useful for debugging since you can see exactly what each junction produced, but it adds serialization overhead per junction.

How It Works

The junction logger is a junction effect provider, not a regular effect provider. It hooks into the EffectJunction lifecycle rather than the train-level Track/SaveChanges cycle.

Before each junction runs, the logger creates a JunctionMetadata entry with:

Field	Description
Name	Junction class name
TrainName	Parent train name
TrainExternalId	Parent train’s external GUID
InputType / OutputType	The junction’s generic type arguments
StartTimeUtc	When the junction began

After the junction completes:

Field	Description
EndTimeUtc	When the junction finished
State	Railway state: Right (success), Left (failure), or Bottom
HasRan	Whether the junction actually executed (skipped on failure track)
OutputJson	Serialized output (only if serializeJunctionData: true)

The completed JunctionMetadata is logged at the configured log level via ILogger<JunctionLoggerProvider>.

Requires EffectJunction

The junction logger only fires on junctions that inherit from EffectJunction<TIn, TOut>. If your junctions use the base Junction<TIn, TOut>, the logger has nothing to hook into and won’t produce any output.

See Junctions: EffectJunction vs Junction for the difference between the two.

When to Use It

• Debugging slow trains: The timing data shows which junction is the bottleneck.
• Tracing failures: The Railway state tells you exactly where and why a train switched to the left track.
• Development: Pair with serializeJunctionData: true to see junction-by-junction data flow through the chain.

SDK Reference

AddJunctionLogger