Environment-aware defaults

Logging verbosity is an operational control, not a code constant. Treat it as something the org tunes per environment, and adjust the LoggerSettings__c org default record accordingly during deploys.

Suggested baselines

Environment	LoggingLevel__c	DefaultNumberOfDaysToRetainLogs__c	Rationale
Production	INFO or WARN	30-90 days	Reduce noise and storage impact while preserving incident signal.
UAT	INFO	30 days	Validate business flows without excessive detail.
QA	DEBUG or FINE	14 days	Support defect reproduction and integration testing.
Sandbox/Dev	FINE to FINEST (time-boxed)	7-14 days	Deep diagnostics during active development; short retention prevents runaway storage.

Adjust to your org’s storage budget and audit requirements.

Per-profile overrides

Common patterns worth adopting even in production:

• Developer profile: bump to DEBUG or FINE and retain longer. Investigation work isn’t lost, and diagnostic detail is on hand when needed.
• Integration user profile: shorter retention because integration users produce dramatically more log volume than end users.
• Support staff profile: whatever level makes their day-to-day tools work - usually the same as the org default.

Temporary incident windows

When investigating a live issue:

1. Create a user- or profile-level LoggerSettings__c record for the affected user(s).
2. Bump LoggingLevel__c to DEBUG or FINE.
3. Reproduce and investigate.
4. Delete the user/profile record when done, so the org default reasserts.

This is faster and safer than editing the org default - other users’ logging behavior is unaffected.

Coordinating with retention

Higher verbosity produces more entries per transaction. Combine environment-appropriate levels with environment-appropriate retention windows to keep storage growth bounded.

If storage is genuinely tight, the levers in descending order of impact:

1. Lower LoggingLevel__c in production. DEBUG -> INFO typically drops volume by an order of magnitude.
2. Shorten DefaultNumberOfDaysToRetainLogs__c.
3. Install the Big Object Archiving plugin to offload aged data.

Where next

• LoggerSettings__c hierarchy - the settings surface.
• Logging levels - precedence and semantics.
• Retention & Purging - retention configuration in depth.