Tail file mode

What it does

Tail File watches any file and shows new content as it's appended — like tail -f, but built into StreamView with no shell process. It's lightweight enough to run dozens of tail panes at once.

How to use it

1. Click + Add Stream → 📄 Tail File….
2. Select any file (a log, .txt, or anything).
3. StreamView watches the file and displays new content live.

Behavior:

• File doesn't exist yet — shows "Waiting for file" and watches for it to be created.
• Truncation / rotation — when the file shrinks, StreamView resets and reads from the start.
• Large files — starts from the last 64 KB so you see recent content immediately.
• ANSI colors — colored log output is rendered through the terminal buffer.
• Persistent — the tail path is saved with the workspace and restored on launch.
• Recording — defaults to Output Only; records to history like any other stream.

Use it to watch application logs, build output, Docker container logs written to files, or deployment logs across services side by side.

Troubleshooting

• No new lines appear — confirm the program is actually writing to that file and that the path is correct.
• Earlier content is missing — tail starts from the last 64 KB; content before that isn't loaded by design.

Related

• Managing streams
• Recording modes