diff --git a/backend/src/index.ts b/backend/src/index.ts
index 07b3b8490..07c0d6d94 100644
--- a/backend/src/index.ts
+++ b/backend/src/index.ts
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ import { tabularRouter } from "./routes/tabular";
 import { workflowsRouter } from "./routes/workflows";
 import { userRouter } from "./routes/user";
 import { downloadsRouter } from "./routes/downloads";
+import { requestContext } from "./middleware/requestContext";
+import { logger } from "./lib/logger";
 
 const app = express();
 const PORT = process.env.PORT ?? 3001;
@@ -95,6 +97,8 @@ app.use(
   }),
 );
 
+app.use(requestContext());
+
 app.use(generalLimiter);
 
 app.use(express.json({ limit: "50mb" }));
@@ -122,5 +126,5 @@ app.use("/download", downloadsRouter);
 app.get("/health", (_req, res) => res.json({ ok: true }));
 
 app.listen(PORT, () => {
-  console.log(`Mike backend running on port ${PORT}`);
+  logger.info({ port: PORT }, "backend listening");
 });
diff --git a/backend/src/lib/logger.ts b/backend/src/lib/logger.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..771bc09e3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/src/lib/logger.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,86 @@
+/**
+ * Tiny zero-dependency structured logger. Every call emits one JSON
+ * line to stdout/stderr, which is the shape any log aggregator (CW
+ * Logs, Loki, Datadog) is happy to ingest. Fields are merged into the
+ * top-level object so a query like `{level=error route=/chat err_msg=*}`
+ * works without parsing message strings.
+ *
+ * We didn't pull in pino because we only need ~30 lines, and adding a
+ * dep + a bunch of transport configuration is overkill for the current
+ * single-process backend. If the project grows into multi-process or
+ * async transports, replace the body of this file with pino — the
+ * call sites won't have to change.
+ */
+
+type LogLevel = "debug" | "info" | "warn" | "error";
+
+type Fields = Record<string, unknown>;
+
+const LEVEL_RANK: Record<LogLevel, number> = {
+    debug: 10,
+    info: 20,
+    warn: 30,
+    error: 40,
+};
+
+function resolveMinLevel(): LogLevel {
+    const raw = (process.env.LOG_LEVEL ?? "").toLowerCase();
+    if (raw === "debug" || raw === "info" || raw === "warn" || raw === "error")
+        return raw;
+    return process.env.NODE_ENV === "production" ? "info" : "debug";
+}
+
+const MIN_LEVEL = resolveMinLevel();
+
+function serializeError(err: unknown): Fields {
+    if (err instanceof Error) {
+        return {
+            err_name: err.name,
+            err_msg: err.message,
+            err_stack: err.stack,
+        };
+    }
+    return { err: typeof err === "string" ? err : JSON.stringify(err) };
+}
+
+function emit(level: LogLevel, fields: Fields, msg?: string) {
+    if (LEVEL_RANK[level] < LEVEL_RANK[MIN_LEVEL]) return;
+    const merged: Fields = {
+        ts: new Date().toISOString(),
+        level,
+        ...fields,
+    };
+    if (msg !== undefined) merged.msg = msg;
+    const line = JSON.stringify(merged);
+    if (level === "error" || level === "warn") {
+        process.stderr.write(line + "\n");
+    } else {
+        process.stdout.write(line + "\n");
+    }
+}
+
+export type Logger = {
+    debug(fields: Fields, msg?: string): void;
+    info(fields: Fields, msg?: string): void;
+    warn(fields: Fields, msg?: string): void;
+    error(fields: Fields, msg?: string): void;
+    /** Returns a child logger that prefixes every event with `fields`. */
+    child(fields: Fields): Logger;
+};
+
+function make(baseFields: Fields): Logger {
+    return {
+        debug: (fields, msg) => emit("debug", { ...baseFields, ...fields }, msg),
+        info: (fields, msg) => emit("info", { ...baseFields, ...fields }, msg),
+        warn: (fields, msg) => emit("warn", { ...baseFields, ...fields }, msg),
+        error: (fields, msg) => emit("error", { ...baseFields, ...fields }, msg),
+        child: (fields) => make({ ...baseFields, ...fields }),
+    };
+}
+
+export const logger: Logger = make({});
+
+/** Helper for `catch (err)` blocks. */
+export function errFields(err: unknown): Fields {
+    return serializeError(err);
+}
diff --git a/backend/src/middleware/requestContext.ts b/backend/src/middleware/requestContext.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..7813a154a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/src/middleware/requestContext.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+import { randomUUID } from "crypto";
+import type { NextFunction, Request, Response } from "express";
+import { logger } from "../lib/logger";
+
+/**
+ * Adds a per-request id, an access log line on response close, and a
+ * request-scoped logger on `res.locals.log`. The id is taken from the
+ * inbound `X-Request-Id` header when present so it can stitch with
+ * upstream traces; otherwise a UUID is generated. It's echoed back on
+ * the response so a curl user can grep their request out of the logs.
+ */
+export function requestContext() {
+    return (req: Request, res: Response, next: NextFunction) => {
+        const inbound = req.header("x-request-id");
+        const requestId = inbound && inbound.length <= 200 ? inbound : randomUUID();
+        res.setHeader("X-Request-Id", requestId);
+
+        const startNs = process.hrtime.bigint();
+        const reqLog = logger.child({ request_id: requestId });
+        res.locals.requestId = requestId;
+        res.locals.log = reqLog;
+
+        res.on("close", () => {
+            const elapsedMs = Number(process.hrtime.bigint() - startNs) / 1e6;
+            // route is set by Express after match; fall back to the raw url
+            // when the response closed before a route was attached.
+            const route = req.route?.path ?? req.originalUrl ?? req.url;
+            reqLog.info(
+                {
+                    method: req.method,
+                    route,
+                    status: res.statusCode,
+                    elapsed_ms: Math.round(elapsedMs),
+                    user_id: (res.locals.userId as string | undefined) ?? null,
+                },
+                "request",
+            );
+        });
+
+        next();
+    };
+}
diff --git a/backend/src/routes/chat.ts b/backend/src/routes/chat.ts
index 9a39e0a9b..24e7c2c2e 100644
--- a/backend/src/routes/chat.ts
+++ b/backend/src/routes/chat.ts
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import {
 import { completeText } from "../lib/llm";
 import { getUserApiKeys, getUserModelSettings } from "../lib/userSettings";
 import { checkProjectAccess } from "../lib/access";
+import { errFields, logger, type Logger } from "../lib/logger";
 
 export const chatRouter = Router();
 
@@ -414,7 +415,8 @@ chatRouter.post("/:chatId/generate-title", requireAuth, async (req, res) => {
 
         res.json({ title });
     } catch (err) {
-        console.error("[generate-title]", err);
+        const log = (res.locals.log as Logger | undefined) ?? logger;
+        log.error({ route: "generate-title", ...errFields(err) }, "title generation failed");
         res.status(500).json({ detail: "Failed to generate title" });
     }
 });
@@ -500,7 +502,11 @@ chatRouter.post("/", requireAuth, async (req, res) => {
             .select("id, title")
             .single();
         if (error || !newChat) {
-            console.error("[chat/stream] failed to create chat", error);
+            const log = (res.locals.log as Logger | undefined) ?? logger;
+            log.error(
+                { route: "chat/stream", supabase_error: error?.message },
+                "failed to create chat",
+            );
             return void res
                 .status(500)
                 .json({ detail: "Failed to create chat" });
@@ -594,7 +600,8 @@ chatRouter.post("/", requireAuth, async (req, res) => {
                 .eq("id", chatId);
         }
     } catch (err) {
-        console.error("[chat/stream] error:", err);
+        const log = (res.locals.log as Logger | undefined) ?? logger;
+        log.error({ route: "chat/stream", ...errFields(err) }, "stream error");
         try {
             write(
                 `data: ${JSON.stringify({ type: "error", message: "Stream error" })}\n\n`,
diff --git a/backend/src/routes/projectChat.ts b/backend/src/routes/projectChat.ts
index 5e2996152..310dd0c8d 100644
--- a/backend/src/routes/projectChat.ts
+++ b/backend/src/routes/projectChat.ts
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import {
 } from "../lib/chatTools";
 import { getUserApiKeys } from "../lib/userSettings";
 import { checkProjectAccess } from "../lib/access";
+import { errFields, logger, type Logger } from "../lib/logger";
 
 const PROJECT_SYSTEM_PROMPT_EXTRA = `PROJECT CONTEXT:
 You are operating within a project folder that contains a collection of legal documents the user has organised for a single matter. The user's questions will usually refer to one or more documents in this project — your job is to find the relevant files to work on. Use list_documents to see what is available and fetch_documents / read_document to pull in any documents you need before answering.
@@ -186,7 +187,11 @@ projectChatRouter.post("/", requireAuth, async (req, res) => {
                 .eq("id", chatId);
         }
     } catch (err) {
-        console.error("[project-chat/stream] error:", err);
+        const log = (res.locals.log as Logger | undefined) ?? logger;
+        log.error(
+            { route: "project-chat/stream", project_id: projectId, ...errFields(err) },
+            "stream error",
+        );
         try {
             write(
                 `data: ${JSON.stringify({ type: "error", message: "Stream error" })}\n\n`,