diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 7aa68143..53f806b1 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -12,3 +12,4 @@ result*
 *screenshot.png
 output
 todo
+log/
diff --git a/panel/default.nix b/panel/default.nix
index 06d1a487..6c214660 100644
--- a/panel/default.nix
+++ b/panel/default.nix
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ in
         DATABASE_URL = "sqlite:///${toString ./src}/db.sqlite3";
         # locally: use a fixed relative reference, so we can use our newest files without copying to the store
         REPO_DIR = toString ../.;
+        LOGGING_DIR = "../log";
       };
     shellHook = ''
       ln -sf ${sources.htmx}/dist/htmx.js src/panel/static/htmx.min.js
diff --git a/panel/nix/configuration.nix b/panel/nix/configuration.nix
index 6061e559..4cc4e9ea 100644
--- a/panel/nix/configuration.nix
+++ b/panel/nix/configuration.nix
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ let
       (builtins.toFile "extra-settings.py" cfg.extra-settings)
     ];
     REPO_DIR = import ../../launch/tf-env.nix { inherit lib pkgs; };
+    LOGGING_DIR = "/var/log/${name}";
     SSH_PRIVATE_KEY_FILE = config.age.secrets.panel-ssh-key.path;
   };
 
diff --git a/panel/src/panel/settings.py b/panel/src/panel/settings.py
index 27398b47..52761d60 100644
--- a/panel/src/panel/settings.py
+++ b/panel/src/panel/settings.py
@@ -176,6 +176,9 @@ COMPRESS_PRECOMPILERS = [
 
 DEFAULT_AUTO_FIELD = 'django.db.models.BigAutoField'
 
+logging_dir = env["LOGGING_DIR"]
+os.makedirs(logging_dir, mode=0o700, exist_ok=True)
+
 LOGGING = {
     "version": 1,
     "disable_existing_loggers": False,
@@ -214,10 +217,15 @@ LOGGING = {
             "filters": ["require_debug_false"],
             "class": "django.utils.log.AdminEmailHandler",
         },
+        "file": {
+            "level": "INFO",
+            "class": "logging.FileHandler",
+            "filename": f"{logging_dir}/info.log",
+        },
     },
     "loggers": {
         "": {
-            "handlers": ["console"],
+            "handlers": ["console", "file"],
             "level": "DEBUG" if DEBUG else "INFO",
         },
     },