Feature request: Add BaseException.__notes__ to log messages

[waffleshop]

Use case

As a developer, I would like PowerTools' Logging to support the notes feature (BaseException.__notes__) so my log messages can be enriched with data and code natively available via Python exceptions.

Solution/User Experience

PowerTools' log messages include a notes: list[str] attribute populated by Python's BaseException.__notes__.

The common use case is when you want to add context to a potential exception but not explicitly log at the time.

try:
    get_data(customer_id)
except Exception as exc:
    exc.add_note(f"Customer: '{customer_id}'")
    raise

Ideally, the log message would then include a notes attribute:

{
    "level": "ERROR",
    "location": "update_all_customers:64",
    "message": "Super detailed message here.",
    "timestamp": "2025-04-10 15:00:27,218+0000",
    "service": "CustomerManagement",
    "cold_start": true,
    "function_name": "customer_profile_updater",
    "function_memory_size": "512",
    "function_arn": "arn:aws:lambda:us-west-2:111111111111111:function:customer_profile_updater",
    "function_request_id": "b0635544-37e1-4407-8366-35b0c86222e5",
    "taskName": "Task-1",
    "xray_trace_id": "7812696e-9dc6-4909-b314-3d7c2c93da04",
    "notes": [
        "Encountered errors while updating customer profiles.",
        "Customer: '123456'"
    ]
}

Alternative solutions

PowerTools' Logging feature already includes alternate solutions but they're specific to PowerTools. It would be great if PowerTools' Logger leveraged the `BaseException.__notes__` attribute already available.

Acknowledgment

• This feature request meets Powertools for AWS Lambda (Python) Tenets
• Should this be considered in other Powertools for AWS Lambda languages? i.e. Java, TypeScript, and .NET

[leandrodamascena]

Hi @waffleshop! Thanks for opening this issue! Yes, I think it makes a lot of sense to serialize the notes added when logging an exception or error with exc_info=True.

Notes are supported in Python 3.11+ and Powertools supports 3.9+, so we need to add a condition when serializing the exception to check if the Python version is 3.11+ or just if the __notes__ field exists in that object.

Would you like to submit a PR to implement this? I'd love to have your contribution here.

[github-actions]

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[github-actions]

This is now released under 3.11.0 version!