diff --git a/cmd/comparesrht/main.go b/cmd/comparesrht/main.go
index 331844ce336f7618490a100c568c9feed550abe5..e7eca64380ea590ce7bc0b63260ee71991500b1e 100644
--- a/cmd/comparesrht/main.go
+++ b/cmd/comparesrht/main.go
@@ -28,7 +28,6 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"log/slog"
 	"os"
-	"slices"
 	"strings"
 	"time"
 
@@ -38,6 +37,7 @@ 	"github.com/vaughan0/go-ini"
 	"go.bigb.es/auxilia/scribe"
 	"sourcecraft.dev/bigbes/sr-ht-core/config"
 	coreserver "sourcecraft.dev/bigbes/sr-ht-core/server"
+	"sourcecraft.dev/bigbes/sr-ht-ecore/logging"
 	"sourcecraft.dev/bigbes/sr-ht-ecore/login"
 
 	"sourcecraft.dev/bigbes/sr-ht-compare/authz"
@@ -57,47 +57,46 @@ // initLogging installs the instance's log handler as slog's default.
 //
 // Setting the *default* is the load-bearing part, not the formatting: the
 // packages that log below this one hold no logger of their own — the web tier
-// calls slog's package functions, and so does ecore's panic-recovery
-// middleware, whose report (method, path, panic, stack) would otherwise go to
-// Go's plain stderr handler with the stack as one unreadable field.
+// calls slog's package functions, and so do ecore's panic-recovery middleware
+// and its request logger, whose records would otherwise go to Go's plain
+// stderr handler with the stack as one unreadable field.
 //
-// -d is read straight out of the argument vector because core-go's server.New
-// owns the real flag parse and does not run until after this: a daemon that
-// only became verbose once it had finished starting would be silent for exactly
-// the part of its life an operator passes -d to watch.
-func initLogging(debug bool) {
-	level := slog.LevelInfo
-	if debug {
-		level = slog.LevelDebug
-	}
-	slog.SetDefault(slog.New(scribe.NewTintHandler(
+// The policy is ecore's and the handler is ours, which is the split logging
+// documents: what is masked and how verbose to be are facts about the instance,
+// while a tinting handler is auxilia's and does not belong in a library every
+// service links for its page chrome.
+//
+// Defaults(nil, "") because config.ini is not loaded yet, and deliberately so:
+// -d is read straight out of the argument vector — core-go's server.New owns
+// the real flag parse and does not run until after config validation, and a
+// daemon that only became verbose once it had finished starting would be silent
+// for exactly the part of its life an operator passes -d to watch. The two
+// knobs that work here are -d and $LOG_LEVEL; a [compare.sr.ht] log-level key
+// would be read too late to matter and is not supported.
+func initLogging() {
+	opts := logging.Defaults(nil, "")
+	logging.Install(scribe.NewTintHandler(
 		scribe.WithWriter(os.Stderr),
-		scribe.WithLevel(level),
-		scribe.WithSource(true),
-		scribe.WithTimeFormat(time.DateTime),
+		scribe.WithLevel(opts.Level),
+		scribe.WithSource(opts.AddSource),
+		scribe.WithTimeFormat(opts.TimeFormat),
 		// Colour is for a terminal; under systemd stderr is the journal, where
-		// the escapes are noise in every stored record. Asked of the stdlib
-		// rather than of golang.org/x/term, which would be a whole new
-		// dependency for one predicate.
-		scribe.WithNoColor(!isTerminal(os.Stderr)),
+		// the escapes are noise in every stored record. logging.ColorEnabled
+		// answers that from one Stat, and honours NO_COLOR besides.
+		scribe.WithNoColor(!opts.Color),
 		// This daemon logs no credential deliberately, which is precisely why
 		// the masks are here: the one that leaks is the attribute somebody adds
 		// later, and a request or a cookie is the likeliest thing to be handed
 		// to a log line while debugging the very cookie path this service reads.
-		scribe.WithMaskKeys("token", "cookie", "authorization"),
-		scribe.WithMask(`(?i)(secret|token|api_?key|password)`, "***"),
-	)))
-}
-
-// isTerminal reports whether f is a character device — a tty rather than the
-// pipe systemd, a build runner or a shell redirect hands the process.
-func isTerminal(f *os.File) bool {
-	info, err := f.Stat()
-	return err == nil && info.Mode()&os.ModeCharDevice != 0
+		// The list is the instance's, so a key another service learned to redact
+		// is redacted here without anybody editing this file.
+		scribe.WithMaskKeys(opts.MaskKeys...),
+		scribe.WithMask(opts.MaskPattern, opts.MaskReplacement),
+	))
 }
 
 func main() {
-	initLogging(slices.Contains(os.Args[1:], "-d"))
+	initLogging()
 
 	// LoadConfig never panics on a missing file (it returns a nil ini.File);
 	// validateConfig turns any absent required key into a single clear fatal.