diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 14195d5..e8ca8cd 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ VENV        := .venv
 BIN         := $(VENV)/bin
 UV          := uv
 PIP         := $(BIN)/pip
+LOG_FILE    := runtime-logs.log
+IRI_LOG_FILE ?= $(LOG_FILE)
 
 STAMP_VENV  := $(VENV)/.created
 STAMP_DEPS  := $(VENV)/.deps
@@ -34,6 +36,7 @@ dev: deps
 	IRI_API_ADAPTER_compute=app.demo_adapter.DemoAdapter \
 	IRI_API_ADAPTER_filesystem=app.demo_adapter.DemoAdapter \
 	IRI_API_ADAPTER_task=app.demo_adapter.DemoAdapter \
+	IRI_LOG_FILE="$${IRI_LOG_FILE:-$${LOG_FILE:-$(IRI_LOG_FILE)}}" \
 	DEMO_QUEUE_UPDATE_SECS=2 \
 	OPENTELEMETRY_ENABLED=true \
 	API_URL_ROOT='http://localhost:8000' fastapi dev
@@ -78,4 +81,3 @@ ARGS ?=
 # call it via: make manage-globus ARGS=scopes-show
 manage-globus: deps
 	@source local.env && $(BIN)/python ./tools/manage_globus.py $(ARGS)
-
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index b47226d..0f8f49c 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -59,6 +59,11 @@ Links to data, created by this api, will concatenate these values producing link
 - `IRI_API_PARAMS`: as described above, this is a way to customize the API meta-data
 - `IRI_API_ADAPTER_*`: these values specify the business logic for the per-api-group implementation of a facility_adapter. For example: `IRI_API_ADAPTER_status=myfacility.MyFacilityStatusAdapter` would load the implementation of the `app.routers.status.facility_adapter.FacilityAdapter` abstract class to handle the `status` business logic for your facility.
 - `IRI_SHOW_MISSING_ROUTES`: hide api groups that don't have an `IRI_API_ADAPTER_*` environment variable defined, if set to `true`. This way if your facility only wishes to expose some api groups but not others, they can be hidden. (Defaults to `false`.)
+- `LOG_LEVEL`: logging level for the API and adapters. Defaults to `DEBUG`.
+- `IRI_LOG_FILE`: file path for API logs. Logs always go to stdout; when this is set, logs also go to the file.
+- `LOG_FILE`: fallback file path for API logs when `IRI_LOG_FILE` is not set.
+
+For local development, `make` writes logs to `runtime-logs.log` by default. Use `make LOG_FILE=/tmp/iri-api.log` or `make IRI_LOG_FILE=/tmp/iri-api.log` to choose a different file. You can also put either variable in `local.env`.
 
 ## Docker support
 
@@ -142,4 +147,3 @@ You can optionally use globus for authorization. Steps to use globus:
 - Specify the monitoring endpoint by setting the [OpenTelemetry](https://opentelemetry.io/docs/zero-code/python/) env vars
 - Add additional routers for other API-s
 - Add authenticated API-s via an [OAuth2 integration](https://fastapi.tiangolo.com/tutorial/security/oauth2-jwt/)
-
diff --git a/app/apilogger.py b/app/apilogger.py
index 80403a9..1bf7302 100644
--- a/app/apilogger.py
+++ b/app/apilogger.py
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 """Logging utilities for the IRI Facility API."""
+
 import logging
+import os
+import sys
+from pathlib import Path
 
 LEVELS = {"FATAL": logging.FATAL,
           "ERROR": logging.ERROR,
@@ -7,22 +11,81 @@
           "INFO": logging.INFO,
           "DEBUG": logging.DEBUG}
 
+DEFAULT_FORMAT = "%(asctime)s.%(msecs)03d - %(name)s - %(levelname)s - %(message)s"
+DEFAULT_DATE_FORMAT = "%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S"
+IRI_HANDLER_ATTR = "_iri_facility_api_handler"
 
-def get_stream_logger(name: str = __name__, level: str = "DEBUG") -> logging.Logger:
+_CONFIGURED = False
+
+
+def _level(level: str | int | None) -> int:
+    if isinstance(level, int):
+        return level
+    return LEVELS.get(str(level or "INFO").upper(), logging.INFO)
+
+
+def _log_file_path() -> Path | None:
+    log_file = os.environ.get("IRI_LOG_FILE") or os.environ.get("LOG_FILE")
+    return Path(log_file) if log_file else None
+
+
+def configure_logging(level: str | int | None = None) -> None:
     """
-    Return a configured Stream logger.
+    Configure root logging for the API.
+
+    Logs always go to stdout. If IRI_LOG_FILE or LOG_FILE is set, logs also go
+    to that file.
     """
-    logger = logging.getLogger(name)
+    global _CONFIGURED
+
+    log_level = _level(level or os.environ.get("LOG_LEVEL"))
+    root = logging.getLogger()
+    root.setLevel(log_level)
 
-    if not logger.handlers:
-        handler = logging.StreamHandler()
+    if _CONFIGURED:
+        for handler in root.handlers:
+            if getattr(handler, IRI_HANDLER_ATTR, False):
+                handler.setLevel(log_level)
+        return
 
-        formatter = logging.Formatter("%(asctime)s.%(msecs)03d - %(name)s - %(levelname)s - %(message)s", datefmt="%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S")
+    formatter = logging.Formatter(DEFAULT_FORMAT, datefmt=DEFAULT_DATE_FORMAT)
 
-        handler.setFormatter(formatter)
-        logger.addHandler(handler)
+    for handler in root.handlers[:]:
+        if getattr(handler, IRI_HANDLER_ATTR, False):
+            root.removeHandler(handler)
+            handler.close()
+
+    stdout_handler = logging.StreamHandler(sys.stdout)
+    stdout_handler.setLevel(log_level)
+    stdout_handler.setFormatter(formatter)
+    setattr(stdout_handler, IRI_HANDLER_ATTR, True)
+    root.addHandler(stdout_handler)
+
+    log_file = _log_file_path()
+    if log_file:
+        if log_file.parent != Path("."):
+            log_file.parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+        file_handler = logging.FileHandler(log_file)
+        file_handler.setLevel(log_level)
+        file_handler.setFormatter(formatter)
+        setattr(file_handler, IRI_HANDLER_ATTR, True)
+        root.addHandler(file_handler)
+
+    _CONFIGURED = True
+
+
+def get_stream_logger(name: str = __name__, level: str = "DEBUG") -> logging.Logger:
+    """
+    Return a logger using the shared API stdout and optional file logging setup.
+    """
+    configure_logging(level)
+
+    logger = logging.getLogger(name)
+    logger.setLevel(_level(level))
+    logger.propagate = True
 
-    logger.setLevel(LEVELS.get(level, logging.DEBUG))
-    logger.propagate = False
+    for handler in logger.handlers[:]:
+        logger.removeHandler(handler)
+        handler.close()
 
-    return logger
\ No newline at end of file
+    return logger
diff --git a/app/main.py b/app/main.py
index 6214759..4931771 100644
--- a/app/main.py
+++ b/app/main.py
@@ -11,6 +11,9 @@
 from opentelemetry.exporter.otlp.proto.grpc.trace_exporter import OTLPSpanExporter
 from opentelemetry.instrumentation.fastapi import FastAPIInstrumentor
 
+from . import config
+from .apilogger import configure_logging
+
 from app.routers.error_handlers import install_error_handlers
 from app.routers.facility import facility
 from app.routers.status import status
@@ -19,12 +22,7 @@
 from app.routers.filesystem import filesystem
 from app.routers.task import task
 
-from . import config
-
-logging.basicConfig(
-    level=logging.INFO,
-    format="%(asctime)s %(levelname)s %(name)s: %(message)s"
-)
+configure_logging(config.LOG_LEVEL)
 
 # ------------------------------------------------------------------
 # OpenTelemetry Tracing Configuration