fix: move pino-pretty to optionalDependencies and fix fallback in serverless envs

[octo-patch]

Fixes #1464

Problem

pino-pretty was declared as a regular dependency, so bundlers (Next.js, Vercel, Netlify, AWS Lambda, etc.) always include it in production builds. In serverless runtimes that restrict Node.js worker thread usage, pino fails at startup with:

Error: unable to determine transport target for "pino-pretty"

Additionally, the existing fallback in createLogger was broken: the try/catch block only wrapped Object.assign(loggerConfig, transport), which never throws — the actual error comes from the pino() call that follows, outside the try block.

Solution

1. Move pino-pretty to optionalDependencies — bundlers can now exclude it when not needed, and package managers will skip it when it cannot be installed (e.g. restricted environments).

2. Fix the try/catch scope in createLogger — the pino() call with the pretty transport is now inside the try block. If pino fails to initialise the pino-pretty worker thread for any reason, the error is caught and pino falls back to plain JSON logging with a console warning. The existing disablePino: true workaround continues to work as before.

Testing

• Existing behaviour: in standard Node.js environments with pino-pretty available, pretty-printed logs still work.
• In environments where pino-pretty is excluded or worker threads are unavailable, stagehand now initialises successfully and logs in plain JSON format instead of throwing.
• The disablePino: true option remains as an explicit opt-out.

---

Summary by cubic

Make pino-pretty optional and fix the logger fallback so serverless builds don’t crash. If pino-pretty isn’t available or worker threads are blocked, we now fall back to plain JSON logging.

• Dependencies

  • Moved pino-pretty to optionalDependencies so bundlers can exclude it.
  • Allows installs to skip pino-pretty in restricted environments.

• Bug Fixes

  • Wrapped the pino() call with the pretty transport in a try/catch; on failure, log a warning and use JSON output.
  • No change when pino-pretty is available; disablePino: true still works.

^{Written for commit 2d4d25d. Summary will update on new commits. Review in cubic}

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[github-actions]

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[cubic-dev-ai]

No issues found across 2 files

Confidence score: 5/5

• Automated review surfaced no issues in the provided summaries.
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Architecture diagram

sequenceDiagram
    participant App as Stagehand Client
    participant Logger as createLogger()
    participant Pino as Pino Library
    participant Console as System Console
    participant Pretty as pino-pretty (Optional)

    App->>Logger: createLogger({ pretty: true })
    
    Note over Logger,Pretty: NEW: Attempt Pretty Logging in Try/Catch

    alt Attempt initialization with pino-pretty
        Logger->>Pino: CHANGED: Initialize pino({ transport: "pino-pretty" })
        Pino->>Pretty: Load transport worker
        
        alt Success (Local/Node.js)
            Pretty-->>Pino: Worker started
            Pino-->>Logger: Logger instance (Pretty)
            Logger-->>App: Return Pretty Logger
        else Failure (Serverless / Missing Dependency)
            Pino-->>Logger: Throw: "unable to determine transport"
            Logger->>Console: NEW: console.warn("falling back to standard logging")
            Logger->>Pino: Fallback: Initialize pino() (JSON mode)
            Pino-->>Logger: Logger instance (JSON)
            Logger-->>App: Return JSON Logger
        end
    else options.pretty is false OR Test Environment
        Logger->>Pino: Initialize pino() (JSON mode)
        Pino-->>Logger: Logger instance (JSON)
        Logger-->>App: Return JSON Logger
    end

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