diff --git a/dashboard/backend/.env.example b/dashboard/backend/.env.example
index 8179f9a..c05fa49 100644
--- a/dashboard/backend/.env.example
+++ b/dashboard/backend/.env.example
@@ -10,3 +10,8 @@ AZURE_TENANT_ID=your-azure-tenant-id
 AZURE_CLIENT_ID=your-azure-client-id
 AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET=your-azure-client-secret
 AZURE_KEY_VAULT_URL=https://your-key-vault.vault.azure.net/
+
+# Structured logging (pino → stdout). Override per environment as needed.
+# Levels: fatal | error | warn | info | debug | trace | silent
+# Default: debug in non-prod, info in prod (when NODE_ENV=production).
+LOG_LEVEL=info
diff --git a/dashboard/backend/src/lib/logger.ts b/dashboard/backend/src/lib/logger.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..168a9ef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dashboard/backend/src/lib/logger.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+// Centralized pino logger.
+//
+// Fastify already uses pino under the hood, but we want one configured pino
+// instance shared between Fastify (via `logger: <instance>` in `Fastify({...})`)
+// and any non-request code path (background tasks, repositories called outside
+// a request, scripts). Importing the same instance everywhere means uniform
+// formatting, redaction, and log level — and gives us one place to change
+// transport later.
+//
+// Env knobs:
+//   LOG_LEVEL   — pino level (`fatal|error|warn|info|debug|trace|silent`).
+//                 Default: `debug` in non-production, `info` in production.
+//   NODE_ENV    — `production` flips the default level.
+//
+// Redaction:
+//   We strip Authorization headers and a small allow-list of secret-shaped
+//   field names (`password`, `token`, `secret`, common Azure/JWT keys) from
+//   any logged object so that an accidental `req.log.info(req.body)` or
+//   `logger.error({ err, config }, ...)` doesn't leak credentials.
+
+import pino from 'pino';
+
+const isProd = process.env.NODE_ENV === 'production';
+const level = process.env.LOG_LEVEL ?? (isProd ? 'info' : 'debug');
+
+// Field paths we never want in logs. Pino's redact uses fast-redact's
+// dot-path syntax with `*` wildcards. Cover the common cases without trying
+// to be exhaustive — this is a backstop, not the primary defense.
+const redactPaths = [
+  // Headers (Fastify request log shape)
+  'req.headers.authorization',
+  'req.headers.cookie',
+  'request.headers.authorization',
+  'request.headers.cookie',
+  'headers.authorization',
+  'headers.cookie',
+  // Common secret-shaped keys at the top level of a logged object
+  '*.password',
+  '*.token',
+  '*.refreshToken',
+  '*.refresh_token',
+  '*.accessToken',
+  '*.access_token',
+  '*.csrfToken',
+  '*.csrf_token',
+  '*.JWT_SECRET',
+  '*.CSRF_SECRET',
+  '*.ENCRYPTION_KEY',
+  '*.COSMOS_KEY',
+  '*.AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET',
+];
+
+export const logger = pino({
+  level,
+  redact: {
+    paths: redactPaths,
+    censor: '[REDACTED]',
+  },
+  // Stable, JSON to stdout in every environment. If you want pretty output
+  // locally, pipe through `pino-pretty` from your shell — we deliberately
+  // don't bundle it as a runtime dep.
+  base: { service: 'devops-backend' },
+  timestamp: pino.stdTimeFunctions.isoTime,
+});
+
+// Convenience: a child logger tagged with a module name. Use this in
+// repositories / background workers so log lines carry their origin
+// without having to repeat it in every call site.
+//
+//   const log = childLogger('deployments/orchestrator');
+//   log.error({ err, deploymentId }, 'background work failed');
+export function childLogger(module: string) {
+  return logger.child({ module });
+}
diff --git a/dashboard/backend/src/modules/backup/repository.ts b/dashboard/backend/src/modules/backup/repository.ts
index b494318..c27223f 100644
--- a/dashboard/backend/src/modules/backup/repository.ts
+++ b/dashboard/backend/src/modules/backup/repository.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,10 @@
 import { getContainer } from '../../lib/cosmos-init.js';
 import { productId } from '../../lib/config.js';
+import { childLogger } from '../../lib/logger.js';
 import type { Backup, BackupParams } from './types.js';
 
+const log = childLogger('backup/repository');
+
 const BACKUPS_CONTAINER = 'backups';
 
 export async function createBackup(params: BackupParams = {}): Promise<Backup> {
@@ -21,7 +24,7 @@ export async function createBackup(params: BackupParams = {}): Promise<Backup> {
       backupData[containerName] = resources;
       totalItems += resources.length;
     } catch (error) {
-      console.error(`Failed to backup container ${containerName}:`, error);
+      log.error({ err: error, containerName }, "failed to backup container");
       throw error;
     }
   }
@@ -54,7 +57,7 @@ export async function getBackups(): Promise<Backup[]> {
 
     return resources as Backup[];
   } catch (error) {
-    console.error('Failed to get backups:', error);
+    log.error({ err: error }, "failed to get backups");
     return [];
   }
 }
@@ -89,7 +92,7 @@ export async function restoreBackup(backupId: string): Promise<void> {
       try {
         await targetContainer.items.upsert(item);
       } catch (error) {
-        console.error(`Failed to restore item in ${containerName}:`, error);
+        log.error({ err: error, containerName }, "failed to restore backup item");
       }
     }
   }
@@ -99,7 +102,7 @@ export async function deleteBackup(backupId: string): Promise<void> {
   try {
     await getContainer(BACKUPS_CONTAINER).item(backupId).delete();
   } catch (error) {
-    console.error('Failed to delete backup:', error);
+    log.error({ err: error }, "failed to delete backup");
     throw error;
   }
 }
diff --git a/dashboard/backend/src/modules/deployments/orchestrator.ts b/dashboard/backend/src/modules/deployments/orchestrator.ts
index 18b9cf1..cd2c0d2 100644
--- a/dashboard/backend/src/modules/deployments/orchestrator.ts
+++ b/dashboard/backend/src/modules/deployments/orchestrator.ts
@@ -4,8 +4,10 @@ import { join } from 'path';
 import type { Service } from '../services/types.js';
 import { createDeployment, updateDeployment } from './repository.js';
 import { productId } from '../../lib/config.js';
+import { childLogger } from '../../lib/logger.js';
 
 const execAsync = promisify(exec);
+const log = childLogger('deployments/orchestrator');
 
 export async function triggerDeployment(service: Service, triggeredBy: string): Promise<string> {
   // Create deployment record
@@ -20,7 +22,7 @@ export async function triggerDeployment(service: Service, triggeredBy: string):
 
   // Trigger bash script asynchronously
   runDeploymentScript(service, deploymentId).catch(error => {
-    console.error(`Deployment ${deploymentId} failed:`, error);
+    log.error({ err: error, deploymentId, serviceId: service.id }, 'background deployment failed');
   });
 
   return deploymentId;
@@ -81,7 +83,10 @@ async function runDeploymentScript(service: Service, deploymentId: string) {
         ...(version ? { version } : {}),
       });
     } catch (updateError) {
-      console.error(`Failed to persist final deployment status for ${deploymentId}:`, updateError);
+      log.error(
+        { err: updateError, deploymentId, finalStatus },
+        'failed to persist final deployment status',
+      );
     }
   }
 }
diff --git a/dashboard/backend/src/modules/system/repository.ts b/dashboard/backend/src/modules/system/repository.ts
index 1e6d7cf..ebe90a0 100644
--- a/dashboard/backend/src/modules/system/repository.ts
+++ b/dashboard/backend/src/modules/system/repository.ts
@@ -1,8 +1,10 @@
 import { exec } from 'child_process';
 import { promisify } from 'util';
 import * as os from 'os';
+import { childLogger } from '../../lib/logger.js';
 
 const execAsync = promisify(exec);
+const log = childLogger('system/repository');
 
 export async function getSystemMetrics() {
   const timestamp = new Date().toISOString();
@@ -43,7 +45,7 @@ export async function getSystemMetrics() {
       }
     }
   } catch (error) {
-    console.error('Failed to get disk info:', error);
+    log.error({ err: error }, 'failed to get disk info');
     diskInfo = [{
       path: '/',
       total: 0,
@@ -122,7 +124,7 @@ export async function getDockerStats() {
     const volumeSizes = volumeSizeOutput.split('\n').filter(s => s).map(parseSize);
     volumes.size = volumeSizes[0] || 0;
   } catch (error) {
-    console.error('Failed to get Docker stats:', error);
+    log.error({ err: error }, 'failed to get docker stats');
   }
 
   return {
@@ -166,7 +168,7 @@ export async function dockerCleanup(type: string, force: boolean = false): Promi
     try {
       await execAsync(command);
     } catch (error) {
-      console.error(`Failed to execute ${command}:`, error);
+      log.error({ err: error, command }, 'docker cleanup command failed');
     }
   }
 
@@ -189,7 +191,7 @@ export async function dockerCleanup(type: string, force: boolean = false): Promi
 
     freedSpace = beforeSpace - afterSpace;
   } catch (error) {
-    console.error('Failed to calculate freed space:', error);
+    log.error({ err: error }, 'failed to calculate freed space');
   }
 
   return {
diff --git a/dashboard/backend/src/modules/vm/repository.ts b/dashboard/backend/src/modules/vm/repository.ts
index dbabcc0..95932ac 100644
--- a/dashboard/backend/src/modules/vm/repository.ts
+++ b/dashboard/backend/src/modules/vm/repository.ts
@@ -2,8 +2,10 @@ import { exec } from 'child_process';
 import { promisify } from 'util';
 import { hostname } from 'os';
 import { readFile } from 'fs/promises';
+import { childLogger } from '../../lib/logger.js';
 
 const execAsync = promisify(exec);
+const log = childLogger('vm/repository');
 
 // Paths are env-configurable so they work both in the Docker container (via
 // volume mounts) and when the backend is run directly on the host for dev.
@@ -448,7 +450,7 @@ export async function getAllContainers(): Promise<ContainerInfo[]> {
       return a.name.localeCompare(b.name);
     });
   } catch (err) {
-    console.error('getAllContainers failed:', err);
+    log.error({ err }, 'getAllContainers failed');
     return [];
   }
 }
diff --git a/dashboard/backend/src/server.ts b/dashboard/backend/src/server.ts
index 53cb801..0e86d29 100644
--- a/dashboard/backend/src/server.ts
+++ b/dashboard/backend/src/server.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import Fastify from 'fastify';
 import { config } from './lib/config.js';
+import { logger } from './lib/logger.js';
 import { initializeContainers } from './lib/cosmos-init.js';
 import { extractAuth, AuthError, requireAdmin } from './lib/auth.js';
 import { generateCsrfToken, validateCsrfToken, getSessionId } from './lib/csrf.js';
@@ -19,8 +20,10 @@ import rateLimit from '@fastify/rate-limit';
 import swagger from '@fastify/swagger';
 import swaggerUi from '@fastify/swagger-ui';
 
+// Hand Fastify the shared pino instance so its per-request logs go through
+// the same formatter + redaction config as everything else in the backend.
 const fastify = Fastify({
-  logger: true,
+  loggerInstance: logger,
 });
 
 // NOTE: there is no Server-Sent-Events log stream. `fastify-sse-v2 ^4` is not