diff --git a/src/server/Logging/ServerLogger.cs b/src/server/Logging/ServerLogger.cs
index 5fb01921..9e91c5f7 100644
--- a/src/server/Logging/ServerLogger.cs
+++ b/src/server/Logging/ServerLogger.cs
@@ -41,6 +41,16 @@ public class ServerLoggerConfiguration
         {
             [LogLevel.Information] = ConsoleColor.Green
         };
+
+        /// <summary>
+        /// The set of logging levels that are written to the log file on disk. This is
+        /// independent of LogLevels above (which gates both the dashboard's live entry list and
+        /// the file write) -- if this dictionary is non-empty, only levels present as keys here
+        /// are written to disk, while the dashboard continues to show everything permitted by
+        /// LogLevels. If this dictionary is empty (the default), file writing falls back to the
+        /// same set as LogLevels, preserving the original behaviour.
+        /// </summary>
+        public Dictionary<LogLevel, ConsoleColor> FileLogLevels { get; set; } = new();
     }
 
     /// <summary>
@@ -214,7 +224,7 @@ public void Log<TState>(LogLevel logLevel, EventId eventId, TState state,
                 category  = category,
                 label     = label,
                 exception = exception?.ToString() ?? string.Empty
-            });
+            }, logLevel);
         }
 
         /// <summary>
@@ -222,7 +232,10 @@ public void Log<TState>(LogLevel logLevel, EventId eventId, TState state,
         /// "writes to file".
         /// </summary>
         /// <param name="entry"></param>
-        private void StoreLogEntry(LogEntry entry)
+        /// <param name="logLevel">The log level of this entry, used to independently gate whether
+        /// it's written to the file (see FileLogLevels on ServerLoggerConfiguration) separately
+        /// from whether it's added to the in-memory list the dashboard reads from.</param>
+        private void StoreLogEntry(LogEntry entry, LogLevel logLevel)
         {
             // This used to be locked, but Lists are *so* fast that we're not going to be able to
             // cause lock contention. Even if we do, it's non critical. Just move on.
@@ -240,7 +253,17 @@ private void StoreLogEntry(LogEntry entry)
             }
             catch { }
 
-            StoreInFile(entry);
+            _config ??= _getCurrentConfig();
+
+            // Empty FileLogLevels means "not configured" -- fall back to the same set as
+            // LogLevels, preserving the original (pre-patch) behaviour of writing everything
+            // that's shown live to the file as well.
+            bool writeToFile = _config.FileLogLevels.Count == 0
+                ? _config.LogLevels.ContainsKey(logLevel)
+                : _config.FileLogLevels.ContainsKey(logLevel);
+
+            if (writeToFile)
+                StoreInFile(entry);
         }
 
         private void StoreInFile(LogEntry logEntry)
diff --git a/src/server/appsettings.json b/src/server/appsettings.json
index 8bd3450b..b23cbb06 100644
--- a/src/server/appsettings.json
+++ b/src/server/appsettings.json
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
     // will be logged. The order of log levels is:
     //   Trace = 0, Debug = 1, Information = 2, Warning = 3, Error = 4, Critical = 5, and None = 6.
     "LogLevel": {
-      "Default": "Trace",
+      "Default": "Information",
       "Microsoft": "Error",
       "System": "Error"
     },
@@ -16,12 +16,18 @@
       "FileTemplate": "log-%Y-%m-%d.txt", // Template for daily logging file
       "MaxLogsToStoreMB": 20,             // Maximum amount of logs to store in MB. Once this is hit old log files get dumped (not trimmed, dumped)
       "LogLevels": {
-        "Debug": "Yellow",
-        "Trace": "Gray",
         "Information": "White",
         "Warning": "Cyan",
         "Error": "Red",
         "Critical": "Magenta"
+      },
+      // Independent gate for what gets written to disk (see FileLogLevels on
+      // ServerLoggerConfiguration). If empty, falls back to LogLevels above. Colors here are
+      // unused for file output but kept as the dictionary value type for consistency.
+      "FileLogLevels": {
+        "Warning": "Cyan",
+        "Error": "Red",
+        "Critical": "Magenta"
       }
     }
   },