In Serilog, how do I get properties to show like they do when using the CompactJsonFormatter with long names like when using the JsonFormatter?

I have a Serilog logger configured as follows:

Log.Logger =
            new LoggerConfiguration()
                .ReadFrom.Configuration(configuration)
                .Enrich.FromGlobalLogContext()
                .WriteTo.Console(new JsonFormatter())
                .CreateLogger();

My logs look like this:

{
    "Timestamp": "2023-02-23T20:36:15.0931656+00:00",
    "Level": "Information",
    "MessageTemplate": "Entered the Run method",
    "Properties": {
        "x-correlation-id": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"
    }
}

Is it possible to move the properties, like x-correlation-id, up to the top level? I've seen this kind of output in the CompactJsonFormatter but my team doesn't like the short names like @t or @mt. How do I get properties to show like they do when using the CompactJsonFormatter with long names like when using the JsonFormatter?

This can be achieved by using Expression Templates in Serilog. It allows expression based filtering and formatting of logs.

As you rightly pointed out, the major challenge with the Compact Json Formatters was limited customizability and hence they implemented ExpressionTemplate.

To use ExpressionTemplate, we need to add nuget package - Serilog.Expressions

One of the customizations provided by Expression Templates is that it allows you to rename and reorder the timestamp, level, message, exception and other fields.

For eg- We wish to rename @t to "TimeStamp", @mt to "Message", @l to "Level", the code is as simple as below-

new ExpressionTemplate("{ {TimeStamp: @t,Level:@l,Message: @mt,Exception:@x , ..@p} }\n")

Here's a sample code that compares the outputs from CompactJsonFormatter & ExpressionTemplate

using Serilog;
using Serilog.Formatting.Compact;
using Serilog.Formatting.Json;
using Serilog.Templates;
using System;
namespace Alne.POT.Common
{
    public class User
    {
        public int Id { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public DateTime Created { get; set; }

    }
    public class Class1
    {
        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {

            Log.Logger = new LoggerConfiguration()
                .WriteTo.Console(new ExpressionTemplate("{ {TimeStamp: @t,Level:@l,Message: @mt,Exception:@x , ..@p} }\n"))
                .WriteTo.Console(new CompactJsonFormatter())
                .CreateLogger();

            var exampleUser = new User { Id = 1, Name = "Adam", Created = DateTime.Now };
            Log.Information("Created {@User} on {Created}\n", exampleUser, DateTime.Now);
            Console.WriteLine();
           

        }
    }

}

Comparing the results from - CompactJsonFormatter & Expression Template, it matches exactly except for the fact that we have renamed the fields.