diff --git a/deployment/clouddeploy/gke-workers/base/gitter.yaml b/deployment/clouddeploy/gke-workers/base/gitter.yaml
index 317950beb58..d740312a8b8 100644
--- a/deployment/clouddeploy/gke-workers/base/gitter.yaml
+++ b/deployment/clouddeploy/gke-workers/base/gitter.yaml
@@ -32,8 +32,8 @@ spec:
         env:
         - name: GOMEMLIMIT
           value: "100GiB"
-        - name: DEBUG_LOG
-          value: "true"
+        - name: LOG_LEVEL
+          value: "debug"
         volumeMounts:
         - mountPath: /work
           name: disk-data
diff --git a/go/logger/init.go b/go/logger/init.go
index 5da13e635c3..3b62b07fb7a 100644
--- a/go/logger/init.go
+++ b/go/logger/init.go
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import (
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
 	"strconv"
+	"strings"
 	"sync"
 
 	"cloud.google.com/go/errorreporting"
@@ -119,8 +120,17 @@ func initTracing(ctx context.Context, projectID, serviceName string) {
 
 func cloudHandlerOptions() *slog.HandlerOptions {
 	level := slog.LevelInfo
-	if os.Getenv("DEBUG_LOG") != "" {
-		level = slog.LevelDebug
+	if lvl := os.Getenv("LOG_LEVEL"); lvl != "" {
+		switch strings.ToLower(lvl) {
+		case "debug":
+			level = slog.LevelDebug
+		case "info":
+			level = slog.LevelInfo
+		case "warn":
+			level = slog.LevelWarn
+		case "error":
+			level = slog.LevelError
+		}
 	}
 
 	return &slog.HandlerOptions{
diff --git a/go/logger/localhandler.go b/go/logger/localhandler.go
index 1673429dc62..88e03afe4cf 100644
--- a/go/logger/localhandler.go
+++ b/go/logger/localhandler.go
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"log/slog"
+	"os"
 	"strings"
 
 	"github.com/charmbracelet/lipgloss"
@@ -26,17 +27,35 @@ var (
 )
 
 type localHandler struct {
-	w io.Writer
+	w     io.Writer
+	level slog.Level
 }
 
+var _ slog.Handler = (*localHandler)(nil)
+
 func newLocalHandler(w io.Writer) *localHandler {
+	level := slog.LevelInfo
+	if lvl := os.Getenv("LOG_LEVEL"); lvl != "" {
+		switch strings.ToLower(lvl) {
+		case "debug":
+			level = slog.LevelDebug
+		case "info":
+			level = slog.LevelInfo
+		case "warn":
+			level = slog.LevelWarn
+		case "error":
+			level = slog.LevelError
+		}
+	}
+
 	return &localHandler{
-		w: w,
+		w:     w,
+		level: level,
 	}
 }
 
-func (h *localHandler) Enabled(_ context.Context, _ slog.Level) bool {
-	return true
+func (h *localHandler) Enabled(_ context.Context, level slog.Level) bool {
+	return level >= h.level
 }
 
 func (h *localHandler) Handle(_ context.Context, r slog.Record) error {