diff --git a/config/routes.rb b/config/routes.rb
index 7ffa081a..66cb62bc 100644
--- a/config/routes.rb
+++ b/config/routes.rb
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ Gitlab::Application.routes.draw do
 
   # API
   require 'api'
+  Gitlab::API.logger Rails.logger
   mount Gitlab::API => '/api'
 
   constraint = lambda { |request| request.env["warden"].authenticate? and request.env['warden'].user.admin? }
diff --git a/lib/api.rb b/lib/api.rb
index 3dd82715..15d99cc7 100644
--- a/lib/api.rb
+++ b/lib/api.rb
@@ -8,7 +8,16 @@ module Gitlab
       rack_response({'message' => '404 Not found'}.to_json, 404)
     end
 
-    rescue_from :all do
+    rescue_from :all do |exception|
+      # lifted from https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/actionpack/lib/action_dispatch/middleware/debug_exceptions.rb#L60
+      # why is this not wrapped in something reusable?
+      trace = exception.backtrace
+
+      message = "\n#{exception.class} (#{exception.message}):\n"
+      message << exception.annoted_source_code.to_s if exception.respond_to?(:annoted_source_code)
+      message << "  " << trace.join("\n  ")
+
+      API.logger.add Logger::FATAL, message 
       rack_response({'message' => '500 Internal Server Error'}, 500)
     end