diff --git a/janus_core/cli.py b/janus_core/cli.py
index 4569531a..9a146c4b 100644
--- a/janus_core/cli.py
+++ b/janus_core/cli.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 """Set up commandline interface."""
 
 import ast
+from pathlib import Path
 from typing import Annotated
 
 import typer
@@ -107,7 +108,7 @@ def singlepoint(
         ),
     ] = None,
     log_file: Annotated[
-        str, typer.Option("--log", help="File to save logs")
+        Path, typer.Option("--log", help="Path to save logs to")
     ] = "singlepoint.log",
 ):
     """
@@ -130,8 +131,8 @@ def singlepoint(
         Keyword arguments to pass to the selected calculator. Default is {}.
     write_kwargs : Optional[dict[str, Any]]
         Keyword arguments to pass to ase.io.write when saving results. Default is {}.
-    log_file : Optional[str]
-        Name of log file to write logs to. Default is "singlepoint.log".
+    log_file : Optional[Path]
+        Path to write logs to. Default is "singlepoint.log".
     """
     read_kwargs = read_kwargs.value if read_kwargs else {}
     calc_kwargs = calc_kwargs.value if calc_kwargs else {}
diff --git a/janus_core/janus_types.py b/janus_core/janus_types.py
index 83e06d0b..810b323f 100644
--- a/janus_core/janus_types.py
+++ b/janus_core/janus_types.py
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ class ASEOptRunArgs(TypedDict, total=False):
     steps: int
 
 
-class Log(Enum):
+class LogLevel(Enum):
     """Supported options for logger levels."""
 
     DEBUG = logging.DEBUG
@@ -67,9 +67,6 @@ class Log(Enum):
     ERROR = logging.ERROR
 
 
-LogType = Literal[Log.DEBUG, Log.INFO, Log.ERROR, Log.WARNING]
-
-
 # Janus specific
 Architectures = Literal["mace", "mace_mp", "mace_off", "m3gnet", "chgnet"]
 Devices = Literal["cpu", "cuda", "mps"]
diff --git a/janus_core/log.py b/janus_core/log.py
index 4773d9bc..1763832a 100644
--- a/janus_core/log.py
+++ b/janus_core/log.py
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
-"""Configure logger."""
+"""Configure logger with yaml-styled format."""
 
 import logging
+from typing import Optional
 
-from janus_core.janus_types import LogType
+from janus_core.janus_types import LogLevel
 
 FORMAT = """
 - timestamp: %(asctime)s
@@ -15,37 +16,40 @@
 
 def config_logger(
     name: str,
-    level: LogType = logging.INFO,
-    filename: str = "janus.log",
+    filename: Optional[str] = None,
+    level: LogLevel = logging.INFO,
     capture_warnings: bool = True,
 ):
     """
-    Configure logger.
+    Configure logger with yaml-styled format.
 
     Parameters
     ----------
     name : str
-        Name of logger.
-    level : LogType
+        Name of logger. Default is None.
+    filename : Optional[str]
+        Name of log file if writing logs. Default is None.
+    level : LogLevel
         Threshold for logger. Default is logging.INFO.
-    filename : str
-        Name of log file to write logs to. Default is "janus.log".
     capture_warnings : bool
         Whether to capture warnings in log. Default is True.
 
     Returns
     -------
-    logging.Logger
-        Configured logger.
+    Optional[logging.Logger]
+        Configured logger if `filename` has been specified.
     """
-    logger = logging.getLogger(name)
-    logging.basicConfig(
-        level=level,
-        filename=filename,
-        filemode="w",
-        format=FORMAT,
-        encoding="utf-8",
-    )
-    logging.captureWarnings(capture=capture_warnings)
-
+    if filename:
+        logger = logging.getLogger(name)
+
+        logging.basicConfig(
+            level=level,
+            filename=filename,
+            filemode="w",
+            format=FORMAT,
+            encoding="utf-8",
+        )
+        logging.captureWarnings(capture=capture_warnings)
+    else:
+        logger = None
     return logger
diff --git a/janus_core/single_point.py b/janus_core/single_point.py
index 88a217f4..60e5cb48 100644
--- a/janus_core/single_point.py
+++ b/janus_core/single_point.py
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
     Devices,
     MaybeList,
     MaybeSequence,
+    PathLike,
 )
 from janus_core.log import config_logger
 from janus_core.mlip_calculators import choose_calculator
@@ -37,7 +38,7 @@ class SinglePoint:
         Keyword arguments to pass to ase.io.read. Default is {}.
     calc_kwargs : Optional[dict[str, Any]]
         Keyword arguments to pass to the selected calculator. Default is {}.
-    log_file : Optional[str]
+    log_file : Optional[PathLike]
         Name of log file if writing logs. Default is None.
 
     Attributes
@@ -72,7 +73,7 @@ def __init__(
         device: Devices = "cpu",
         read_kwargs: Optional[ASEReadArgs] = None,
         calc_kwargs: Optional[dict[str, Any]] = None,
-        log_file: Optional[str] = None,
+        log_file: Optional[PathLike] = None,
     ) -> None:
         """
         Read the structure being simulated and attach an MLIP calculator.
@@ -90,13 +91,10 @@ def __init__(
             Keyword arguments to pass to ase.io.read. Default is {}.
         calc_kwargs : Optional[dict[str, Any]]
             Keyword arguments to pass to the selected calculator. Default is {}.
-        log_file : Optional[str]
+        log_file : Optional[PathLike]
             Name of log file if writing logs. Default is None.
         """
-        if log_file is not None:
-            self.logger = config_logger(name=__name__, filename=log_file)
-        else:
-            self.logger = None
+        self.logger = config_logger(name=__name__, filename=log_file)
 
         self.architecture = architecture
         self.device = device
@@ -279,7 +277,7 @@ def run_single_point(
         if write_kwargs and "filename" not in write_kwargs:
             raise ValueError("'filename' must be included in write_kwargs")
 
-        if self.logger is not None:
+        if self.logger:
             self.logger.info("Starting single point calculation")
 
         if "energy" in properties or len(properties) == 0:
@@ -291,7 +289,7 @@ def run_single_point(
 
         self._clean_results(properties=properties)
 
-        if self.logger is not None:
+        if self.logger:
             self.logger.info("Single point calculation complete")
 
         if write_results: