diff --git a/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/config.yml b/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/config.yml
index ec1ca054..037dea16 100644
--- a/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/config.yml
+++ b/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/config.yml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-blank_issues_enabled: false
+blank_issues_enabled: true
 contact_links:
   - name: Ask a question
     url: https://github.com/opcodesio/log-viewer/discussions/new?category=q-a
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 772e1015..441f5b5d 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -3,13 +3,13 @@
 .phpunit.result.cache
 .phpunit.cache
 build
-composer.lock
-coverage
-docs
-logs
+/composer.lock
+/coverage
+/docs
+/logs
 phpunit.xml
 phpstan.neon
 testbench.yaml
-vendor
-node_modules
-tests/Feature/performance_test.log
+/vendor
+/node_modules
+/tests/Feature/performance_test.log
diff --git a/src/Logs/LaravelLog.php b/src/Logs/LaravelLog.php
index e6e48060..707ecf5f 100644
--- a/src/Logs/LaravelLog.php
+++ b/src/Logs/LaravelLog.php
@@ -108,8 +108,8 @@ protected function extractContextsFromFullText(): void
             $json_data = json_decode(trim($json_string), true);
 
             if (json_last_error() == JSON_ERROR_CTRL_CHAR) {
-                // might need to escape new lines
-                $json_data = json_decode(str_replace("\n", '\\n', $json_string), true);
+                // might need to escape new lines and carriage returns
+                $json_data = json_decode(str_replace(["\r\n", "\r", "\n"], ['\\n', '\\n', '\\n'], $json_string), true);
             }
 
             if (json_last_error() == JSON_ERROR_NONE) {
@@ -193,6 +193,10 @@ protected function getJsonStringsFromFullText(): array
 
     protected function filterStackTrace(string $text): string
     {
+        // Normalize line endings for cross-platform compatibility
+        $text = str_replace("\r\n", "\n", $text);
+        $text = str_replace("\r", "\n", $text);
+
         $lines = explode("\n", $text);
         $filteredLines = [];
         $emptyLineCharacter = '    ...';
diff --git a/tests/Unit/LaravelLogs/LaravelLogsTest.php b/tests/Unit/LaravelLogs/LaravelLogsTest.php
index 65de5bcc..458e062a 100644
--- a/tests/Unit/LaravelLogs/LaravelLogsTest.php
+++ b/tests/Unit/LaravelLogs/LaravelLogsTest.php
@@ -255,3 +255,67 @@
             'size_formatted' => Utils::bytesForHumans(strlen($messageString) - strlen('[2023-08-24 15:51:14] local.DEBUG: ')),
         ]);
 });
+
+it('filters stack traces in context when shorter stack traces is enabled', function () {
+    session(['log-viewer:shorter-stack-traces' => true]);
+    config([
+        'log-viewer.shorter_stack_trace_excludes' => [
+            '/vendor/symfony/',
+            '/vendor/laravel/framework/',
+        ],
+    ]);
+
+    $stackTrace = <<<'EOF'
+#0 /app/Controllers/UserController.php(25): someFunction()
+#1 /vendor/symfony/http-kernel/HttpKernel.php(158): handle()
+#2 /vendor/laravel/framework/Illuminate/Pipeline/Pipeline.php(128): process()
+#3 /app/Middleware/CustomMiddleware.php(42): handle()
+#4 /vendor/symfony/routing/Router.php(89): route()
+#5 /app/bootstrap/app.php(15): bootstrap()
+EOF;
+
+    $logText = <<<EOF
+[2024-10-18 12:00:00] production.ERROR: Exception occurred {"exception":"$stackTrace"}
+EOF;
+
+    $log = new LaravelLog($logText);
+
+    expect($log->context)->toHaveKey('exception')
+        ->and($log->context['exception'])->toContain('#0 /app/Controllers/UserController.php(25): someFunction()')
+        ->and($log->context['exception'])->toContain('#3 /app/Middleware/CustomMiddleware.php(42): handle()')
+        ->and($log->context['exception'])->toContain('#5 /app/bootstrap/app.php(15): bootstrap()')
+        ->and($log->context['exception'])->toContain('    ...')
+        ->and($log->context['exception'])->not->toContain('/vendor/symfony/http-kernel/')
+        ->and($log->context['exception'])->not->toContain('/vendor/laravel/framework/')
+        ->and($log->context['exception'])->not->toContain('/vendor/symfony/routing/');
+});
+
+it('does not filter context when shorter stack traces is disabled', function () {
+    session(['log-viewer:shorter-stack-traces' => false]);
+    config([
+        'log-viewer.shorter_stack_trace_excludes' => [
+            '/vendor/symfony/',
+            '/vendor/laravel/framework/',
+        ],
+    ]);
+
+    $stackTrace = <<<'EOF'
+#0 /app/Controllers/UserController.php(25): someFunction()
+#1 /vendor/symfony/http-kernel/HttpKernel.php(158): handle()
+#2 /vendor/laravel/framework/Illuminate/Pipeline/Pipeline.php(128): process()
+EOF;
+
+    $logText = <<<EOF
+[2024-10-18 12:00:00] production.ERROR: Exception occurred {"exception":"$stackTrace"}
+EOF;
+
+    $log = new LaravelLog($logText);
+
+    // Normalize expected value for cross-platform comparison (heredocs may have platform line endings)
+    $expectedStackTrace = str_replace(["\r\n", "\r"], "\n", $stackTrace);
+
+    expect($log->context)->toHaveKey('exception')
+        ->and($log->context['exception'])->toBe($expectedStackTrace)
+        ->and($log->context['exception'])->toContain('/vendor/symfony/http-kernel/')
+        ->and($log->context['exception'])->toContain('/vendor/laravel/framework/');
+});