feat: Add public mask_matches(text, matches) method to AbstractMaskedLogger

[W0lfbane]

Problem

maskerlogger 1.1.1 provides excellent secret masking for log output via MaskerFormatter/MaskerFormatterJson, but consumers who need to mask arbitrary strings (not log records) have no public API to do so.

AbstractMaskedLogger._mask_secret(self, msg, matches) exists and is fully functional — it applies capture-group-aware masking with configurable redact percentage using a character-position array. However, because it is prefixed with _, it is a private API not intended for external use.

Current workarounds

Consumers must either:

1. Call _mask_secret directly — brittle, breaks on version bumps, violates encapsulation
2. Re-implement capture-group-aware masking from scratch — error-prone, duplicates your logic

Proposed solution

Promote _mask_secret to a public method, e.g.:

def mask_matches(self, text: str, matches: list[re.Match]) -> str:

Or if a broader convenience API is preferred:

def mask_text(self, text: str) -> str:
    """Find secrets in *text* and mask them."""
    matches = self.regex_matcher.match_regex_to_line(text)
    return self._mask_secret(text, matches)

Use case

Applications that collect log entries from multiple sources in a central pipeline, where masking must happen at aggregation time rather than at the individual formatter level.

Impact

Low — the implementation already exists (_mask_secret), it just needs a public name. No behavioral change to existing formatters.

[aviadlevy]

Thanks, the use case is a valid one, and we'll consider it. A couple of things we'd want to settle first:

• Just renaming _mask_secret → mask_matches(text, matches) wouldn't give a usable public API (it needs re.Match objects only the internal matcher produces). A mask_text(text) that finds matches internally is the better direction.
• The masking logic currently lives on the formatter classes, so exposing it cleanly likely means decoupling the masking core from logging rather than just flipping a method to public.

Keeping it open to gauge interest. PRs exploring the decoupled approach welcome.