diff --git a/packages/kbn-dev-utils/src/run/run.ts b/packages/kbn-dev-utils/src/run/run.ts
index 894db0d3fdadb..029d428565163 100644
--- a/packages/kbn-dev-utils/src/run/run.ts
+++ b/packages/kbn-dev-utils/src/run/run.ts
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ import { inspect } from 'util';
 // @ts-ignore @types are outdated and module is super simple
 import exitHook from 'exit-hook';
 
-import { pickLevelFromFlags, ToolingLog } from '../tooling_log';
+import { pickLevelFromFlags, ToolingLog, LogLevel } from '../tooling_log';
 import { createFlagError, isFailError } from './fail';
 import { Flags, getFlags, getHelp } from './flags';
 import { ProcRunner, withProcRunner } from '../proc_runner';
@@ -38,6 +38,9 @@ type RunFn = (args: {
 export interface Options {
   usage?: string;
   description?: string;
+  log?: {
+    defaultLevel?: LogLevel;
+  };
   flags?: {
     allowUnexpected?: boolean;
     guessTypesForUnexpectedFlags?: boolean;
@@ -58,7 +61,9 @@ export async function run(fn: RunFn, options: Options = {}) {
   }
 
   const log = new ToolingLog({
-    level: pickLevelFromFlags(flags),
+    level: pickLevelFromFlags(flags, {
+      default: options.log?.defaultLevel,
+    }),
     writeTo: process.stdout,
   });
 
diff --git a/packages/kbn-test/src/functional_test_runner/cli.ts b/packages/kbn-test/src/functional_test_runner/cli.ts
index 2a8e0c3d7de9a..d744be9467311 100644
--- a/packages/kbn-test/src/functional_test_runner/cli.ts
+++ b/packages/kbn-test/src/functional_test_runner/cli.ts
@@ -113,6 +113,9 @@ export function runFtrCli() {
       }
     },
     {
+      log: {
+        defaultLevel: 'debug',
+      },
       flags: {
         string: [
           'config',
@@ -126,7 +129,6 @@ export function runFtrCli() {
         boolean: ['bail', 'invert', 'test-stats', 'updateBaselines', 'throttle', 'headless'],
         default: {
           config: 'test/functional/config.js',
-          debug: true,
         },
         help: `
         --config=path      path to a config file