diff --git a/addons/lspclient/lspclientplugin.h b/addons/lspclient/lspclientplugin.h
--- a/addons/lspclient/lspclientplugin.h
+++ b/addons/lspclient/lspclientplugin.h
@@ -59,6 +59,9 @@
         bool m_diagnosticsMark;
         QUrl m_configPath;
 
+        // debug mode?
+        bool m_debugMode = false;
+
 private:
     Q_SIGNALS:
         // signal settings update
diff --git a/addons/lspclient/lspclientplugin.cpp b/addons/lspclient/lspclientplugin.cpp
--- a/addons/lspclient/lspclientplugin.cpp
+++ b/addons/lspclient/lspclientplugin.cpp
@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@
 #include "lspclientpluginview.h"
 #include "lspclientconfigpage.h"
 
+#include "lspclient_debug.h"
+
 #include <KConfigGroup>
 #include <KDirWatch>
 #include <KPluginFactory>
@@ -51,6 +53,15 @@
 LSPClientPlugin::LSPClientPlugin(QObject *parent, const QList<QVariant> &)
     : KTextEditor::Plugin(parent)
 {
+    /**
+     * handle plugin verbosity
+     * the m_debugMode will be used to e.g. set debug level for started clangd, too
+     */
+    m_debugMode = (qgetenv("LSPCLIENT_DEBUG") == QByteArray("1"));
+    if (!m_debugMode) {
+        QLoggingCategory::setFilterRules(QStringLiteral("katelspclientplugin.debug=false\nkatelspclientplugin.info=false"));
+    }
+
     readConfig();
 }
 
diff --git a/addons/lspclient/lspclientservermanager.cpp b/addons/lspclient/lspclientservermanager.cpp
--- a/addons/lspclient/lspclientservermanager.cpp
+++ b/addons/lspclient/lspclientservermanager.cpp
@@ -547,7 +547,7 @@
                     { QStringLiteral("Python"),
                         makeServerConfig(QStringLiteral("python3 -m pyls --check-parent-process")) },
                     { QStringLiteral("C"),
-                        makeServerConfig(QStringLiteral("clangd -log=verbose --background-index")) },
+                        makeServerConfig(QStringLiteral("clangd -log=%1 --background-index").arg(m_plugin->m_debugMode ? QStringLiteral("verbose") : QStringLiteral("error"))) },
                     { QStringLiteral("C++"),
                         QJsonObject { { QStringLiteral("use"), QStringLiteral("C") } } }
                 }