Kafka CLI

A simple command-line interface for interacting with Apache Kafka.

Docker Setup

The project includes a Docker Compose configuration for setting up a local Kafka environment. To start the Kafka cluster:

docker-compose up -d

This will start:

• Zookeeper (port 2181)
• Kafka broker (port 9092)
• Kafka UI (port 8080)

You can access the Kafka UI at http://localhost:8080 to monitor topics, messages, and broker status.

To stop the Kafka cluster:

docker-compose down

Building

To build the project, run:

mvn clean package

This will create a JAR file in the target directory named kafka-cli-1.0-SNAPSHOT-jar-with-dependencies.jar.

Using the Makefile

For convenience, a Makefile is provided to simplify common operations:

# Build the project
make build

# Clean the project
make clean

# Show help
make help

# Produce a message
make produce MESSAGE="Hello, Kafka!" TOPIC=my-topic

# Consume messages
make consume TOPIC=my-topic GROUP_ID=my-consumer-group

# Run with custom arguments
make run ARGS="--bootstrap-servers kafka:9092 --topic test --consume"

# Show version
make version

# Show examples
make examples

You can customize the default values by overriding the variables:

make consume BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS=kafka:9092 TOPIC=my-topic GROUP_ID=my-group

Direct Usage

The CLI supports both producing and consuming messages from Kafka topics. Here are some examples:

Producing Messages

java -jar target/kafka-cli-1.0-SNAPSHOT-jar-with-dependencies.jar \
    --bootstrap-servers localhost:9092 \
    --topic my-topic \
    --produce \
    --message "Hello, Kafka!"

Consuming Messages

java -jar target/kafka-cli-1.0-SNAPSHOT-jar-with-dependencies.jar \
    --bootstrap-servers localhost:9092 \
    --topic my-topic \
    --consume \
    --group-id my-consumer-group

Options

• -b, --bootstrap-servers: Kafka bootstrap servers (required)
• -t, --topic: Kafka topic name (required)
• -m, --message: Message to produce
• -c, --consume: Consume messages from topic
• -g, --group-id: Consumer group ID (default: kafka-cli-group)
• -p, --produce: Produce message to topic
• -h, --help: Show help message
• -V, --version: Show version information

Usage

Setup consumer

make consume

Send message

MESSAGE=foo make produce

Requirements

• Java 11 or higher
• Maven 3.6 or higher
• Apache Kafka 3.6.1 or compatible version