Kafka Cheatsheet - Essential Commands for Apache Kafka

Master Kafka with our comprehensive cheatsheet. Learn essential commands for creating, listing, describing, producing, and consuming messages in Apache Kafka topics.

Kafka Cheatsheet

Kafka Essential Commands

Kafka is a distributed system consisting of servers and clients that communicate via a high-performance TCP network protocol. This cheatsheet provides essential commands for managing and interacting with Apache Kafka topics.

List Kafka Topics

View all available topics in your Kafka cluster.

kafka-topics --list --bootstrap-server kafka-broker:9092

Create a New Kafka Topic

Create a new topic with specified configurations.

kafka-topics --create --topic test-topic --bootstrap-server kafka-broker:9092 --partitions 3 --replication-factor 1

Describe Kafka Topic Details

Get detailed information about a specific Kafka topic, including partitions, replicas, and leader information.

kafka-topics --describe --topic test-topic --bootstrap-server kafka-broker:9092

Produce Messages to Kafka Topic

Send messages to a Kafka topic using the console producer.

echo "hello" | kafka-console-producer --bootstrap-server kafka-broker:9092 --topic test-topic

Produce JSON Messages to a Kafka topic:

cat > file.json << EOF
{ "id": 1, "first_name": "John"}
{ "id": 2, "first_name": "Peter"}
{ "id": 3, "first_name": "Nate"}
{ "id": 4, "first_name": "Frank"}
EOF

kafka-console-producer --bootstrap-server kafka-broker:9092 --topic test-topic < file.json

Consume Messages from Kafka Topic

Read messages as they arrive in a Kafka topic.

kafka-console-consumer --bootstrap-server kafka-broker:9092 --topic test-topic

Read all messages from the beginning of a Kafka topic:

kafka-console-consumer --bootstrap-server kafka-ops:9092 --topic test-topic --from-beginning

Count Messages in a Kafka Topic

Calculate the total number of messages in a Kafka topic.

kafka-run-class kafka.tools.GetOffsetShell --bootstrap-server kafka-broker:9092 --topic test-topic | awk -F  ":" '{sum += $3} END {print "Result: "sum}'

External Resources