kafka-viewer

kafka-viewer is a lightweight local Streamlit UI for inspecting messages in an unsecured Kafka cluster. Kafka connection details come from a local properties file, and the viewer does not commit consumer offsets.

Installation

pip install kafka-viewer

Configuration

Create a local properties file named kafka-viewer.properties:

kafka.bootstrap.servers=localhost:9092

The configuration remains local to your machine.

Usage

The --config option is required:

kafka-viewer-unsecured --config /path/to/kafka-viewer.properties

Windows:

kafka-viewer-unsecured --config C:\path\to\kafka-viewer.properties

The UI lets you check Kafka connection status, discover and select topics, enter or generate a temporary consumer group ID, and load:

• The latest N messages.
• Messages from the beginning.
• Messages from a date/time.
• Messages within a date/time range.

Loaded messages show the partition, offset, timestamp, key, and message value. Messages can be expanded to view the complete message value, including formatted JSON when applicable.

V1 limitations

V1 supports unsecured Kafka only. It does not support:

• Kafka authentication or security configuration.
• Avro, Schema Registry, or Protobuf.
• Publishing messages.
• Topic or consumer-group administration.
• Multiple Kafka clusters.

Development

python -m pytest
python -m build