kantrip 0.1.0a1

Kantrip securely manages local Kafka profiles for command-line tools and compatible applications.

Kantrip is in active pre-release development. The current CLI loads and validates profiles, displays their non-secret metadata, and opens plaintext profile sessions for kcat, the official Apache Kafka CLIs, Kaskade, and compatible applications.

Features

Plaintext profiles

• Schema-validated YAML configuration with atomic profile updates
• Multiple bootstrap servers, descriptions, labels, and client properties
• add, remove, list, and redacted show commands

Local diagnostics

• Configuration, permissions, profile, platform, shell, and session checks
• Installed-command discovery for Kantrip's supported adapters
• Colored status output with plain-text and NO_COLOR support

CLI sessions

• Native kcat configuration through a private, temporary KCAT_CONFIG file
• Profile-aware official Apache Kafka commands, with and without .sh
• Private client-file integration for Kaskade admin and consumer modes
• Consistent Bash, Zsh, and Fish subshells plus one-off command execution
• Child exit-status preservation and automatic session cleanup

Terminal experience

• Rich-based Arcana theme with semantic colors
• Clean stdout/stderr separation
• NO_COLOR, TERM=dumb, --no-color, and non-TTY behavior

Roadmap

Kantrip's MVP grows from today's plaintext local workflow in three steps:

1. Harden profile sessions and add local credential-store integration.
2. Add TLS and authenticated Kafka profiles and adapters.
3. Add kantrip ping, followed by Schema Registry and OAuth integration.

See the MVP roadmap for scope, ordering, and explicit non-goals.

Quick start

pipx

pipx install kantrip

First profile session

kantrip add local
kantrip doctor
kantrip list
kantrip show local
kantrip exec local -- kcat -L
kantrip exec local -- kafka-topics --list
kantrip exec local -- kaskade admin

Omit the command to work in a profile-scoped interactive subshell:

kantrip exec local
kantrip current
kcat -L
kafka-topics --list
exit

add creates ~/.config/kantrip/config.yaml when necessary and adds a plaintext profile for localhost:9092. Pass --bootstrap-server HOST:PORT to choose a different broker. Use kantrip remove PROFILE to remove one. kantrip list prints no profile rows when the configuration is absent or empty.

Command compatibility

See the command compatibility guide for supported tools, versions, features, and known limitations.

Usage

For configuration and usage examples, see the Kantrip usage guide.

Development

For development instructions, see the Kantrip development guide.

Releases

See GitHub Releases for release notes and downloadable artifacts.

Questions

For Q&A, go to GitHub Discussions.

Security

Report suspected vulnerabilities privately by following the Kantrip security policy.

Donations

If Kantrip is useful to you, consider supporting its development on GitHub Sponsors.

AI Assistance

This project uses AI-assisted development tools. Some code and documentation may be generated or revised with AI assistance. All AI-assisted changes are reviewed and tested by the maintainer before they are included.

Acknowledgements