Overview¶

kafka-mcp is the API + MCP server + A2A agent for Apache Kafka in the Arbora ecosystem. It wraps the Confluent REST Proxy (and, optionally, the native broker protocol) in typed, deterministic tools that an agent or policy router can call.

The tool surface¶

Action-dispatch MCP tools cover the full Kafka surface. Each accepts an action plus a JSON params_json payload:

Tool	Resource	Representative actions
`kafka_topics`	Topics & configs	`list`, `create`, `describe`, `delete`, `configs`, `update_config`
`kafka_partitions`	Partitions	`list`, `get`
`kafka_records`	Produce / consume	`produce`, `create_consumer`, `subscribe`, `consume`, `commit`, `delete_consumer`
`kafka_groups`	Consumer groups	`list`, `describe`, `consumers`, `lag_summary`, `lags`
`kafka_cluster`	Clusters, brokers, ACLs	`list_clusters`, `get_cluster`, `list_brokers`, `get_broker`, `broker_configs`, `list_acls`, `create_acl`, `delete_acls`
`kafka_native`	Direct-to-broker	`produce`, `consume`, `create_topic`, `delete_topic`, `list_topics`, `list_groups`
`kafka_connect`	Kafka Connect connectors	`list`, `get`, `create`, `update`, `delete`, `status`, `restart`, `pause`, `resume`, `offsets`
`kafka_connect_plugins`	Connect plugins (read-only)	—

Plus three standalone CDC read tools — kafka_cdc_topic_map, kafka_cdc_lag, kafka_cdc_slot_health — and the ingest tools kafka_ingest_catalog / kafka_ingest_cdc_topology. See deployment.md for the Kafka Connect + CDC surface's environment contract.

The REST contract¶

KafkaApi targets the Confluent REST Proxy v3 for administration and v3 produce, with v2 helpers for the consumer-instance lifecycle:

Clusters / topics / partitions / brokers / ACLs — GET|POST|DELETE v3/clusters/{cluster}/….
Produce — POST v3/clusters/{cluster}/topics/{topic}/records with a typed value/key (STRING, JSON, BINARY, AVRO, JSONSCHEMA, PROTOBUF).
Consume — the v2 instance lifecycle: create_consumer → subscribe → consume (poll) → commit → delete_consumer.

The active cluster id is resolved lazily and cached — honor KAFKA_CLUSTER_ID to pin it, otherwise the first cluster returned by list_clusters is used.

Where to go next¶

Installation — pip, extras, Docker image.
Deployment — transports, Compose, the agent server, Caddy, DNS.
Usage — the tools, the KafkaApi client, the CLI.
Architecture — the layered client and tool surface.