Streaming (Apache Kafka protocol)

Where this market publishes its structure

• Providers' own Kafka compatibility pages and protocol/feature tables (fetched, saved under evidence/compatibility/) machine-readable
• Providers' own contracts naming the Kafka protocol (info/tags/path descriptions) machine-readable
• AWS, Azure and Google Cloud marketplace listings (distribution, reported beside) machine-readable
• JS-rendered pages (Upstash Kafka docs, VAST Event Broker, Bufstream product page) not machine-readable: client-rendered or redirected; no text without a browser
• Conformance test running the Apache Kafka client compatibility suite against each endpoint not machine-readable: no register exists; not built

Own = declares at least one integration itself; covered = visible only because an aggregator, standards body, regulator or partner contract names it; distribution-only = listed only on cloud marketplaces it sells through, a channel reported beside, never counted as its own declared integrations; undeclared = nothing we can read, so no number; declares_compatibility = providers with a `compatible` shape vote, report only (kin, 2026-10-13): never counted as own, never in depth or position.

Leaders by position (provisional)

Provisional: grouped by position, depth compared within a position only. Distribution (cloud marketplaces) and iPaaS bridges are counted beside position, never inside it. Unknown-builder listings are left out of position shares and counted here.

covered 2 · reached mainly through aggregators

regulated 1 · named in a regulator's register or partners' contracts

standard 3 · listed by a voluntary standard's own directory

distribution 4 · only sells through cloud marketplaces

undeclared 14 · declares nothing we can read: no number

Shape adoption report only — not weighted

Pattern: imitation, with mediation beside. Shape gravity (counted by company, one edge per provider, the best evidence kept): 9. Convergence in the cohort: 10 of 14 (71.4%) — cohort members (minus the anchor's family, mediators and rival shapes) with at least one compatible edge to the shape, read from evidence.

kafka-protocol anchor Apache Kafka · 9 adopters, 10 declared by the provider

By degree: full 5, declared-subset 4, declared-unqualified 1. By evidence: own-docs 10.

• Mediation (in front of the shape, never adopters): Kong, Gravitee, Conduktor, Aklivity
• Rival shapes (own contracts, not re-served): Apache Pulsar, RabbitMQ, NATS, AWS Kinesis, Google Cloud Pub/Sub
• In the cohort, declaring nothing we can read: CoreWeave, VAST Data, Upstash, Streambased
• Evidence ladder: conformance-register > own-docs > own-contract > own-blog > ae-structural. Degrees: full | declared-subset | declared-unqualified | interoperable-subset | same-vocabulary-own-path.