Apache Kafka

Apache Kafka is an open-source distributed event streaming platform used by thousands of companies for high-performance data pipelines, streaming analytics, data integration, and mission-critical applications. It provides a REST Proxy API, Kafka Connect REST API, and AsyncAPI for event streaming.

Apache Kafka publishes 12 APIs on the APIs.io network, including Messaging API, ACL API, Broker API, and 9 more. Tagged areas include Distributed Systems, Event Streaming, Messaging, Open Source, and Pub-Sub.

The Apache Kafka catalog on APIs.io includes 1 event-driven AsyncAPI specification, 5 JSON-LD contexts, and 3 Spectral governance rulesets.

Apache Kafka’s developer surface includes CLI, changelog, documentation, getting-started guide, engineering blog, and 32 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub

53.3/100 developing ▼ -6.0 Agent 54/100 agent ready Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6

AccessFreemium

12 APIs 1 MCP Servers 7 Features 5 Use Cases

Distributed SystemsEvent StreamingMessagingOpen SourcePub-Sub

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6

Composite quality — 53.3/100 · developing

Contract Quality 15.3 / 25

Developer Ergonomics 7.4 / 20

Commercial Clarity 10.0 / 20

Operational Transparency 6.8 / 13

Governance 9.6 / 12

Discoverability 8.3 / 10

Agent readiness — 54/100 · agent ready

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

MCP Server 12 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 0 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 8 / 8

Request/Response Examples 7 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7

Typed Event Surface 6 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 4 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 3 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/apache-kafka: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

APIs 12

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

Apache Kafka Messaging API

The core Kafka messaging protocol for producing and consuming records to/from topics using the native Kafka binary protocol, supporting exactly-once semantics, compaction, and p...

Apache Kafka ACL API

The ACL API from Apache Kafka — 1 operation(s) for acl.

Apache Kafka Broker API

The Broker API from Apache Kafka — 1 operation(s) for broker.

Apache Kafka Cluster API

The Cluster API from Apache Kafka — 3 operation(s) for cluster.

Apache Kafka Connectors API

The Connectors API from Apache Kafka — 8 operation(s) for connectors.

Apache Kafka Consumer Group API

The Consumer Group API from Apache Kafka — 2 operation(s) for consumer group.

Apache Kafka Offsets API

The Offsets API from Apache Kafka — 1 operation(s) for offsets.

Apache Kafka Partition API

The Partition API from Apache Kafka — 1 operation(s) for partition.

Apache Kafka Plugins API

The Plugins API from Apache Kafka — 2 operation(s) for plugins.

Apache Kafka Records API

The Records API from Apache Kafka — 1 operation(s) for records.

Apache Kafka Tasks API

The Tasks API from Apache Kafka — 3 operation(s) for tasks.

Apache Kafka Topic API

The Topic API from Apache Kafka — 2 operation(s) for topic.

Scroll for all 12

Open Collections 2

Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).

Kafka Connect REST API

OPEN COLLECTION

Confluent Kafka REST Proxy API

OPEN COLLECTION

Arazzo Workflows 12

Multi-step API workflows described with the Arazzo specification.

Scroll for all 12

MCP Servers 1

Model Context Protocol servers that expose these APIs to AI agents.

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Apache Kafka Rate Limits

5 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

Apache Kafka Finops

FINOPS

Features 7

Notable capabilities this provider offers.

High Throughput

Handle millions of messages per second with low latency at massive scale.

Exactly-Once Semantics

Guarantee exactly-once message delivery with idempotent producers and transactional APIs.

Distributed Replication

Automatic replication across brokers for fault tolerance and high availability.

Stream Processing

Real-time stream processing via Kafka Streams library and KSQL.

Connector Ecosystem

200+ pre-built Kafka Connect connectors for databases, clouds, and SaaS.

Log Compaction

Retain the latest value for each key with topic log compaction.

Consumer Groups

Horizontally scalable consumers with automatic partition rebalancing.

Scroll for all 7

JSON Schema 19

Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.

Scroll for all 19

JSON Structure 17

JSON Structure definitions describing this provider's data shapes.

Scroll for all 17

Examples 17

Example request and response payloads for these APIs.

Scroll for all 17

AGENTIC

Use Cases 5

What developers build with this provider.

Event-Driven Architecture

Build event-driven microservices with reliable message delivery.

Data Pipeline

Move data between systems at scale with exactly-once delivery guarantees.

Real-Time Analytics

Process and analyze event streams in real time with Kafka Streams.

Log Aggregation

Centralize application and infrastructure logs for analysis and alerting.

CDC (Change Data Capture)

Capture database changes and stream them to data warehouses and caches.

Integrations 6

Pre-built integrations with other platforms and tools.

Apache Spark

Spark Structured Streaming integration for batch and streaming analytics.

Apache Flink

Native Flink Kafka connector for low-latency stream processing.

Debezium

CDC platform using Kafka Connect to capture database change events.

Elasticsearch

Kafka Connect Elasticsearch sink for indexing event data.

Amazon S3

Kafka Connect S3 sink for archiving event streams to object storage.

Apache Hadoop

HDFS sink connector for streaming data into Hadoop data lake.

Resources

Get Started 1

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

GettingStarted

GettingStarted

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

Agent Surfaces 4

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

MCPServer

LLMsTxt

WellKnown

Design & Contract 20

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

ErrorCatalog

Lifecycle

Conventions

DataModel

Conformance

Versioning

SpectralRules

Vocabulary

Arazzo

Arazzo

Arazzo

Arazzo

Arazzo

Arazzo

Arazzo

Arazzo

Arazzo

Arazzo

Arazzo

Arazzo

Scroll for all 20

Build 4

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

Packages

Packages

CLI

CLI

GitHubOrganization

GitHubOrganization

GitHubRepository

GitHubRepository

Access & Security 3

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

SecurityTxt

SecurityTxt

VulnerabilityDisclosure

VulnerabilityDisclosure

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Operate 1

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

ChangeLog

ChangeLog

Commercial 1

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

TermsOfService

TermsOfService

Company 2

The organization behind the API

LinkedIn

Blog

Blog

Source (apis.yml)

aid: apache-kafka
name: Apache Kafka
description: Apache Kafka is an open-source distributed event streaming platform used by thousands of companies for high-performance
  data pipelines, streaming analytics, data integration, and mission-critical applications. It provides a REST Proxy API,
  Kafka Connect REST API, and AsyncAPI for event streaming.
type: Index
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Freemium
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - plans
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
position: Consumer
access: 3rd-Party
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/apache-kafka.png
tags:
- Distributed Systems
- Event Streaming
- Messaging
- Open Source
- Pub-Sub
created: '2025-06-05'
modified: '2026-06-20'
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/apache-kafka/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
- aid: apache-kafka:kafka-messaging-api
  name: Apache Kafka Messaging API
  description: The core Kafka messaging protocol for producing and consuming records to/from topics using the native Kafka
    binary protocol, supporting exactly-once semantics, compaction, and partitioned log storage.
  humanURL: https://kafka.apache.org/documentation/#producerapi
  tags:
  - Messaging
  - Pub-Sub
  - Streaming
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://kafka.apache.org/documentation/
  - type: AsyncAPI
    url: asyncapi/kafka-messaging.yml
- aid: apache-kafka:apache-kafka-acl-api
  name: Apache Kafka ACL API
  description: The ACL API from Apache Kafka — 1 operation(s) for acl.
  humanURL: https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka-rest/
  baseURL: http://localhost:8082
  tags:
  - ACL
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/apache-kafka-acl-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka-rest/api.html
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://kafka.apache.org/documentation/#connect_rest
- aid: apache-kafka:apache-kafka-broker-api
  name: Apache Kafka Broker API
  description: The Broker API from Apache Kafka — 1 operation(s) for broker.
  humanURL: https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka-rest/
  baseURL: http://localhost:8082
  tags:
  - Broker
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/apache-kafka-broker-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka-rest/api.html
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://kafka.apache.org/documentation/#connect_rest
- aid: apache-kafka:apache-kafka-cluster-api
  name: Apache Kafka Cluster API
  description: The Cluster API from Apache Kafka — 3 operation(s) for cluster.
  humanURL: https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka-rest/
  baseURL: http://localhost:8082
  tags:
  - Cluster
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/apache-kafka-cluster-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka-rest/api.html
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://kafka.apache.org/documentation/#connect_rest
- aid: apache-kafka:apache-kafka-connectors-api
  name: Apache Kafka Connectors API
  description: The Connectors API from Apache Kafka — 8 operation(s) for connectors.
  humanURL: https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka-rest/
  baseURL: http://localhost:8082
  tags:
  - Connectors
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/apache-kafka-connectors-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka-rest/api.html
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://kafka.apache.org/documentation/#connect_rest
- aid: apache-kafka:apache-kafka-consumer-group-api
  name: Apache Kafka Consumer Group API
  description: The Consumer Group API from Apache Kafka — 2 operation(s) for consumer group.
  humanURL: https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka-rest/
  baseURL: http://localhost:8082
  tags:
  - Consumer Group
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/apache-kafka-consumer-group-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka-rest/api.html
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://kafka.apache.org/documentation/#connect_rest
- aid: apache-kafka:apache-kafka-offsets-api
  name: Apache Kafka Offsets API
  description: The Offsets API from Apache Kafka — 1 operation(s) for offsets.
  humanURL: https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka-rest/
  baseURL: http://localhost:8082
  tags:
  - Offsets
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/apache-kafka-offsets-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka-rest/api.html
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://kafka.apache.org/documentation/#connect_rest
- aid: apache-kafka:apache-kafka-partition-api
  name: Apache Kafka Partition API
  description: The Partition API from Apache Kafka — 1 operation(s) for partition.
  humanURL: https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka-rest/
  baseURL: http://localhost:8082
  tags:
  - Partition
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/apache-kafka-partition-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka-rest/api.html
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://kafka.apache.org/documentation/#connect_rest
- aid: apache-kafka:apache-kafka-plugins-api
  name: Apache Kafka Plugins API
  description: The Plugins API from Apache Kafka — 2 operation(s) for plugins.
  humanURL: https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka-rest/
  baseURL: http://localhost:8082
  tags:
  - Plugins
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/apache-kafka-plugins-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka-rest/api.html
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://kafka.apache.org/documentation/#connect_rest
- aid: apache-kafka:apache-kafka-records-api
  name: Apache Kafka Records API
  description: The Records API from Apache Kafka — 1 operation(s) for records.
  humanURL: https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka-rest/
  baseURL: http://localhost:8082
  tags:
  - Records
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/apache-kafka-records-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka-rest/api.html
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://kafka.apache.org/documentation/#connect_rest
- aid: apache-kafka:apache-kafka-tasks-api
  name: Apache Kafka Tasks API
  description: The Tasks API from Apache Kafka — 3 operation(s) for tasks.
  humanURL: https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka-rest/
  baseURL: http://localhost:8082
  tags:
  - Tasks
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/apache-kafka-tasks-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka-rest/api.html
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://kafka.apache.org/documentation/#connect_rest
- aid: apache-kafka:apache-kafka-topic-api
  name: Apache Kafka Topic API
  description: The Topic API from Apache Kafka — 2 operation(s) for topic.
  humanURL: https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka-rest/
  baseURL: http://localhost:8082
  tags:
  - Topic
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/apache-kafka-topic-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka-rest/api.html
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://kafka.apache.org/documentation/#connect_rest
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/apache-kafka-agentic-access.yml
- type: Packages
  url: packages/apache-kafka-packages.yml
- type: CLI
  url: cli/apache-kafka-cli.yml
- type: MCPServer
  url: mcp/apache-kafka-mcp.yml
- type: LLMsTxt
  url: llms/apache-kafka-llms.txt
- type: WellKnown
  url: well-known/apache-kafka-well-known.yml
- type: SecurityTxt
  url: well-known/apache-kafka-security.txt
- type: ErrorCatalog
  url: errors/apache-kafka-error-codes.yml
- type: Lifecycle
  url: lifecycle/apache-kafka-lifecycle.yml
- type: ChangeLog
  url: changelog/apache-kafka-changelog.yml
- type: Conventions
  url: conventions/apache-kafka-conventions.yml
- type: DataModel
  url: data-model/apache-kafka-data-model.yml
- type: Conformance
  url: conformance/apache-kafka-conformance.yml
- type: VulnerabilityDisclosure
  url: security/apache-kafka-vulnerability-disclosure.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/apache-kafka-domain-security.yml
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/apachekafka
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/apache
- type: GitHubRepository
  url: https://github.com/apache/kafka
- type: Documentation
  url: https://kafka.apache.org/documentation/
- type: GettingStarted
  url: https://kafka.apache.org/quickstart
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
- type: Versioning
  url: https://kafka.apache.org/downloads
- type: SpectralRules
  url: rules/apache-kafka-spectral-rules.yml
- type: Vocabulary
  url: vocabulary/apache-kafka-vocabulary.yaml
- type: Arazzo
  url: arazzo/apache-kafka-connector-validate-deploy-workflow.yml
  name: Apache Kafka Validate and Deploy a Connector
- type: Arazzo
  url: arazzo/apache-kafka-connector-health-triage-workflow.yml
  name: Apache Kafka Triage a Failed Connector
- type: Arazzo
  url: arazzo/apache-kafka-connector-config-update-workflow.yml
  name: Apache Kafka Update a Connector Configuration
- type: Arazzo
  url: arazzo/apache-kafka-connector-maintenance-pause-resume-workflow.yml
  name: Apache Kafka Pause and Resume a Connector for Maintenance
- type: Arazzo
  url: arazzo/apache-kafka-connector-offset-rewind-workflow.yml
  name: Apache Kafka Rewind Connector Offsets
- type: Arazzo
  url: arazzo/apache-kafka-connector-offset-reset-workflow.yml
  name: Apache Kafka Reset Connector Offsets
- type: Arazzo
  url: arazzo/apache-kafka-connector-decommission-workflow.yml
  name: Apache Kafka Decommission a Connector
- type: Arazzo
  url: arazzo/apache-kafka-topic-provision-produce-workflow.yml
  name: Apache Kafka Provision a Topic and Produce a Record
- type: Arazzo
  url: arazzo/apache-kafka-topic-capacity-review-workflow.yml
  name: Apache Kafka Review Cluster and Topic Capacity
- type: Arazzo
  url: arazzo/apache-kafka-consumer-group-lag-review-workflow.yml
  name: Apache Kafka Review Consumer Group Lag
- type: Arazzo
  url: arazzo/apache-kafka-topic-acl-grant-workflow.yml
  name: Apache Kafka Grant a Principal Access to a Topic
- type: Arazzo
  url: arazzo/apache-kafka-topic-decommission-workflow.yml
  name: Apache Kafka Decommission a Topic
- type: Features
  data:
  - name: High Throughput
    description: Handle millions of messages per second with low latency at massive scale.
  - name: Exactly-Once Semantics
    description: Guarantee exactly-once message delivery with idempotent producers and transactional APIs.
  - name: Distributed Replication
    description: Automatic replication across brokers for fault tolerance and high availability.
  - name: Stream Processing
    description: Real-time stream processing via Kafka Streams library and KSQL.
  - name: Connector Ecosystem
    description: 200+ pre-built Kafka Connect connectors for databases, clouds, and SaaS.
  - name: Log Compaction
    description: Retain the latest value for each key with topic log compaction.
  - name: Consumer Groups
    description: Horizontally scalable consumers with automatic partition rebalancing.
- type: UseCases
  data:
  - name: Event-Driven Architecture
    description: Build event-driven microservices with reliable message delivery.
  - name: Data Pipeline
    description: Move data between systems at scale with exactly-once delivery guarantees.
  - name: Real-Time Analytics
    description: Process and analyze event streams in real time with Kafka Streams.
  - name: Log Aggregation
    description: Centralize application and infrastructure logs for analysis and alerting.
  - name: CDC (Change Data Capture)
    description: Capture database changes and stream them to data warehouses and caches.
- type: Integrations
  data:
  - name: Apache Spark
    description: Spark Structured Streaming integration for batch and streaming analytics.
  - name: Apache Flink
    description: Native Flink Kafka connector for low-latency stream processing.
  - name: Debezium
    description: CDC platform using Kafka Connect to capture database change events.
  - name: Elasticsearch
    description: Kafka Connect Elasticsearch sink for indexing event data.
  - name: Amazon S3
    description: Kafka Connect S3 sink for archiving event streams to object storage.
  - name: Apache Hadoop
    description: HDFS sink connector for streaming data into Hadoop data lake.
- url: https://www.confluent.io/rss.xml
  type: Blog
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: info@apievangelist.com

Apache Kafka

APIs 12

Open Collections 2

Arazzo Workflows 12

MCP Servers 1

Pricing Plans 1

Rate Limits 1

FinOps 1

Features 7

High Throughput

Exactly-Once Semantics

Distributed Replication

Stream Processing

Connector Ecosystem

Log Compaction

Consumer Groups

Event Specifications 1

Semantic Vocabularies 5

Spectral Rules 3

JSON Schema 19

JSON Structure 17

Examples 17

Security Posture 2

Agentic Access 1

Use Cases 5

Event-Driven Architecture

Data Pipeline

Real-Time Analytics

Log Aggregation

CDC (Change Data Capture)

Integrations 6

Apache Spark

Apache Flink

Debezium

Elasticsearch

Amazon S3

Apache Hadoop

Get Started 1

Documentation 1

Agent Surfaces 4

Design & Contract 20

Build 4

Access & Security 3

Operate 1