Agmen Topic Inspector for Kafka
A free and open-source Visual Studio Code extension for inspecting, searching,
monitoring, exporting, and replaying Apache Kafka topics directly from your
editor.
Every feature is available to every user. The extension does not require an
account, activation key, subscription, or external entitlement service.
Features
Topic inspection and search
- Search message values by JSON field, offset, or timestamp
- Scan from oldest to newest or newest to oldest
- Search across multiple topics
- Case-insensitive and exact field matching
- Advanced conditional filters with AND/OR logic and nested groups
- Bounded newest-first buffering to protect memory on very large topics
- Watch matching messages as they arrive
- Replay individual messages or all search results to a selected topic
- Export results to JSON or CSV
- Multiple Kafka cluster profiles with Dev, Test, and Prod labels
- Plaintext, SSL/TLS, SASL/PLAIN, SCRAM-SHA-256, and SCRAM-SHA-512
- Confluent Schema Registry integration
- Avro, Protobuf, and JSON Schema decoding through Confluent wire format
- Connection and Schema Registry secrets stored through VS Code SecretStorage
Editor experience
- Pretty-printed message values
- Find within a message with
Ctrl+F
- Resizable results and message-viewer panels
- Native VS Code light and dark theme styling
Installation
Install Agmen Topic Inspector for Kafka from the Visual Studio Marketplace,
or build a VSIX and run Extensions: Install from VSIX... from the VS Code
Command Palette.
Getting started
- Open Agmen Topic Inspector from the Activity Bar or press
Ctrl+Shift+K.
- Add a connection and enter one or more Kafka brokers.
- Configure SSL, SASL, or Schema Registry settings when required.
- Fetch topics and select one or more to inspect.
- Configure the search and select Search or Watch.
- Export or replay results when needed.
Commands
| Command |
Shortcut |
Description |
| Agmen Topic Inspector for Kafka: Open |
Ctrl+Shift+K |
Open the inspector |
| Agmen Topic Inspector for Kafka: Add Connection |
- |
Add a Kafka connection |
| Agmen Topic Inspector for Kafka: Export Results (JSON) |
- |
Export results as JSON |
| Agmen Topic Inspector for Kafka: Export Results (CSV) |
- |
Export results as CSV |
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
kafkaInspector.defaultJsonField |
value |
Message field containing the JSON payload |
kafkaInspector.sessionTimeoutMs |
30000 |
Kafka consumer session timeout in milliseconds |
Security and privacy
Connection passwords, API keys, and Schema Registry credentials are stored in
the operating system credential store through VS Code SecretStorage. They are
sent only to the Kafka clusters and Schema Registries configured by the user.
The extension does not collect or transmit telemetry or usage data.
Development
Prerequisites
- Node.js 20 or later
- VS Code 1.85 or later
- A reachable Kafka cluster for live integration testing
Setup and verification
git clone https://github.com/cristianofx/agmen-topic-inspector-for-kafka-oss.git
cd agmen-topic-inspector-for-kafka-oss
npm ci
npm run lint
npm run build
npm test
Press F5 in VS Code to open an Extension Development Host. Build an
installable Marketplace package with:
npm run package
Project structure
src/
extension.ts # Extension activation and commands
core/
models/ # Kafka, search, filter, and result models
services/ # Kafka search, watch, discovery, and schema services
providers/ # Extension-host webview providers
services/ # Connection profile storage
webview/ # Browser-side UI and message protocol
test/
suite/ # Mocha unit tests
License
Agmen Topic Inspector for Kafka is available under the MIT License. See the
LICENSE file included with the source and extension package.
