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sneiko/kafkalet

A lightweight desktop Kafka client for browsing topics, streaming messages, and managing consumer groups without Docker or a JVM.

Open-source alternative to:Confluent Control CenterKafka Tool

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Last commit
8 days ago

What is it?

kafkalet is a desktop GUI for Apache Kafka, distributed as a single self-contained binary of about 15 MB that connects directly to brokers. It requires no Docker, no JVM and no running server, and runs on macOS, Windows and Linux.

The app covers both message streaming and cluster administration. Observer mode reads messages without joining a consumer group, so it leaves no offsets behind, while consumer mode joins a group and commits offsets. Users can seek by timestamp, filter live streams with regex, and export buffered messages to JSON or CSV. Admin features include creating and deleting topics, editing topic configs, inspecting consumer group lag and members, resetting offsets, and producing messages with headers and target partitions.

Authentication supports SASL PLAIN, SCRAM-SHA-256/512, OAUTHBEARER, TLS and mTLS, including JKS and PKCS12 truststores. Passwords and tokens are kept in the OS keychain rather than in config files. Profiles group brokers by environment and allow hot-swapping between them. Avro decoding works through Confluent Schema Registry, and custom JavaScript decoder plugins can handle formats such as Protobuf or MessagePack.

Key features

  • 01Observer mode reads messages without joining a consumer group or committing offsets.
  • 02Seek to a timestamp, filter live streams with regex, and export buffers to JSON or CSV.
  • 03Manage topics, consumer group lag and offsets, and produce messages with headers.
  • 04Supports SASL (PLAIN, SCRAM, OAUTHBEARER), TLS, mTLS and JKS/PKCS12 truststores.
  • 05Stores credentials in the OS keychain and organises brokers into environment profiles.
  • 06Decodes Avro via Schema Registry and supports custom JavaScript decoder plugins.

Use cases

  • Inspecting production topics safely without affecting consumer group offsets.
  • Debugging message payloads and schemas during local development against a dev cluster.
  • Connecting to a corporate Kafka cluster that requires SASL and custom truststores.
  • Monitoring consumer lag and resetting offsets during incident response.

Quick start

  1. 1

    Download the latest build from the Releases page

  2. 2

    Install the Wails CLI (needed to build from source)

    go install github.com/wailsapp/wails/v2/cmd/wails@latest
  3. 3

    Clone the repository

    git clone https://github.com/sneiko/kafkalet.git
  4. 4

    Run in development mode with hot reload

    wails dev

Things to know

  • Repository metadata lists no license, although the README states MIT; confirm the license before relying on it.
  • On Linux you must install GTK and WebKit2GTK packages first, and the README's dependency list uses webkit2gtk-4.0.
  • Corporate JKS/PKCS12 truststores require Java's keytool or OpenSSL to be installed.

Topics

#kafka#kafka-client#desktop-app#gui#cross-platform#typescript#golang#devtools#kafka-gui#kafka-ui

FAQ

What is kafkalet?
A lightweight desktop Kafka client for browsing topics, streaming messages, and managing consumer groups without Docker or a JVM. kafkalet is a desktop GUI for Apache Kafka, distributed as a single self-contained binary of about 15 MB that connects directly to brokers. It requires no Docker, no JVM and no running server, and runs on macOS, Windows and Linux.
Is kafkalet free to use? What license does it have?
kafkalet has no declared license. Its code is public, but without a license you have no explicit permission to reuse it; ask the author before relying on it.
Is kafkalet still maintained?
Actively maintained. The last commit to kafkalet was on Oct 12, 2026.
What can I use kafkalet for?
Inspecting production topics safely without affecting consumer group offsets. Debugging message payloads and schemas during local development against a dev cluster. Connecting to a corporate Kafka cluster that requires SASL and custom truststores. Monitoring consumer lag and resetting offsets during incident response.
How do I install kafkalet?
Download the latest build from the Releases page Install the Wails CLI (needed to build from source): go install github.com/wailsapp/wails/v2/cmd/wails@latest Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/sneiko/kafkalet.git Run in development mode with hot reload: wails dev
Where can I get kafkalet?
The source code and installation instructions are on GitHub: https://github.com/sneiko/kafkalet

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