y2kexplorer

kafka, but make it ps2
_{explore your kafka universe ✦ a retro-flavored Kafka TUI in Rust + ratatui}

Русская версия

y2kexplorer is a keyboard-driven terminal user interface (TUI) for exploring and operating an Apache Kafka cluster. It is an alternative in spirit to k9s, AKHQ, or Redpanda Console — but built in Rust on ratatui with a clean multi-panel layout inspired by eilmeldung.

The tool offers the following features:

• Browse topics with filter, partition metadata, and optional message counts.
• Read messages — head / tail, per-partition view, time-sorting, live follow, JSON pretty-print.
• Produce messages and create / delete topics.
• Manage consumer groups — list, lag, reset offsets, delete empty groups.
• Schema Registry — subjects, versions, Avro/JSON schema bodies.
• Kafka Connect — connectors, status, pause / resume / restart / delete.
• ACLs, local topic labels, and multi-cluster switching in-app.
• Authentication — PLAINTEXT, SASL/PLAIN, SCRAM, SSL, Kerberos (GSSAPI) via keytab.
• Four UI themes for dark or light terminals — switch at runtime with T.

Limitations

• Designed for day-to-day exploration and light operations — not a full cluster admin replacement.
• Avro schemas are displayed from Schema Registry; no embedded schema-registry client beyond HTTP browse.
• Large topic lists can be slow when message counts are enabled (see configuration).
• Pre-built Linux binaries target glibc 2.35+ (Ubuntu 22.04 era); older distros need a source build.

Getting started

mkdir -p ~/.config/y2kexplorer
cp config.example.toml ~/.config/y2kexplorer/config.toml
$EDITOR ~/.config/y2kexplorer/config.toml

y2k                            # default cluster from config
y2k --cluster <name>           # pick a named cluster
y2k-probe --cluster <name>     # connection smoke test, no TUI

Pre-built binaries for macOS arm64 and Linux x86_64 are published on the Releases page. To build from source: cargo build --release --bin y2k --bin y2k-probe --all-features.

See Installation for platform-specific steps and bundled libraries.

Try it

Note

Docker is required for the bundled local KRaft stack (SASL/PLAIN, ACL, Schema Registry, Kafka Connect demo).

git clone https://github.com/armitageee/y2kexplorer.git
cd y2kexplorer
cp config.example.toml ~/.config/y2kexplorer/config.toml

just up      # or: docker compose up -d
just dev     # or: cargo run --release -- --cluster local

Details: Local Docker stack.

Documentation

Topic	Guide
Installation	docs/en/installation.md
Configuration & auth	docs/en/configuration.md
UI themes	docs/en/themes.md
Keybindings	docs/en/keybindings.md
Local Docker stack	docs/en/docker.md
Development	docs/en/development.md

Full index: docs/README.md · docs/README.ru.md (русский).

License

MIT