Introduction

Crabka is a Rust reimplementation of Apache Kafka. It speaks the Apache Kafka wire protocol byte-for-byte (targeting the 4.3.0 message schemas), stores data in Kafka-compatible log segments, runs its metadata quorum on KRaft, and integrates with the standard JVM tooling (kafka-topics.sh, kafka-configs.sh, kafka-acls.sh, and the official Java client).

Beyond the broker, Crabka ships native Rust clients, a Kubernetes operator (Strimzi-equivalent), and a Cruise-Control-equivalent partition rebalancer.

Project status

Crabka is in beta. The Kafka-parity surface — wire protocol, storage, replication, KRaft metadata, security, authorization, quotas, the Kubernetes operator, and the rebalancer — is broad and validated byte-for-byte against the JVM, so the project has matured out of its alpha phase.

It is still greenfield and pre-1.0: undeployed, with no production users and no on-disk compatibility guarantees yet. Treat it as beta — ready for evaluation and non-critical workloads, not yet proven by production mileage. See the feature and KIP matrix in the README for exactly what is implemented today.