nestjs-node-rdkafka

A lightweight NestJS module for consuming Kafka messages using node-rdkafka, with a decorator-based API inspired by @EventPattern.

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📦 Installation

npm install nestjs-node-rdkafka

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🚀 Quick Start

1. Create a handler class

import { Controller } from '@nestjs/common';
import { KafkaHandler } from 'nestjs-rdkafka';

@Controller()
export class UserEventsController {
  @KafkaHandler('users-topic')
  handleUserCreated(message: string) {
    console.log('User event received:', message);
  }
}

2. Register the Kafka module

Using the default connector:

import { Module } from '@nestjs/common';
import { KafkaModule } from 'nestjs-rdkafka';
import { UserEventsController } from './user-events.controller';

@Module({
  imports: [
    KafkaModule.register({
      consumerConfig: {
        'group.id': 'my-group',
        'metadata.broker.list': 'localhost:9092',
      },
      topicConfig: {
        'auto.offset.reset': 'earliest',
      },
      handlers: [UserEventsController],
    }),
  ],
})
export class AppModule {}

Using a custom connector:

import { Module } from '@nestjs/common';
import { KafkaModule } from 'nestjs-rdkafka';
import { CustomKafkaConnector } from './custom-kafka.connector';
import { UserEventsController } from './user-events.controller';

@Module({
  imports: [
    KafkaModule.register({
      connector: new CustomKafkaConnector({
        consumerConfig: {
          'group.id': 'my-group',
          'metadata.broker.list': 'localhost:9092',
        },
        topicConfig: {
          'auto.offset.reset': 'earliest',
        },
      }),
      handlers: [UserEventsController],
    }),
  ],
})
export class AppModule {}

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🧰 API

KafkaModule.register(options)

Option	Type	Description
connector	IKafkaConnector	Custom Kafka connector implementation (optional)
consumerConfig	object	Required when using default connector, passed directly to node-rdkafka consumer
topicConfig	object (optional)	Topic config for the consumer
handlers	any[]	List of classes containing @KafkaHandler() methods

@KafkaHandler(topic: string)

Method decorator that binds a method to a Kafka topic. The method receives the raw string message payload.

Implementing a custom connector

import { IKafkaConnector, KafkaConnectorConfig, KafkaMessage } from 'nestjs-rdkafka';

export class CustomKafkaConnector implements IKafkaConnector {
  constructor(private readonly config: KafkaConnectorConfig) {
    // Initialize your custom Kafka client here
  }

  async connect(): Promise<void> {
    // Implement connection logic
  }

  async disconnect(): Promise<void> {
    // Implement disconnection logic
  }

  async subscribe(topics: string[]): Promise<void> {
    // Implement subscription logic
  }

  onMessage(handler: (message: KafkaMessage) => Promise<void>): void {
    // Set message handler
  }

  onError(handler: (error: Error) => void): void {
    // Set error handler
  }
}

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🔄 Roadmap

• JSON deserialization
• DTO + class-validator support
• Message retry & error handling
• Middleware-like message interceptors

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📄 License

MIT