> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://upstash-vector.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Connect Using kcat CLI

[kcat](https://github.com/edenhill/kcat) is a generic command line non-JVM
producer and consumer for Apache Kafka. You can connect to your Upstash Kafka
cluster using `kcat`.

<Info>
  If you do not have a Kafka cluster and/or topic already, follow [these
  steps](../overall/getstarted) to create one.
</Info>

In the cluster details section of the
[Upstash Console](https://console.upstash.com) copy bootstrap endpoint, username
and password. Then replace following parameters in the code snippets below with
the actual values you copied earlier.

* `$BOOTSTRAP_ENDPOINT`
* `$UPSTASH_KAFKA_USERNAME`
* `$UPSTASH_KAFKA_PASSWORD`
* `$GROUP_ID`
* `$TOPIC_NAME`

**Query cluster metadata:**

```shell
kcat -b $BOOTSTRAP_ENDPOINT -X security.protocol=SASL_SSL \
    -X sasl.mechanisms=SCRAM-SHA-512 \
    -X sasl.username=$UPSTASH_KAFKA_USERNAME \
    -X sasl.password=$UPSTASH_KAFKA_PASSWORD \
    -L
```

**Produce a message:**

```shell
echo "Hello Upstash!" | kcat -b $BOOTSTRAP_ENDPOINT
    -X security.protocol=SASL_SSL \
    -X sasl.mechanisms=SCRAM-SHA-512 \
    -X sasl.username=$UPSTASH_KAFKA_USERNAME \
    -X sasl.password=$UPSTASH_KAFKA_PASSWORD \
    -P -t $TOPIC_NAME
```

**Fetch messages:**

```shell
kcat -b $BOOTSTRAP_ENDPOINT -X security.protocol=SASL_SSL \
    -X sasl.mechanisms=SCRAM-SHA-512 \
    -X sasl.username=$UPSTASH_KAFKA_USERNAME \
    -X sasl.password=$UPSTASH_KAFKA_PASSWORD \
    -C -t $TOPIC_NAME
```

**Consume messages using consumer groups:**

```shell
kcat -b $BOOTSTRAP_ENDPOINT -X security.protocol=SASL_SSL \
    -X sasl.mechanisms=SCRAM-SHA-512 \
    -X sasl.username=$UPSTASH_KAFKA_USERNAME \
    -X sasl.password=$UPSTASH_KAFKA_PASSWORD \
    -o beginning -G $GROUP_ID $TOPIC_NAME
```

For more information see [kcat](https://github.com/edenhill/kcat) repository.