mqtt-mirror

Fork MQTT traffic with no fuss, deploy in seconds. Kubernetes ready.

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Mqtt-mirror subscribes to a source broker and publishes replicated messages to a target broker, preserving the original QoS and Retain flags.

All topics are mirrored by default. Use topic filters to cherry-pick which topics to mirror — standard MQTT wildcards + and # are supported (wildcard spec).

Common use cases

1. Prod to staging — Shadow production traffic into staging to validate new service versions against real messages before deploying.
2. Prod to dev — Feed developers realistic data without simulating devices or writing mock generators.
3. Load/stress testing — Mirror production traffic to a test cluster to benchmark how new infrastructure handles real load profiles.
4. Regression testing — Route live traffic through a candidate build to catch issues that synthetic test data might miss.
5. Broker migration — When switching brokers (e.g., Mosquitto to EMQX, or self-hosted to managed), mirror traffic to the new broker during transition to validate it before cutting over.
6. Cloud migration — Run on-prem and cloud brokers in parallel with mirrored traffic to build confidence before migrating.
7. Cross-region replication — Replicate data from an edge/regional broker to a central cloud broker for geographic redundancy.
8. Disaster recovery — Maintain a hot standby broker with live data so failover is seamless.
9. Edge-to-cloud bridging — Lightweight one-way replication from edge brokers to cloud, without full broker bridging.
10. Multi-tenant isolation — Mirror specific topic trees from a shared broker to tenant-specific brokers.

Install

Mqtt-mirror is available as a standalone binary, Docker image, npm package, and Helm chart.

Docker

docker run antegulin/mqtt-mirror ./mqtt-mirror \
  tcp://username:pass@source.xyz:1883 \
  tcp://target.xyz:1883 \
  -t events,sensors/+/temperature/+,logs#

npx (zero install)

npx mqtt-mirror \
  tcp://username:pass@source.xyz:1883 \
  tcp://target.xyz:1883 \
  -t events,sensors/+/temperature/+,logs#

Helm chart

helm repo add 4nte https://4nte.github.io/helm-charts/
helm install mqtt-mirror 4nte/mqtt-mirror \
  --set mqtt.source=$SOURCE_BROKER \
  --set mqtt.target=$TARGET_BROKER \
  --set mqtt.topic_filter=foo,bar,device/+/ping

Homebrew

brew tap 4nte/homebrew-tap
brew install mqtt-mirror

Shell script

curl -sfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/4nte/mqtt-mirror/master/install.sh | sh

Compile from source

git clone https://github.com/4nte/mqtt-mirror
cd mqtt-mirror
make compile
./out/mqtt-mirror --version

Usage

mqtt-mirror <source> <target> [flags]

Broker URIs use the format tcp://username:password@host:port. Special characters in passwords are handled automatically.

Flags

Flag	Short	Default	Description
--topic-filter	-t	# (all)	Comma-separated topic filters with MQTT wildcard support
--topic-prefix			Prefix to prepend to all mirrored topic names
--topic-replace			Topic replacement in old:new format (repeatable)
--name		random	Instance name for MQTT client ID (max 23 chars)
--clean-session		true	MQTT clean session flag
--health-port		8080	Port for health check HTTP server
--publish-timeout		10s	Timeout for publishing messages to the target broker
--subscribe-qos		0	QoS level for source broker subscription (0, 1, or 2)
--verbose	-v	false	Verbose logging output
--config			Path to TOML config file

Topic rewriting

Rewrite topic names before publishing to the target broker using --topic-prefix and --topic-replace.

Prefix prepends a string to all topics:

mqtt-mirror source target --topic-prefix "mirror/"
# devices/sensor1 → mirror/devices/sensor1

Replace performs string substitution (old:new format, repeatable):

mqtt-mirror source target --topic-replace "staging:production"
# staging/events → production/events

Strip a string by leaving the replacement empty:

mqtt-mirror source target --topic-replace "legacy/:"
# legacy/devices/sensor1 → devices/sensor1

When both are used, replacements are applied first, then the prefix.

Configuration file

Instead of flags, you can use a TOML configuration file. Mqtt-mirror looks for mirror.toml in the current directory, or specify a path with --config.

source = "tcp://user:password@source-broker:1883"
target = "tcp://user:password@target-broker:1883"

topic_filter = ["devices/#", "sensors/+/temperature"]
topic_prefix = "mirror/"
topic_replace = ["staging:production", "v1:v2"]

name = "my-mirror"
verbose = true
health_port = 9090
clean_session = false

Environment variables

All configuration options can be set via environment variables (uppercase, underscores instead of hyphens):

Variable	Equivalent flag / config key
SOURCE	source (positional arg)
TARGET	target (positional arg)
TOPIC_FILTER	--topic-filter
TOPIC_PREFIX	--topic-prefix
TOPIC_REPLACE	--topic-replace
NAME	--name
VERBOSE	--verbose
HEALTH_PORT	--health-port
CLEAN_SESSION	--clean-session
PUBLISH_TIMEOUT	--publish-timeout
SUBSCRIBE_QOS	--subscribe-qos

Precedence order (highest to lowest): CLI flag > environment variable > config file > default value.

Persistent sessions

By default, mqtt-mirror uses clean sessions. Set --clean-session=false to use persistent sessions — the broker will remember subscriptions and queue messages while the client is disconnected.

Important: Persistent sessions require a stable client ID. Always set --name when using --clean-session=false, otherwise a new random ID is generated on each restart, losing the session.

Health & metrics

Mqtt-mirror exposes HTTP endpoints for health checks and monitoring on the health port (default 8080).

Endpoint	Description
/healthz	Liveness probe — always returns 200 OK
/readyz	Readiness probe — returns 200 OK only when both source and target are connected, 503 otherwise
/metrics	Prometheus metrics

Prometheus metrics

Metric	Type	Description
mqtt_mirror_messages_received_total	Counter	Messages received from source (by QoS)
mqtt_mirror_messages_published_total	Counter	Messages published to target (by QoS)
mqtt_mirror_publish_errors_total	Counter	Publish failures (timeout or error)
mqtt_mirror_message_size_bytes	Histogram	Payload size distribution
mqtt_mirror_publish_duration_seconds	Histogram	Publish latency distribution
mqtt_mirror_source_connected	Gauge	Source broker connection status (1/0)
mqtt_mirror_target_connected	Gauge	Target broker connection status (1/0)
mqtt_mirror_build_info	Gauge	Build metadata with version label

Resilience

• Auto-reconnect — Both source and target clients automatically reconnect on connection loss (15s max interval).
• Auto-resubscribe — Subscriptions are re-established on reconnect.
• Graceful shutdown — Cleanly disconnects from both brokers on SIGINT/SIGTERM.

Documentation

• Kubernetes & Helm deployment — Full Helm values reference, ConfigMap configuration, secrets, ServiceMonitor setup, and deployment best practices.
• Metrics & monitoring — Detailed metric descriptions, PromQL queries, alerting rules, and Grafana tips.
• Troubleshooting — Common failure modes, diagnostic steps, and connection lifecycle details.

Sponsors

Development

If you like this project, please consider helping out. All contributions are welcome.