Strimzi Kafka CLI

Strimzi Kafka CLI is a CLI that helps traditional Apache Kafka users -both developers and administrators- to easily adapt to Strimzi, a Kubernetes operator for Apache Kafka.

The main intention is to ramp up Strimzi usage by creating a similar CLI experience with the traditional Apache Kafka tools that mostly starts with kafka-* prefix under the bin directory in an ordinary Kafka package.

Strimzi Kafka CLI uses the kfk command as an abbreviation for "Kafka For Kubernetes" or simply "k a f k a" which reminds of the kafka-* prefix of the ordinary Kafka script file names.

While having similar set of commands or options for some of the common objects, Strimzi Kafka CLI has some extra capabilities for managing or configuring Strimzi related resources.

Following are the commands of the current version of Strimzi Kafka CLI, that are used for different purposes:

Usage: kfk [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

  Strimzi Kafka CLI.

Options:
  --version  Show the version and exit.
  --help     Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  acls              Manages ACLs on Kafka.
  clusters          Creates, alters, deletes, describes Kafka cluster(s).
  configs           Adds/Removes entity config for a topic, client, user...
  connect           Creates, alters, deletes, describes Kafka Connect...
  console-consumer  Reads data from Kafka topics and outputs it to...
  console-producer  Reads data from standard input and publish it to Kafka.
  env               Prints the environment variable values for Strimzi...
  mcp               Starts the Strimzi MCP server.
  operator          Installs/Uninstalls Strimzi Kafka Operator.
  topics            Creates, alters, deletes, describes Kafka topic(s).
  users             Creates, alters, deletes, describes Kafka users(s).

Please take a look at the relevant article Strimzi Kafka CLI: Managing Strimzi in a Kafka Native Way for more details.

Installation

Using Python Package Installer

pip install strimzi-kafka-cli --user

Or to install Strimzi Kafka CLI in an isolated environment, you can simply use pipx:

pipx install strimzi-kafka-cli

To install with MCP server support:

pip install strimzi-kafka-cli[mcp] --user

Using Homebrew

#Tap the homebrew repository first.
brew tap systemcraftsman/strimzi-kafka-cli

#Install Strimzi Kafka CLI
brew install strimzi-kafka-cli

Installing the CLI by using Homebrew already uses a virtual environment, so you don't have to worry about your main Python environment.

Project requires: Python >=3.11

Examples

• TLS Authentication
• Simple ACL Authorization
• Topic, User and Broker Configuration
• Kafka Connect

MCP Server

Strimzi Kafka CLI includes an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that allows AI assistants to manage Strimzi Kafka deployments on Kubernetes.

Starting the MCP Server

kfk mcp

Registering with Claude Code

claude mcp add strimzi-kafka-cli -- kfk mcp

Available Tools (32)

Category	Tools
Kafka Clusters	list_kafkas, get_kafka, get_kafka_status, create_kafka, delete_kafka, alter_kafka_config
Topics	list_topics, get_topic, create_topic, delete_topic, alter_topic
Users	list_users, get_user, create_user, delete_user, alter_user
Connect Clusters	list_connects, get_connect, create_connect, delete_connect, alter_connect
Connectors	list_connectors, get_connector, create_connector, delete_connector, alter_connector
ACLs	add_or_remove_acls
Operator	install_operator, uninstall_operator
Node Pools	list_node_pools, get_node_pool
Version	get_version

Dependencies

Python Dependencies

Please see pyproject.toml file.

External Dependencies

Strimzi resources are automatically downloaded when the first kfk command is run. Strimzi Kafka CLI uses the Python Kubernetes client to interact with the cluster directly. You can check the dependency versions with:

kfk --version

You can use the following environment variables to customize paths:

STRIMZI_KAFKA_CLI_BASE_PATH: Set this if you want to have a custom Strimzi Kafka CLI folder. It is ~/.strimzi-kafka-cli as default.

STRIMZI_KAFKA_CLI_STRIMZI_PATH: Set this if you want to use a custom Strimzi/AMQ Streams. We only recommend this when using AMQ Streams instead of Strimzi.