All Kafka Development Commands Explained – 2026 Edition

Kafka command‑line utilities for development and testing.

Create a Topic

kafka-topics.sh \
  --create \
  --topic order \
  --bootstrap-server localhost:9092 \
  --partitions 3 \
  --replication-factor 1

Core parameters: --topic: topic name --partitions: number of partitions --replication-factor: number of replicas --bootstrap-server: broker address

Resulting structure:

order-topic
├── Partition0
├── Partition1
└── Partition2

List all Topics

kafka-topics.sh \
  --list \
  --bootstrap-server localhost:9092

Typical output:

order-topic
user-topic
payment-topic

Describe Topic Details

kafka-topics.sh \
  --describe \
  --topic order \
  --bootstrap-server localhost:9092

Key fields:

PartitionCount

Leader

Replicas

ISR (in‑sync replicas)

ISR anomalies are a primary entry point for troubleshooting replica synchronization issues.

Increase Topic Partitions

kafka-topics.sh \
  --alter \
  --topic order \
  --partitions 6 \
  --bootstrap-server localhost:9092

Note: Kafka can only increase partitions; it cannot decrease them directly.

Delete a Topic

kafka-topics.sh \
  --delete \
  --topic order \
  --bootstrap-server localhost:9092

Deletion in production should be performed with caution; verify the topic list first.

Produce Messages

kafka-console-producer.sh \
  --topic order \
  --bootstrap-server localhost:9092

Example input:

order-1001
order-1002
order-1003

Messages are sent to order-topic.

Consume Messages

kafka-console-consumer.sh \
  --topic order \
  --bootstrap-server localhost:9092

The consumer continuously reads new messages.

Consume from the Beginning

kafka-console-consumer.sh \
  --topic order \
  --bootstrap-server localhost:9092 \
  --from-beginning

Useful for development testing, message loss investigation, and historical verification.

List Consumer Groups

kafka-consumer-groups.sh \
  --list \
  --bootstrap-server localhost:9092

Typical groups: order-service-group, payment-service-group, user-service-group.

Describe Consumer Group Consumption

kafka-consumer-groups.sh \
  --describe \
  --bootstrap-server localhost:9092 \
  --group order-service-group

Sample output shows each partition’s current offset, log end offset, and lag:

TOPIC           PARTITION  CURRENT-OFFSET  LOG-END-OFFSET  LAG
order-topic     0          1000            1050            50
order-topic     1          1200            1200            0
order-topic     2          900             1000            100