Cloud

nats_request_reply

Sends a message to a NATS subject and expects a reply back from a NATS subscriber acting as a responder.

Metadata

This input adds the following metadata fields to each message:

nats_subject
nats_sequence_stream
nats_sequence_consumer
nats_num_delivered
nats_num_pending
nats_domain
nats_timestamp_unix_nano

You can access these metadata fields using function interpolation.

Connection name

When monitoring and managing a production NATS system, it is often useful to know which connection a message was send/received from. This can be achieved by setting the connection name option when creating a NATS connection.

Redpanda Connect will automatically set the connection name based off the label of the given NATS component, so that monitoring tools between NATS and Redpanda Connect can stay in sync.

Authentication

There are several components within Redpanda Connect which uses NATS services. You will find that each of these components support optional advanced authentication parameters for NKeys and User Credentials.

See an in-depth tutorial.

NKey file

The NATS server can use these NKeys in several ways for authentication. The simplest is for the server to be configured with a list of known public keys and for the clients to respond to the challenge by signing it with its private NKey configured in the nkey_file or nkey field.

More details.

User credentials

NATS server supports decentralized authentication based on JSON Web Tokens (JWT). Clients need an user JWT and a corresponding NKey secret when connecting to a server which is configured to use this authentication scheme.

The user_credentials_file field should point to a file containing both the private key and the JWT and can be generated with the nsc tool.

Alternatively, the user_jwt field can contain a plain text JWT and the user_nkey_seed field can contain the plain text NKey Seed.

More details.

Token

The token field can contain a plain text token string for token-based authentication.

User and password

The user and password fields can be used for username/password authentication.

Common
Advanced

processor:
  label: ""
  nats_request_reply:
    urls: [] # No default (required)
    subject: "" # No default (required)
    headers: {}
    metadata:
      include_prefixes: []
      include_patterns: []
    timeout: 3s

processor:
  label: ""
  nats_request_reply:
    urls: [] # No default (required)
    max_reconnects: 0 # No default (optional)
    subject: "" # No default (required)
    inbox_prefix: "" # No default (optional)
    headers: {}
    metadata:
      include_prefixes: []
      include_patterns: []
    timeout: 3s
    tls:
      enabled: false
      skip_cert_verify: false
      enable_renegotiation: false
      root_cas: ""
      root_cas_file: ""
      client_certs: []
    tls_handshake_first: false
    auth:
      nkey_file: "" # No default (optional)
      nkey: "" # No default (optional)
      user_credentials_file: "" # No default (optional)
      user_jwt: "" # No default (optional)
      user_nkey_seed: "" # No default (optional)
      user: "" # No default (optional)
      password: "" # No default (optional)
      token: "" # No default (optional)

Fields

`auth`

Optional configuration of NATS authentication parameters.

Type: object

`auth.nkey`

Your NKey seed (private key) for NATS authentication. NKeys provide cryptographic authentication without passwords.

This field contains sensitive information that usually shouldn’t be added to a configuration directly. For more information, see Manage Secrets before adding it to your configuration.

Type: string

# Examples:
nkey: UDXU4RCSJNZOIQHZNWXHXORDPRTGNJAHAHFRGZNEEJCPQTT2M7NLCNF4

`auth.nkey_file`

An optional file containing a NKey seed.

Type: string

# Examples:
nkey_file: ./seed.nk

`auth.password`

An optional plain text password (given along with the corresponding user name).

This field contains sensitive information that usually shouldn’t be added to a configuration directly. For more information, see Manage Secrets before adding it to your configuration.

Type: string

`auth.token`

An optional plain text token.

This field contains sensitive information that usually shouldn’t be added to a configuration directly. For more information, see Manage Secrets before adding it to your configuration.

Type: string

`auth.user`

An optional plain text user name (given along with the corresponding user password).

Type: string

`auth.user_credentials_file`

An optional file containing user credentials which consist of a user JWT and corresponding NKey seed.

Type: string

# Examples:
user_credentials_file: ./user.creds

`auth.user_jwt`

An optional plaintext user JWT to use along with the corresponding user NKey seed.

This field contains sensitive information that usually shouldn’t be added to a configuration directly. For more information, see Manage Secrets before adding it to your configuration.

Type: string

`auth.user_nkey_seed`

An optional plaintext user NKey seed to use along with the corresponding user JWT.

This field contains sensitive information that usually shouldn’t be added to a configuration directly. For more information, see Manage Secrets before adding it to your configuration.

Type: string

`headers`

Explicit message headers to add to messages.

This field supports interpolation functions.

Type: object<string>

Default: {}

# Examples:
headers:
  Content-Type: application/json
  Timestamp: ${!meta("Timestamp")}

`inbox_prefix`

Set an explicit inbox prefix for the response subject

Type: string

# Examples:
inbox_prefix: _INBOX_joe

`max_reconnects`

The maximum number of times to attempt to reconnect to the server. If negative, it will never stop trying to reconnect.

Type: int

`metadata`

Specify which metadata values are added to messages as NATS headers, alongside any explicit headers.

Type: object

`metadata.include_patterns[]`

A list of explicit metadata key regular expression (re2) patterns to match against.

Type: array<string>

Default: []

# Examples:
include_patterns:
  - .*

# ---

include_patterns:
  - _timestamp_unix$

`metadata.include_prefixes[]`

A list of explicit metadata key prefixes to match against.

Type: array<string>

Default: []

# Examples:
include_prefixes:
  - foo_
  - bar_

# ---

include_prefixes:
  - kafka_

# ---

include_prefixes:
  - content-

`subject`

A subject to write to.

This field supports interpolation functions.

Type: string

# Examples:
subject: foo.bar.baz

# ---

subject: ${! meta("kafka_topic") }

# ---

subject: foo.${! json("meta.type") }

`timeout`

A duration string is a possibly signed sequence of decimal numbers, each with optional fraction and a unit suffix, such as 300ms, -1.5h or 2h45m. Valid time units are ns, us (or µs), ms, s, m, h.

Type: string

Default: 3s

`tls`

Configure Transport Layer Security (TLS) settings to secure network connections. This includes options for standard TLS as well as mutual TLS (mTLS) authentication where both client and server authenticate each other using certificates. Key configuration options include enabled to enable TLS, client_certs for mTLS authentication, root_cas/root_cas_file for custom certificate authorities, and skip_cert_verify for development environments.

Type: object

`tls.client_certs[]`

A list of client certificates for mutual TLS (mTLS) authentication. Configure this field to enable mTLS, authenticating the client to the server with these certificates.

You must set tls.enabled: true for the client certificates to take effect.

Certificate pairing rules: For each certificate item, provide either:

Inline PEM data using both cert and key or
File paths using both cert_file and key_file.

Mixing inline and file-based values within the same item is not supported.

Type: array<object>

Default: []

# Examples:
client_certs:
  - cert: foo
    key: bar


# ---

client_certs:
  - cert_file: ./example.pem
    key_file: ./example.key

`tls.client_certs[].cert`

The plaintext certificate to use for TLS authentication. Must be paired with the corresponding private key in the key field when using inline PEM data for mTLS client certificates.

Type: string

Default: ""

`tls.client_certs[].cert_file`

The path to a file containing the certificate to use for TLS authentication. Must be paired with the corresponding private key file in the key_file field when using file-based configuration for mTLS client certificates.

Type: string

Default: ""

`tls.client_certs[].key`

Private key for mTLS client certificate as inline PEM data. Must correspond to the client certificate specified in the cert field. Use this field together with cert when providing certificate data inline rather than through files.

This field contains sensitive information that usually shouldn’t be added to a configuration directly. For more information, see Manage Secrets before adding it to your configuration.

Type: string

Default: ""

`tls.client_certs[].key_file`

Path to private key file for mTLS client certificate in PEM format. Must correspond to the client certificate specified in the cert_file field. Use this field together with cert_file when loading certificate data from files.

Type: string

Default: ""

`tls.client_certs[].password`

The password to use for the private key (specified in the key or key_file fields), if it is password-protected. The PKCS#1 and PKCS#8 formats are supported. Supports environment variable interpolation for secure password management.

The pbeWithMD5AndDES-CBC algorithm is obsolete and not supported for the PKCS#8 format. This algorithm does not authenticate the ciphertext, making it vulnerable to padding oracle attacks that can let an attacker recover the plaintext.

This field contains sensitive information that usually shouldn’t be added to a configuration directly. For more information, see Manage Secrets before adding it to your configuration.

Type: string

Default: ""

# Examples:
password: foo

# ---

password: ${KEY_PASSWORD}

`tls.enable_renegotiation`

Whether to allow the remote server to repeatedly request renegotiation. Enable this option if you’re seeing the error message local error: tls: no renegotiation.

Type: bool

Default: false

`tls.enabled`

Whether to enable TLS for secure connections. Set to true to enable TLS encryption. Required to be true for other TLS options (like client_certs, root_cas, etc.) to take effect.

Type: bool

Default: false

`tls.root_cas`

Specify a root certificate authority to use (optional). This is a string that represents a certificate chain from the parent-trusted root certificate, through possible intermediate signing certificates, to the host certificate. Use either this field for inline certificate data or root_cas_file for file-based certificate loading.

This field contains sensitive information that usually shouldn’t be added to a configuration directly. For more information, see Manage Secrets before adding it to your configuration.

Type: string

Default: ""

# Examples:
root_cas: |-
  -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
  ...
  -----END CERTIFICATE-----

`tls.root_cas_file`

Specify the path to a root certificate authority file (optional). This is a file, often with a .pem extension, which contains a certificate chain from the parent-trusted root certificate, through possible intermediate signing certificates, to the host certificate. Use either this field for file-based certificate loading or root_cas for inline certificate data.

Type: string

Default: ""

# Examples:
root_cas_file: ./root_cas.pem

`tls.skip_cert_verify`

Whether to skip server-side certificate verification. Set to true only for testing environments as this reduces security by disabling certificate validation. When using self-signed certificates or in development, this may be necessary, but should never be used in production. Consider using root_cas or root_cas_file to specify trusted certificates instead of disabling verification entirely.

Type: bool

Default: false

`tls_handshake_first`

Whether to perform the initial TLS handshake before sending the NATS INFO protocol message. This is required when connecting to some NATS servers that expect TLS to be established immediately after connection, before any protocol negotiation.

Type: bool

Default: false

`urls[]`

A list of URLs to connect to. If a list item contains commas, it will be expanded into multiple URLs.

Type: array<string>

# Examples:
urls:
  - "nats://127.0.0.1:4222"

# ---

urls:
  - "nats://username:password@127.0.0.1:4222"

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nats_request_reply

Metadata

Connection name

Authentication

NKey file

User credentials

Token

User and password

Fields

auth

auth.nkey

auth.nkey_file

auth.password

auth.token

auth.user

auth.user_credentials_file

auth.user_jwt

auth.user_nkey_seed

headers

inbox_prefix

max_reconnects

metadata

metadata.include_patterns[]

metadata.include_prefixes[]

subject

timeout

tls

tls.client_certs[]

tls.client_certs[].cert

tls.client_certs[].cert_file

tls.client_certs[].key

tls.client_certs[].key_file

tls.client_certs[].password

tls.enable_renegotiation

tls.enabled

tls.root_cas

tls.root_cas_file

tls.skip_cert_verify

tls_handshake_first

urls[]

`auth`

`auth.nkey`

`auth.nkey_file`

`auth.password`

`auth.token`

`auth.user`

`auth.user_credentials_file`

`auth.user_jwt`

`auth.user_nkey_seed`

`headers`

`inbox_prefix`

`max_reconnects`

`metadata`

`metadata.include_patterns[]`

`metadata.include_prefixes[]`

`subject`

`timeout`

`tls`

`tls.client_certs[]`

`tls.client_certs[].cert`

`tls.client_certs[].cert_file`

`tls.client_certs[].key`

`tls.client_certs[].key_file`

`tls.client_certs[].password`

`tls.enable_renegotiation`

`tls.enabled`

`tls.root_cas`

`tls.root_cas_file`

`tls.skip_cert_verify`

`tls_handshake_first`

`urls[]`