# strimzi/strimzi-kafka-operator

Apache Kafka® running on Kubernetes

Repository: https://github.com/strimzi/strimzi-kafka-operator
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/strimzi-kafka-operator
Homepage: https://strimzi.io/
Language: Java
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: kafka, kubernetes, openshift, messaging, kafka-connect, kafka-streams, data-streaming, data-stream, data-streams, kubernetes-operator, kubernetes-controller, hacktoberfest
Last push: 2026-08-26T09:39:58+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 95/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 86, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3771, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 13, "gap_med": 45.0, "n_releases_24m": 17}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 5916, forks 1532 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:32.253993+00:00)

## What it is
Strimzi is a Kubernetes operator suite for deploying and managing Apache Kafka clusters, including Kafka Connect, MirrorMaker, topics, and users via custom resources. It also ships an HTTP Bridge providing a RESTful interface for producing and consuming Kafka messages.

## Use cases
- run apache kafka on kubernetes
- deploy kafka cluster on openshift
- manage kafka topics and users with kubectl
- automate kafka tls certificates and oauth auth
- expose kafka outside kubernetes via load balancer or ingress
- run kafka connect and mirror maker on k8s
- produce and consume kafka messages over http rest

## When to choose
- you want declarative, GitOps-friendly Kafka management on Kubernetes or OpenShift
- you need automated certificate management, SCRAM/OAuth auth, and rack-aware HA Kafka
- you want to manage Kafka Connect, MirrorMaker, topics, and users as custom resources

## When to avoid
- you run Kafka on bare VMs or outside Kubernetes
- you need a lightweight single-node Kafka for local testing without a cluster
- you cannot grant the operator cluster-level RBAC permissions

## Facets
- artifact type: infra-config
- maturity: stable
- function: container-orchestration, message-queue, deployment, configuration-management, streaming
- domain: microservices
- platform: cloud, self-hosted, go, jvm
- tags: kafka-operator, kubernetes-operator, openshift, kafka-connect, kafka-streams, cncf, gitops, event-streaming, http-bridge, messaging, devops, containers, data-engineering, kubernetes, docker

## Member repositories
- strimzi/strimzi-kafka-operator (main) score 95

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:32.253993+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:51:15.738751+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/strimzi/strimzi-kafka-operator (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:32.253993+00:00, sha 755b7f0ad15e)
  - homepage: https://strimzi.io/ (fetched 2026-08-29T08:46:42.239310+00:00, sha ce489e141281)
  - site_page: https://strimzi.io/documentation (fetched 2026-08-29T08:46:42.248456+00:00, sha 077c00beb673)
  - site_page: https://strimzi.io/quickstarts (fetched 2026-08-29T08:46:42.250270+00:00, sha 3f617638aa9e)
  - site_page: https://strimzi.io/docs/bridge/latest (fetched 2026-08-29T08:46:42.253172+00:00, sha a7bcc6c7d046)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.