Install rpk

The rpk tool is a single binary application that provides a way to interact with your Redpanda clusters from the command line. For example, you can use rpk to:

  • Monitor your cluster’s health.

  • Set up access control lists (ACLs) and other security features.

  • Create topics, produce to topics, and consume from topics.

For Redpanda Self-Managed deployments, the rpk binary is automatically installed on each Redpanda broker. So, you can use the locally installed rpk binary to communicate with the local Redpanda cluster.

You can also install rpk on your local machine as a standalone binary. With this setup, you can connect to both a Redpanda cluster on your local machine, or an external one on a remote server.

If you use rpk as a standalone binary to communicate with a Redpanda cluster, ensure the version of rpk that you install matches the version of Redpanda running in your cluster.

To install the rpk binary as a standalone application, follow the instructions for your operating system.

Install rpk on Linux

  1. Download the rpk archive for Linux.

    • To download the latest version of rpk:

      curl -LO https://github.com/redpanda-data/redpanda/releases/latest/download/rpk-linux-amd64.zip

    • To download a version other than the latest:

      curl -LO https://github.com/redpanda-data/redpanda/releases/download/v<version>/rpk-linux-amd64.zip

  2. Ensure that you have the folder ~/.local/bin:

    mkdir -p ~/.local/bin

  3. Add it to your $PATH:

    export PATH="~/.local/bin:$PATH"

  4. Unzip the rpk files to your ~/.local/bin/ directory:

    unzip rpk-linux-amd64.zip -d ~/.local/bin/

  5. Run rpk --version to display the version of the rpk binary:

    rpk --version
    rpk version 24.1.1 (rev b5ade3f40)

Install rpk on macOS

  • Homebrew

  • Manual Download

  1. If you don’t have Homebrew installed, install it.

  2. Install rpk:

    brew install redpanda-data/tap/redpanda

  3. Run rpk --version to display the version of the rpk binary:

    rpk --version
    rpk version 24.1.1 (rev b5ade3f40)
    This method installs the latest version of rpk, which is supported only with the latest version of Redpanda.

To install rpk through a manual download, choose an option that corresponds to your system architecture. For example, if you have an M1 or M2 chip, use the Apple Silicon instructions.

  • Intel macOS

  • Apple Silicon

  1. Download the rpk archive for macOS.

    • To download the latest version of rpk:

      curl -LO https://github.com/redpanda-data/redpanda/releases/latest/download/rpk-darwin-amd64.zip

    • To download a version other than the latest:

      curl -LO https://github.com/redpanda-data/redpanda/releases/download/v<version>/rpk-darwin-amd64.zip

  2. Ensure that you have the folder ~/.local/bin:

    mkdir -p ~/.local/bin

  3. Add it to your $PATH:

    export PATH=$PATH:~/.local/bin

  4. Unzip the rpk files to your ~/.local/bin/ directory:

    unzip rpk-darwin-amd64.zip -d ~/.local/bin/

  5. Run rpk --version to display the version of the rpk binary:

    rpk --version
    rpk version 24.1.1 (rev b5ade3f40)

  1. Download the rpk archive for macOS.

    • To download the latest version of rpk:

      curl -LO https://github.com/redpanda-data/redpanda/releases/latest/download/rpk-darwin-arm64.zip

    • To download a version other than the latest:

      curl -LO https://github.com/redpanda-data/redpanda/releases/download/v<version>/rpk-darwin-arm64.zip

  2. Ensure that you have the folder ~/.local/bin:

    mkdir -p ~/.local/bin

  3. Add it to your $PATH:

    export PATH=$PATH:~/.local/bin

  4. Unzip the rpk files to your ~/.local/bin/ directory:

    unzip rpk-darwin-arm64.zip -d ~/.local/bin/

  5. Run rpk --version to display the version of the rpk binary:

    rpk --version
    rpk version 24.1.1 (rev b5ade3f40)

Next steps

For a list of all rpk commands and their syntax, see the rpk documentation.