Introduction to rpk

The rpk command line interface tool is designed to manage your entire Redpanda cluster, without the need to run a separate script for each function, as with Apache Kafka. The rpk commands handle everything from configuring brokers to high-level general Redpanda tasks. For example, you can use rpk to monitor your cluster’s health, perform tuning, and implement access control lists (ACLs) and other security features. You can also use rpk to perform basic streaming tasks, such as creating topics, producing to topics, and consuming from topics.

After you install rpk, you can use it to:

  • Manage Redpanda

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

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

See also: Install or Update rpk

Specify command properties

You can specify rpk command properties in the following ways:

  • Specify the appropriate flag on the command line.

  • Define the corresponding environment variables.

    Environment variable settings only last for the duration of a shell session.

  • Edit the configuration file settings in the rpk section of the redpanda.yaml file.

    Configuration file property settings stay the same for each shell session.

  • Edit the configuration file settings in the rpk.yaml file.

    Configuration file property settings stay the same for each shell session.

Command line flag settings take precedence over the corresponding environment variables, and environment variables take precedence over configuration file settings. If a required flag is not specified on the command line, Redpanda searches the environment variable. If the environment variable is not set, the value in the rpk.yaml configuration file is used, if that file is available, otherwise the value in the redpanda.yaml configuration file is used.

If you specify rpk command properties in the configuration files or as environment variables, you don’t need to specify them again on the command line.

Common configuration properties

Every rpk command supports a set of common configuration properties. You can set one or more options in an rpk command by using the -X flag:

rpk -X <config-option-1> -X <config-option-2>

Get a list of available options with -X list:

rpk -X list

Or, get a detailed description about each option with -X help:

rpk -X help

Some of the common configuration properties apply across all rpk commands as defaults. These default properties have keys with names starting with defaults, and they’re viewable in rpk -X list and rpk -X help. For more details, see rpk -X options.

Next steps