24.1 beta 23.3 23.2 23.1

Record Deserialization

When consuming messages, Redpanda Console’s message viewer is capable of automatically deserializing messages. It identifies the correct deserialization type by trying to decode the record’s key, value, or header with all available deserialization methods. The supported deserialization methods are:

  • Kafka’s internal binary formats (for example the __consumer_offsets topic )

  • JSON

  • JSON Schema with schema registry encoding

  • XML

  • Avro with schema registry encoding

  • Protobuf

  • Protobuf with schema registry encoding

  • Messagepack (only for topics that are explicitly enabled to test MessagePack)

  • UTF-8 / Strings

Decoded messages will be rendered as JSON objects and can also be used as JavaScript object in push filters. If none of these deserialization attempts appear to be successful, Redpanda Console will render the byte array in a hex viewer. Encoding formats that are not self-contained requires additional configuration. For additional details, see: