# Redpanda CLI Quickstart > For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.redpanda.com/llms.txt). Component-specific: [streaming-full.txt](https://docs.redpanda.com/streaming-full.txt) --- title: Redpanda CLI Quickstart latest-redpanda-tag: v25.1.1 latest-console-tag: v3.7.3 latest-operator-version: v26.1.4 # EOL = End-of-Life (support lifecycle status) page-is-nearing-eol: "false" page-is-past-eol: "true" page-eol-date: April 7, 2026 latest-connect-version: 4.93.0 docname: rpk-quickstart page-component-name: streaming page-version: "25.1" page-component-version: "25.1" page-component-title: Streaming page-relative-src-path: rpk-quickstart.adoc page-edit-url: https://github.com/redpanda-data/docs/edit/v/25.1/modules/get-started/pages/rpk-quickstart.adoc description: Quickly become familiar with rpk commands for basic Redpanda tasks, including creating, producing to, describing, and deleting topics, as well as consuming records and managing consumer groups. page-git-created-date: "2025-01-28" page-git-modified-date: "2025-02-17" support-status: past end-of-life --- This guide shows how to run the Redpanda CLI, `rpk`, for basic Redpanda tasks, including creating, producing to, describing, and deleting topics, as well as consuming records and managing consumer groups. Follow these examples to quickly become familiar with `rpk` commands. Consider creating an `rpk` profile to simplify your development experience with multiple Redpanda clusters by saving and reusing configurations for different clusters. For more information, see [About rpk profiles](https://docs.redpanda.com/streaming/25.1/get-started/config-rpk-profile/#about-rpk-profiles). ## [](#prerequisites)Prerequisites - A running Redpanda cluster. - The `rpk` CLI installed. See [Install or Update rpk](https://docs.redpanda.com/streaming/25.1/get-started/rpk-install/). ## [](#create-a-topic)Create a topic To start streaming data, first create a topic as the destination for your records: ```bash rpk topic create tutorial ``` Output: ```bash TOPIC STATUS tutorial OK ``` See [rpk topic create](https://docs.redpanda.com/streaming/25.1/reference/rpk/rpk-topic/rpk-topic-create/). ## [](#produce-records-to-a-topic)Produce records to a topic Produce records to the topic. Downstream consumers will then be able to read these records. To exit the producer session, press `Ctrl+C`: ```bash rpk topic produce tutorial ``` Additional input: ```bash hello world ``` Output: ```bash Produced to partition 0 at offset 0 with timestamp 1734640650348. Produced to partition 0 at offset 1 with timestamp 1734640653558. ``` See [rpk topic produce](https://docs.redpanda.com/streaming/25.1/reference/rpk/rpk-topic/rpk-topic-produce/). ## [](#get-a-description-of-a-topic)Get a description of a topic Check the topic’s configuration and status to ensure that it’s ready for use: ```bash rpk topic describe tutorial ``` Output: ```bash SUMMARY ======= NAME tutorial PARTITIONS 1 REPLICAS 1 CONFIGS ======= KEY VALUE SOURCE cleanup.policy delete DEFAULT_CONFIG compression.type producer DEFAULT_CONFIG delete.retention.ms -1 DEFAULT_CONFIG flush.bytes 262144 DEFAULT_CONFIG flush.ms 100 DEFAULT_CONFIG initial.retention.local.target.bytes -1 DEFAULT_CONFIG initial.retention.local.target.ms -1 DEFAULT_CONFIG max.message.bytes 1048576 DEFAULT_CONFIG message.timestamp.type CreateTime DEFAULT_CONFIG redpanda.iceberg.delete true DEFAULT_CONFIG redpanda.iceberg.mode disabled DEFAULT_CONFIG redpanda.leaders.preference none DEFAULT_CONFIG redpanda.remote.delete true DEFAULT_CONFIG redpanda.remote.read false DEFAULT_CONFIG redpanda.remote.write false DEFAULT_CONFIG retention.bytes -1 DEFAULT_CONFIG retention.local.target.bytes -1 DEFAULT_CONFIG retention.local.target.ms 86400000 DEFAULT_CONFIG retention.ms 604800000 DEFAULT_CONFIG segment.bytes 134217728 DEFAULT_CONFIG segment.ms 1209600000 DEFAULT_CONFIG write.caching true DEFAULT_CONFIG ``` See [rpk topic describe](https://docs.redpanda.com/streaming/25.1/reference/rpk/rpk-topic/rpk-topic-describe/). ## [](#consume-records-from-a-topic)Consume records from a topic Consume records from the topic: ```bash rpk topic consume tutorial ``` Output: ```json { "topic": "tutorial", "value": "hello", "timestamp": 1678807229837, "partition": 0, "offset": 0 } { "topic": "tutorial", "value": "world", "timestamp": 1678807232413, "partition": 0, "offset": 1 } ``` Consume from an offset, where `2` is not inclusive: ```bash rpk topic consume tutorial --offset 0:2 ``` Output: ```json { "topic": "tutorial", "value": "hello", "timestamp": 1678807229837, "partition": 0, "offset": 0 } { "topic": "tutorial", "value": "world", "timestamp": 1678807232413, "partition": 0, "offset": 1 } ``` See [rpk topic consume](https://docs.redpanda.com/streaming/25.1/reference/rpk/rpk-topic/rpk-topic-consume/). ## [](#create-a-consumer-group-and-consume-topics)Create a consumer group and consume topics Organize consumers into groups to share workloads and balance consumption: ```bash rpk topic consume tutorial --group tutorial-group ``` > 📝 **NOTE** > > The consumer group is created when you start consuming from the topic. Output: ```json { "topic": "tutorial", "value": "hello", "timestamp": 1734640650348, "partition": 0, "offset": 0 } { "topic": "tutorial", "value": "world", "timestamp": 1734640653558, "partition": 0, "offset": 1 } ``` See [rpk topic consume](https://docs.redpanda.com/streaming/25.1/reference/rpk/rpk-topic/rpk-topic-consume/). ## [](#list-all-consumer-groups)List all consumer groups List available consumer groups in your cluster: ```bash rpk group list ``` Output: ```bash BROKER GROUP STATE 0 tutorial-group Empty ``` See [rpk group list](https://docs.redpanda.com/streaming/25.1/reference/rpk/rpk-group/rpk-group-list/). ## [](#get-a-description-of-a-consumer-group)Get a description of a consumer group View details about the consumer group’s state, coordinator, members, and offsets: ```bash rpk group describe tutorial-group ``` Output: ```bash GROUP tutorial-group COORDINATOR 0 STATE Empty BALANCER MEMBERS 0 TOTAL-LAG 0 TOPIC PARTITION CURRENT-OFFSET LOG-START-OFFSET LOG-END-OFFSET LAG MEMBER-ID CLIENT-ID HOST tutorial 0 2 0 2 0 ``` See [rpk group describe](https://docs.redpanda.com/streaming/25.1/reference/rpk/rpk-group/rpk-group-describe/). ## [](#delete-a-consumer-group)Delete a consumer group Clean up by removing the `tutorial-group` consumer group: ```bash rpk group delete tutorial-group ``` Output: ```bash GROUP STATUS tutorial-group OK ``` See [rpk group delete](https://docs.redpanda.com/streaming/25.1/reference/rpk/rpk-group/rpk-group-delete/). ## [](#delete-a-topic)Delete a topic Clean up by removing the `tutorial` topic: ```bash rpk topic delete tutorial ``` Output: ```bash TOPIC STATUS tutorial OK ``` See [rpk topic delete](https://docs.redpanda.com/streaming/25.1/reference/rpk/rpk-topic/rpk-topic-delete/). ## [](#next-steps)Next steps - To generate a profile to save and reuse configurations for different Redpanda clusters, see [About rpk profiles](https://docs.redpanda.com/streaming/25.1/get-started/config-rpk-profile/#about-rpk-profiles). - For the complete list of `rpk` commands and their syntax, see the [rpk Command Reference](https://docs.redpanda.com/streaming/25.1/reference/rpk/).