# rpk connect

> 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: rpk connect
latest-redpanda-tag: v26.1.14
latest-console-tag: v3.9.0
latest-operator-version: v26.2.1
# EOL = End-of-Life (support lifecycle status)
page-is-nearing-eol: "false"
page-is-past-eol: "false"
page-eol-date: March 31, 2027
latest-connect-version: 4.104.0
docname: rpk/rpk-connect/rpk-connect
page-component-name: streaming
page-version: "26.1"
page-component-version: "26.1"
page-component-title: Streaming
page-relative-src-path: rpk/rpk-connect/rpk-connect.adoc
page-edit-url: https://github.com/redpanda-data/docs/edit/v/26.1/modules/reference/pages/rpk/rpk-connect/rpk-connect.adoc
description: Run and manage Redpanda Connect streaming pipelines. Redpanda Connect is a high-performance stream processor for mundane data engineering tasks.
page-git-created-date: "2024-05-30"
page-git-modified-date: "2026-07-17"
support-status: supported
---

<!-- Source: https://docs.redpanda.com/streaming/26.1/reference/rpk/rpk-connect/rpk-connect.md -->

Run and manage Redpanda Connect streaming pipelines. Redpanda Connect is a high-performance stream processor for mundane data engineering tasks.

For full details, see the [Redpanda Connect documentation](https://docs.redpanda.com/connect/get-started/about/).

## [](#usage)Usage

```bash
rpk connect [flags]
```

## [](#subcommands)Subcommands

| Command | Description |
| --- | --- |
| rpk connect agent | Manage Redpanda Connect agents. Agents allow you to build AI-powered workflows using Redpanda Connect resources. |
| rpk connect blobl | Execute Bloblang mappings from the command line. Provides a convenient tool for mapping JSON documents. |
| rpk connect create | Prints a new Redpanda Connect config to stdout containing specified components according to an expression. |
| rpk connect dry-run | Test pipeline configurations by performing a dry run. Exits with a status code 1 if any connection errors are detected in a directory. |
| rpk connect echo | Parse a config file and echo back a normalized version. This command is useful for sanity checking a config if it isn’t behaving as expected, as it shows you a normalised version after environment variables have been resolved. |
| rpk connect help | Shows a list of commands or help for one command. |
| rpk connect install | Install Redpanda Connect. This command installs the latest version by default. |
| rpk connect lint | Check a Redpanda Connect configuration file for syntax errors and potential issues without running it. |
| rpk connect list | List available Redpanda Connect components. Shows inputs, outputs, processors, caches, rate limits, buffers, metrics, and tracers that can be used in pipelines. |
| rpk connect mcp-server | Execute an MCP server against a suite of Redpanda Connect resources. Each resource will be exposed as a tool that AI can interact with. |
| rpk connect plugin | Manage custom Redpanda Connect plugins. Use these commands to create and initialize plugin projects for extending Redpanda Connect with custom components. |
| rpk connect run | Run a Redpanda Connect pipeline from a configuration file. The pipeline streams data between inputs and outputs with optional processing. |
| rpk connect streams | Run Redpanda Connect in streams mode, where multiple pipelines can be executed in a single process and can be created, updated, and removed via REST HTTP endpoints. The config field specified with the --observability/-o flag is known as the root config and should only contain observability and service-wide config fields such as http, metrics, logger, resources, and so on. |
| rpk connect template | Work with Redpanda Connect templates. Templates allow you to define reusable configuration patterns. |
| rpk connect test | Run unit tests defined in Redpanda Connect configuration files to verify pipeline behavior. |
| rpk connect uninstall | Uninstall the Redpanda Connect plugin. |
| rpk connect upgrade | Upgrade to the latest Redpanda Connect version. |

## [](#global-flags)Global flags

| Value | Type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| --config | string | Redpanda or rpk config file; default search paths are ~/.config/rpk/rpk.yaml, $PWD/redpanda.yaml, and /etc/redpanda/redpanda.yaml. |
| -X, --config-opt | stringArray | Override rpk configuration settings; -X help for detail or -X list for terser detail. |
| --ignore-profile | bool | Ignore rpk.yaml and redpanda.yaml; use default settings. |
| --profile | string | rpk profile to use. |
| -v, --verbose | bool | Enable verbose logging. |