Getting started - Kafka Connect

This guide shows how to integrate superstream-client into Kafka Connect so your connectors.

What you’ll set up

• Kafka Source Connector with the superstream-client Java package

• Required environment variables

• Optional environment variables

1. Download the SuperClient package

Always ensure you are using the most up-to-date version of the SuperClient package from Maven Central, GitHub Releases, or your internal artifact repository.

From Maven Central – Add the dependency in your build system and include the JAR in your Kafka Connect image or plugin path.

Or,

From GitHub – Download the JAR and place it in the Kafka Connect plugin path (for example /opt/kafka/plugins/superstream-clients/).

2. Set Up Environment Variables

Required Environment Variable: Attaches the Superstream Java agent to the Connect JVM. Ensure the path matches the actual location of the JAR inside the container/host.

- name: JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS
  value: "-javaagent:/opt/kafka/plugins/superstream-clients/superstream-clients-<latest>.jar"

Optional Variables

• SUPERSTREAM_LATENCY_SENSITIVE Set to "true" to prevent any modifications to linger.ms values.

• SUPERSTREAM_DISABLED Set to "true" to disable all Superstream optimizations.

• SUPERSTREAM_DEBUG Set to "true" to enable debug logs.

⚠️ If your environment already uses JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS, append the -javaagent=... flag without overwriting existing options.