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r-vasquez merged 1 commit into from
Apr 6, 2026
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rpk/docs: update topic consume reference #30022

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19 changes: 14 additions & 5 deletions src/go/rpk/pkg/cli/topic/consume.go
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Expand Up @@ -877,9 +877,9 @@ Consuming records reads from any amount of input topics, formats each record
according to --format, and prints them to STDOUT. The output formatter
understands a wide variety of formats.

The default output format "--format json" is a special format that outputs each
record as JSON. There may be more single-word-no-escapes formats added later.
Outside of these special formats, formatting follows the rules described below.
--format json is the default, and outputs each record as a JSON object. There
may be more single-word-no-escapes formats added later. Outside of these special
formats, formatting follows the rules described below.
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@micheleRP micheleRP Apr 6, 2026

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--format json is the default, and outputs each record as a JSON object. There
may be more single-word-no-escapes formats added later. Outside of these special
formats, formatting follows the rules described below.
The default output format is --format json, which outputs each record as a JSON object. Outside of these special formats, formatting follows the rules described.


Formatting output is based on percent escapes and modifiers. Slashes can be
used for common escapes:
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -1047,7 +1047,7 @@ specification, similar to timestamps above:

Unpacking text can allow translating binary input into readable output. If a
value is a big-endian uint32, %v will print the raw four bytes, while
%v{unpack[>I]} will print the number in as ascii. If unpacking exhausts the
%v{unpack[>I]} will print the number as ASCII. If unpacking exhausts the
input before something is unpacked fully, an error message is appended to the
output.

Expand All @@ -1065,9 +1065,10 @@ of the above rules about %K, %V, text, and numbers apply.
VALUES

Values for consumed records can be omitted by using the '--meta-only' flag.

Tombstone records (records with a 'null' value) have their value omitted
from the JSON output by default. All other records, including those with
an empty-string value (""), will have their values printed.
an empty-string value (""), have their values printed.

EXAMPLES

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -1128,4 +1129,12 @@ For example,
-o @-48h:-24h consume from 2 days ago to 1 day ago
-o @-1m:end consume from 1m ago until now
-o @:-1hr consume from the start until an hour ago

CONNECTION BEHAVIOR

By default, 'rpk topic consume' runs continuously, waiting for new records to
arrive. It does not exit after consuming existing records. To stop consuming,
press Ctrl+C. You can also use '--num' to exit after a fixed number of records,
or use '--offset' to define a stop point (for example, '-o :end' stops at the
current log end).
`
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