Zilla Gateway

The Kafka Gateway

Multi-protocol, stateless proxy that translates HTTP, SSE, MQTT, and gRPC to and from Kafka — declaratively configured, with schema validation, auth, and TLS termination built in. No custom code. No Kafka Connect. No middleware.

Quickstart

GitHub

Docs

Install: docker pull ghcr.io/aklivity/zilla

zilla.yaml
# Expose a Kafka topic as an SSE stream
name: sse-kafka-fanout

bindings:
  north_tcp:
    type: tcp
    kind: server
    options:
      host: 0.0.0.0
      port: 7114
    exit: north_http

  north_http:
    type: http
    kind: server
    exit: north_sse

  north_sse:
    type: sse
    kind: server
    exit: south_kafka

  south_kafka:
    type: kafka
    kind: client
    options:
      servers:
        - kafka:9092

Powering Global Data Driven Organizations

Before / After

What Zilla Replaces

Every protocol bridge you'd otherwise build by hand.

Without Zilla

Custom consumer services per protocol
MQTT broker + Kafka Connect bridge
REST-to-Kafka adapter microservices
SSE fanout server + consumer group management
gRPC-to-Kafka translation layer
Per-service auth, TLS, schema validation

With Zilla

One declarative YAML config
Native MQTT-to-Kafka at the gateway
HTTP produce/consume built into the proxy
SSE fanout from Kafka topics, zero custom code
gRPC-Kafka proxying with Protobuf validation
Auth, TLS, schema validation — all at the edge

Protocol Support

Every Protocol, One Gateway

Zilla speaks each protocol natively not via adapters. Messages flow directly between ingress protocol and Kafka with zero intermediate serialization.

HTTP

REST ↔ Kafka

CRUD operations on Kafka topics via HTTP. Produce with POST, consume with GET. Idempotent message keys, content-type negotiation, and correlation.

POST /events → kafka:events-topic

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SSE

SSE (Server-Sent Events) ← Kafka

Real-time streaming from Kafka topics to browser clients. Reliable delivery with message IDs, automatic reconnect, and historical replay from offset.

GET /events (Accept: text/event-stream)

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MQTT

MQTT ↔ Kafka

Zilla acts as an MQTT broker backed by Kafka. Publish/subscribe with topic mapping, QoS support, and session state stored in Kafka. No separate MQTT broker needed.

mqtt://gateway:1883 → kafka:iot-telemetry

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gRPC

gRPC ↔ Kafka

Proxy gRPC requests to Kafka topics. Protobuf schema validation at the gateway. Supports unary, server-streaming, and bidirectional patterns.

grpc.service/Method → kafka:grpc-requests

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Kafka

Kafka ↔ Kafka Plus

Kafka-protocol-aware proxy for native clients. Custom domains, TLS termination, auth at the edge. Virtual clusters for multi-tenant isolation. No client-side changes.

kafka://gateway:9092 → kafka://msk:9094

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Specs

AsyncAPI & OpenAPI Compatible

Define your gateway config from existing AsyncAPI or OpenAPI specs. Zilla reads the spec and generates the routing, validation, and auth configuration automatically.

asyncapi: ./kafka-events.yaml

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Performance

Purpose-Built for Streaming

Not a wrapper around Netty or generic networking libraries. Every layer is custom-built for real-time data movement.

<3%

Added proxy latency

Near-zero latency tax

Persistent state in data plane

Fully stateless gateway

Throughput vs. alternatives

Under equivalent load

SIMD

Optimized schema validation

Wire-speed JSON/Avro/Protobuf

Stateless Runtime

No embedded database, no local disk, no session stores. Add or remove instances without coordination. Failed instances replaced instantly with zero impact. Contrast with competing gateways that require persistent storage in the data plane.

Streaming-Native Engine

Custom event-driven engine — not assembled from off-the-shelf components. Every byte processed through a purpose-built pipeline. Millions of concurrent connections with predictable, low-latency performance.

Architecture Deep Dive

Multi-Core Optimized

Zero cross-core coordination between protocol bindings. No unnecessary serialization or buffering. Messages flow from ingress to Kafka with minimal memory allocation and no GC pressure.

See Benchmarks

Wire-Speed Validation

SIMD-optimized parsers for JSON, Avro, and Protobuf. Messages validated as they stream — no full-message buffering. Data quality enforcement without sacrificing throughput.

Zilla Plus

Kafka-Client Proxying

Zilla Plus adds Kafka-native proxying, enterprise integrations, and battle-tested deployment patterns for Amazon MSK and Confluent Cloud.

Secure Public Access

Expose private MSK or Confluent Cloud clusters to the internet. Custom domains, TLS, auth at the edge. Kafka clients connect from anywhere.

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Secure Private Access

Cross-VPC and cross-account access to MSK Serverless — without VPC peering, PrivateLink, or Transit Gateway complexity.

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IoT Ingest & Control

MQTT devices publish and subscribe via Zilla directly to Kafka. No MQTT broker. Session state in Kafka. Schema enforcement at the gateway.

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Web Streaming

Expose MSK topics to web and mobile clients via REST and SSE. Browser apps consume real-time data without Kafka clients or consumer groups.

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Virtual Clusters

Multi-tenant Kafka access through a single gateway. Isolated namespaces, per-tenant auth, and independent topic visibility — without separate clusters.

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Editions

Community vs. Plus

Open source gets you protocol translation and schema validation. Plus adds Kafka-native proxying, enterprise integrations, and production deployment patterns.

Capability	Zilla Plus+	Zilla Community Edition
Web Streaming \| HTTP+SEE to Kafka Proxying
IoT Ingest and Control \| MQTT to Kafka Proxying
Event Mesh \| gRPC to Kafka Proxying
Secure Public Access \| for Amazon MSK and Confluent Cloud		—
Secure Private Access \| for Amazon MSK Serverless		—
Kafka Virtual Clusters \| Support multi-tenant Kafka access		—
Security \| JWT auth, SSL/TLS via AWS PCA, secrets via Secrets Manager		JWT client auth only
Logging \| Stdout, Syslog, AWS CloudWatch		Stdout only
Monitoring \| Prometheus exporter
Schema Registry Integrations \| Confluent SR, Karapace, AWS Glue		Karapace only
API Registry Support \| Apicurio
AsyncAPI Support \| for validation and configuration
OpenAPI Support \| for validation and configuration
Management Console \| configure Zilla Gateways, manage access & policy, design & productize APIs		—
Deployment	CDK, Terraform, K8s	Homebrew, Docker, K8s
Support	Dedicated Enterprise support with SLA	Community Slack Channel

Beyond the Gateway

Zilla Gateway → Zilla Platform

Zilla Gateway is the data plane of the Zilla Platform. When you need governance, self-service, data products, and observability — deploy the management control plane and your existing gateways dial in automatically.

OPEN SOURCE

Zilla Gateway

Expose Kafka to non-Kafka clients through stateless APIs. Protocol translation for HTTP, gRPC, SSE, and MQTT.

View on GitHub

Multi-protocol translation
Declarative YAML config
Stateless runtime
Schema validation

COMMERCIAL

Zilla Plus Gateway

Everything in open source, plus Kafka-native proxying, custom domains, and enterprise integrations.

Learn more

Kafka client proxying
Custom domain names
AWS Glue, Confluent SR
CloudWatch, Syslog

ENTERPRISE

Zilla Platform

Full management control plane. API data products, Kafka Endpoints, governance, self-service catalog, and observability.

Explore

API Data Products & catalog
Kafka Endpoints with policy enforcement
Self-service developer portal
Kafka governance policies
Data privacy & field-level encryption
Unified observability & diagnostics

“Zilla’s extensive protocol support, integrations with AWS services such as Glue Schema Registry and Secrets Manager, as well as robust logging capabilities, gives me confidence it can be a one-stop solution for all of our external MSK integration needs.”