Docker Compose for running Apache Kafka locally, accessible from the internet using ngrok

For details of how this works, see this blog (and take note of possible problems you might encounter).

To use this you need to create an ngrok account and add a file called .env in this folder with the following entry:

NGROK_AUTH_TOKEN=<your_token>

Bring up the Kafka and ngrok stack with

docker compose up

Once up, find out your Kafka broker host/post that is available on the internet:

curl -s localhost:4040/api/tunnels | jq -r '.tunnels[0].public_url' | sed 's/tcp:\/\///g'

Warning

There is NO SECURITY defined on this Kafka cluster. Anyone scanning the ngrok address/port may find this and be able to access your data.

kcat is included.

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