NATS Integration

Open Outbox Relay supports NATS JetStream for persistent, reliable event delivery. This allows you to leverage NATS as a lightweight, high-performance message broker.

Core Configuration

To enable the NATS publisher, set the following environment variables.

Variable	Description	Example
PUBLISHER_TYPE	Must be set to nats.	nats
PUBLISHER_URL	The NATS server connection string.	nats://localhost:4222
NATS_PUBLISH_TIMEOUT	Max time to wait for a JetStream ACK.	5s

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JetStream Requirement

Open Outbox Relay requires NATS JetStream to be enabled on your NATS cluster. The Relay publishes events to subjects, but those subjects must be backed by a Stream to ensure persistence.

Manual Stream Provisioning

The Relay does not create or manage NATS Streams. You must create your Streams beforehand using the NATS CLI or API.

Example Setup

If your database event_type is order.created, the Relay will publish to that exact NATS subject. You should create a stream that consumes that subject:

# Create a stream via NATS CLI
nats stream add ORDERS --subjects "order.*" --storage file --retention limits