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Quick Start

The Open Outbox Relay is a high-performance bridge that ensures “at-least-once” delivery of events from your database to your message broker.


The fastest way to see the Relay in action is our pre-configured demo environment. It spins up Postgres, NATS, and the Relay automatically.

  1. Start the environment:

    Terminal window
    git clone https://github.com/open-outbox/relay.git
    cd relay/examples/demo
    docker compose up -d
  2. Simulate a business event: Insert a record directly into the Postgres outbox table. The Relay will detect it and deliver it to NATS instantly.

    Terminal window
    docker compose exec postgres psql -U postgres -d postgres -c \
    "INSERT INTO openoutbox_events (event_id, event_type, payload, partition_key)
    VALUES (gen_random_uuid(), 'openoutbox.events.demo', '{\"id\": 123, \"name\": \"Alice\"}', '123');"
  3. Check the logs:

    Verify the Relay picked up the event:

    Terminal window
    docker compose logs relay

Now that you’ve seen the Relay in action, you’re ready to integrate it into your own infrastructure.