---
title: Pulsar
slug: telemetry-pipeline/pulsar
docTags: 
createdAt: 2025-04-21T00:53:32.069Z
---

## Pulsar Source

The **Pulsar source** collects observability data from **Apache Pulsar topics** and converts incoming events into internal telemetry signals. It supports **logs, metrics, and traces** as output types, making it suitable for unified observability pipelines where Pulsar acts as the ingestion backbone.

This source runs in **stateless** mode, operates as an **aggregator**, and provides **at-least-once delivery semantics** with end-to-end acknowledgements enabled.

## Connection Settings

### endpoint (required, string)

Specifies the Pulsar broker endpoint that the client connects to.

- Defines the network address of the Pulsar cluster entry point. 
- Typically points to a broker or proxy service. 

**Operational note:**
 Ensure network connectivity and proper routing to the Pulsar brokers, especially in multi-tenant or geo-distributed deployments.

### topics (required, string)

Defines the Pulsar topic names from which observability events are consumed.

- Supports standard Pulsar topic naming conventions. 
- The source consumes events continuously from the specified topics. 

**Operational note:**
 Topic-level access control must allow read permissions for the configured authentication identity.

## Authentication

### auth (optional, object)

Defines the authentication mechanism used by the Pulsar client.

Multiple authentication strategies are supported depending on cluster configuration and security requirements.

### Basic / Token-Based Authentication

auth.name (optional, string)

Authentication identity name.

Used in conjunction with token-based or basic authentication mechanisms supported by the Pulsar cluster.

auth.token (optional, string)

Authentication token or secret.

**Security note:**
 This value should be treated as sensitive and stored securely using secret management mechanisms.

### OAuth2 Authentication

auth.oauth2 (optional, object)

Configuration block for OAuth2-based authentication.

Used in secured Pulsar deployments with centralized identity providers.

auth.oauth2.credentials\_url (required, string)

URL that provides OAuth2 client credentials.

- The data: URL scheme is also supported. 

auth.oauth2.issuer\_url (required, string)

URL of the OAuth2 token issuer.

Used to validate and obtain access tokens.

auth.oauth2.audience (optional, string)

OAuth2 audience claim.

Defines the intended recipient of the issued token.

auth.oauth2.scope (optional, string)

OAuth2 scope requested during authentication.

Used to limit permissions granted to the Pulsar client.

## Operational Considerations

- This source is designed for **stream-based ingestion** and is suitable for high-throughput environments. 
- At-least-once delivery may result in duplicate events; downstream systems should be idempotent where possible. 
- Authentication configuration must match the Pulsar cluster’s enabled security mechanisms. 
- Topic retention and backlog policies directly affect data availability and recovery behavior.