Silverback

Simplicity at its core. Flexibility at its peak. Effortless messaging for .NET.

A message bus and broker integration library to build event-driven architectures with first-class support for Apache Kafka and MQTT.

Get Started Samples GitHub

dotnet add package Silverback.Integration.Kafka

Produce and Consume in a Few Lines

Configure the broker connection, the producer and consumer endpoints, and a subscriber. Silverback takes care of serialization, headers, error handling and delivery.

services.AddSilverback()
    .WithConnectionToMessageBroker(options => options.AddKafka())
    .AddKafkaClients(clients => clients
        .WithBootstrapServers("PLAINTEXT://localhost:9092")
        .AddProducer(producer => producer
            .Produce<OrderCreated>(endpoint => endpoint
                .ProduceTo("orders")))
        .AddConsumer(consumer => consumer
            .WithGroupId("billing")
            .Consume<OrderCreated>(endpoint => endpoint
                .ConsumeFrom("orders")
                .OnError(policy => policy.Retry(3).ThenSkip()))))
    .AddSingletonSubscriber<OrderCreatedHandler>();

// Publish: the message is routed to the "orders" topic
await publisher.PublishAsync(new OrderCreated(orderId));

// Consume: the subscriber is invoked for each consumed message
public class OrderCreatedHandler
{
    public Task HandleAsync(OrderCreated message) => ...;
}

Why Silverback

Kafka-First, Not Kafka-Only

A consistent, fluent API for Kafka and MQTT that still surfaces partitions, keys, tombstones and transactions.

Reliable by Design

Transactional outbox, error policies (retry, skip, move) and storage-backed offsets and locks.

Built for Throughput

Partition-based parallelism, batch processing, streaming and chunking of large payloads.

Cross-Cutting Features

Serialization, Schema Registry (JSON, Avro, Protobuf), headers, validation and end-to-end encryption.

Observable

Structured logging, distributed tracing via System.Diagnostics and health checks.

Testable

In-memory Kafka and MQTT brokers and testing helpers for fast and reliable end-to-end tests.

Explore the Documentation

Quickstart

Produce and consume via Kafka in five minutes.

Setting Up Silverback

Packages, registration and configuration basics.

Using the Message Bus

Publish and subscribe in-process, behaviors and return values.

Producing Messages

Endpoints, routing, headers, outbox and Kafka specifics.

Consuming Messages

Subscribers, parallelism, batches and error handling.

Samples

Runnable Kafka and MQTT examples.

Migrating from v4

Step-by-step upgrade guide to Silverback 5.

FAQ and Troubleshooting

Answers to the most common questions.

API Reference

The complete public API.

Supported .NET Versions

Starting with v5, Silverback targets the latest .NET LTS (Long-Term Support) version only. It can run on newer compatible .NET versions (including STS releases), but older frameworks are no longer targeted or supported. This policy reduces maintenance overhead and keeps Silverback aligned with the .NET platform lifecycle.

Community

Issues – report bugs or suggest improvements.
Discussions – ask questions and share ideas.
Contributing – how to contribute.

Silverback is open source, licensed under the MIT License and maintained by Sergio Aquilini. Learn more about the project, its maintainer and the libraries it builds upon in About Silverback.