Implementation:Apache Kafka KafkaAdminClient ListTopics

Knowledge Sources	Apache Kafka
Domains	Administration, Monitoring
Last Updated	2026-02-09 12:00 GMT

Overview

Concrete tool for listing Kafka topics via the AdminClient API provided by KafkaAdminClient.

Description

The KafkaAdminClient.listTopics method sends a MetadataRequest to any broker and returns a map of topic names to TopicListing objects. Internal topics can be filtered based on the ListTopicsOptions.

Usage

Use via kafka-topics.sh --list or programmatically through the Admin interface.

Code Reference

Source Location

• Repository: Apache Kafka
• File: clients/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/admin/KafkaAdminClient.java
• Lines: L2103-2133

Signature

public ListTopicsResult listTopics(final ListTopicsOptions options)

Import

import org.apache.kafka.clients.admin.Admin;
import org.apache.kafka.clients.admin.ListTopicsResult;
import org.apache.kafka.clients.admin.ListTopicsOptions;

I/O Contract

Inputs

Name	Type	Required	Description
options	ListTopicsOptions	No	Options including listInternal flag

Outputs

Name	Type	Description
ListTopicsResult	ListTopicsResult	Contains KafkaFuture<Set<String>> of topic names and KafkaFuture<Map<String, TopicListing>>

Usage Examples

List Topics via CLI

bin/kafka-topics.sh --bootstrap-server localhost:9092 --list
bin/kafka-topics.sh --bootstrap-server localhost:9092 --list --exclude-internal

List Topics Programmatically

try (Admin admin = Admin.create(props)) {
    Set<String> topics = admin.listTopics().names().get();
    topics.forEach(System.out::println);
}

Related Pages

Implements Principle

• Principle:Apache_Kafka_Topic_Listing