Hi David,

Thanks for the clarification. For the two points you shared:

1. I think the key point is that Connect handles this via a separate set of
classes - not the Consumer.
2. Can we make it explicit in the KIP that we will migrate this Connect
usage to the new rebalance protocol by default in 5.0?

In addition, I wonder if it's a good idea to deprecate the classic consumer
in 4.3 - isn't that a bit aggressive? Perhaps deprecation should wait until
KIP-848 is more widely used. We can still encourage folks to try the
consumer group protocol. I think a reasonable target for actual deprecation
would be a 4.x release roughly a year from now.

Ismael

On Tue, Jan 27, 2026 at 7:56 AM David Jacot via dev <[email protected]>
wrote:

> Ismael,
>
> We need to discuss two cases for Connect:
>
> 1) Connect uses the classic rebalance protocol to assign its tasks within a
> Connect cluster. This will keep working until we figure out a plan to
> migrate this part to another protocol (e.g. Connect protocol following
> Streams protocol). This is completely orthogonal from the Consumer.
>
> 2) Connect uses Consumers in sources/sinks to read from topics. Those
> consumers can use the consumer rebalance protocol without any issues. They
> can just follow the upgrade path and use the new protocol when the config
> changes.
>
> This means that in 6.0, Connect's Consumer will use the new rebalance
> protocol whereas Connect's runtime will continue to use the classic
> protocol to distribute its tasks.
>
> Lianet, we should perhaps clarify this in the KIP.
>
> Best,
> David
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 27, 2026 at 4:27 PM Ismael Juma <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > Lianet,
> >
> > Thanks for the KIP. I think this is a desirable goal, but it seems
> > premature without a plan for Connect. Removing the config for regular
> users
> > while allowing it for Connect seems problematic. While we figure the
> > details of that and the deprecation story for the classic rebalance
> > protocol, we could still agree to a log line during start-up recommending
> > `classic` users to switch to the switch to `consumer` (after appropriate
> > testing).
> >
> > Ismael
> >
> > On Thu, Jan 22, 2026 at 2:05 PM Lianet Magrans <[email protected]>
> wrote:
> >
> > >  Hello,
> > >
> > > I would like to start the discussion for KIP-1274. This KIP proposes a
> > > phased plan to drive a smooth evolution of Java client consumer
> > > applications towards the next generation of the rebalance protocol
> > >
> > > Here is the KIP:
> > >
> > >
> >
> https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/KIP-1274%3A+Deprecate+and+remove+support+for+Classic+rebalance+protocol+in+KafkaConsumer
> > >
> > > Looking forward to hearing from you,
> > >
> > > Thanks!
> > > Lianet
> > >
> >
>

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