No, I am not talking about Kafka Message Key. Rather key/value pair which comes separately as below.
Headers<eclipse-javadoc:%E2%98%82=event_dataflow_activity/C:%5C/maven%5C/.m2%5C/repository%5C/org%5C/apache%5C/kafka%5C/kafka-clients%5C/3.4.0%5C/kafka-clients-3.4.0.jar=/maven.pomderived=/true=/=/maven.groupId=/org.apache.kafka=/=/maven.artifactId=/kafka-clients=/=/maven.version=/3.4.0=/=/maven.scope=/compile=/=/maven.pomderived=/true=/%3Corg.apache.kafka.clients.consumer(ConsumerRecord.class%E2%98%83ConsumerRecord~headers%E2%98%82org.apache.kafka.common.header.Headers> org<eclipse-javadoc:%E2%98%82=event_dataflow_activity/C:%5C/maven%5C/.m2%5C/repository%5C/org%5C/apache%5C/kafka%5C/kafka-clients%5C/3.4.0%5C/kafka-clients-3.4.0.jar=/maven.pomderived=/true=/=/maven.groupId=/org.apache.kafka=/=/maven.artifactId=/kafka-clients=/=/maven.version=/3.4.0=/=/maven.scope=/compile=/=/maven.pomderived=/true=/%3Corg>.apache<eclipse-javadoc:%E2%98%82=event_dataflow_activity/C:%5C/maven%5C/.m2%5C/repository%5C/org%5C/apache%5C/kafka%5C/kafka-clients%5C/3.4.0%5C/kafka-clients-3.4.0.jar=/maven.pomderived=/true=/=/maven.groupId=/org.apache.kafka=/=/maven.artifactId=/kafka-clients=/=/maven.version=/3.4.0=/=/maven.scope=/compile=/=/maven.pomderived=/true=/%3Corg.apache>.kafka<eclipse-javadoc:%E2%98%82=event_dataflow_activity/C:%5C/maven%5C/.m2%5C/repository%5C/org%5C/apache%5C/kafka%5C/kafka-clients%5C/3.4.0%5C/kafka-clients-3.4.0.jar=/maven.pomderived=/true=/=/maven.groupId=/org.apache.kafka=/=/maven.artifactId=/kafka-clients=/=/maven.version=/3.4.0=/=/maven.scope=/compile=/=/maven.pomderived=/true=/%3Corg.apache.kafka>.clients<eclipse-javadoc:%E2%98%82=event_dataflow_activity/C:%5C/maven%5C/.m2%5C/repository%5C/org%5C/apache%5C/kafka%5C/kafka-clients%5C/3.4.0%5C/kafka-clients-3.4.0.jar=/maven.pomderived=/true=/=/maven.groupId=/org.apache.kafka=/=/maven.artifactId=/kafka-clients=/=/maven.version=/3.4.0=/=/maven.scope=/compile=/=/maven.pomderived=/true=/%3Corg.apache.kafka.clients>.consumer<eclipse-javadoc:%E2%98%82=event_dataflow_activity/C:%5C/maven%5C/.m2%5C/repository%5C/org%5C/apache%5C/kafka%5C/kafka-clients%5C/3.4.0%5C/kafka-clients-3.4.0.jar=/maven.pomderived=/true=/=/maven.groupId=/org.apache.kafka=/=/maven.artifactId=/kafka-clients=/=/maven.version=/3.4.0=/=/maven.scope=/compile=/=/maven.pomderived=/true=/%3Corg.apache.kafka.clients.consumer>.ConsumerRecord<eclipse-javadoc:%E2%98%82=event_dataflow_activity/C:%5C/maven%5C/.m2%5C/repository%5C/org%5C/apache%5C/kafka%5C/kafka-clients%5C/3.4.0%5C/kafka-clients-3.4.0.jar=/maven.pomderived=/true=/=/maven.groupId=/org.apache.kafka=/=/maven.artifactId=/kafka-clients=/=/maven.version=/3.4.0=/=/maven.scope=/compile=/=/maven.pomderived=/true=/%3Corg.apache.kafka.clients.consumer(ConsumerRecord.class%E2%98%83ConsumerRecord>.headers() From: Nikola Milutinovic <n.milutino...@levi9.com> Sent: 25 August 2025 14:56 To: user@flink.apache.org Subject: Re: Sharing data among flink operator pipeline Hi Kamal. When you say “Kafka Headers”, are you referring to “Kafka Message Key”? In Kafka, messages come as Key/Value pairs. You can omit the key, but if you do have it, you can read it in the job and then use it when writing to the other topic. Nix. From: Kamal Mittal via user <user@flink.apache.org<mailto:user@flink.apache.org>> Date: Thursday, August 21, 2025 at 11:35 AM To: user@flink.apache.org<mailto:user@flink.apache.org> <user@flink.apache.org<mailto:user@flink.apache.org>> Subject: Sharing data among flink operator pipeline Hello, I have a scenario like for kafka source where kafka headers also come along with kafka record/event. Kafka headers fetched need to share/pass to next/parallel operators in pipeline. So, is there any way to share data across operator pipeline? Explored keyed state which has limitation that only with keyby() it will work. Explored broadcast state which limitation that it can only work with process functions and not with map/flatmap/filter etc. Rgds, Kamal
