Eventboat

v0.2.0-rc1

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

We’re excited to announce v0.2.0-rc1, the first release candidate of Eventboat — the agent-native event router.

What’s in the box

Agent-native: MCP server with 15 tools covering the full lifecycle (catalog → verify → test → explain → deploy → status → trigger → tail → dead-letter replay)
Zero-custom-language: CEL predicates (K8s standard) + Starlark transforms (Python dialect, sandboxed, deterministic)
Reliability engine: spool + settle + checkpoint on SQLite, seven invariant tests, kill -9 resume from watermark, dead-letter store with replay
Job pipelines: cron scheduling, catchup windows, overlap policies, typed parameters with backfill
Extension ladder: CEL → Starlark → WASM (wazero) → gRPC out-of-process plugins
CESQL dialect: optional CloudEvents interop, official TCK 100%
LSP: editor diagnostics, completion, and hover for pipeline YAML
CLI: 11 commands on lynx-go/commands with --json output for agents and CI

Quick start

go install github.com/eventboat/eventboat/cmd/eventboat@v0.2.0-rc1
eventboat help

What’s next

DNS for eventboat.dev is being configured
npm/PyPI/crates defensive registrations
Feedback from early users drives the v1.0 scope

→ Full changelog

CLI Reference

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Overview

eventboat [--json] verify --config <pipeline.yaml> [--strict]
eventboat [--json] test <testfile-or-dir> [...]
eventboat run --config <pipeline.yaml> [--data-dir DIR] [--ephemeral]
eventboat run --config-dir <dir> [--runtime runtime.yaml]
eventboat [--json] trigger --config <job.yaml> [--parameters '{"from":"..."}']
eventboat [--json] jobs list --config <job.yaml> [--limit N]
eventboat [--json] jobs show <run-id> --config <job.yaml>
eventboat [--json] explain --config <pipeline.yaml> [--message f.json] [--topology]
eventboat [--json] replay --config <pipeline.yaml> (--dlq | --spool --from N | --job <run-id>) [--dry-run]
eventboat repl [--message sample.json] [--cel 'expr' | --script f.star]
eventboat lsp
eventboat [--json] plugin catalog
eventboat [--json] plugin schema <name>
eventboat mcp (--stdio | --http) [--config-dir <dir>] [--data-dir DIR]

verify

Statically validate a pipeline. Checks schema, topology invariants (no cycles, no orphans, source has no in-edges, sink has no out-edges, at least one source→sink path), CEL predicate compilation, Starlark script compilation, job configuration, and semantic lint.

Installation

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Prerequisites

Go 1.25+ (for building from source)
No runtime dependencies — everything is compiled into one binary

Install

go install github.com/eventboat/eventboat/cmd/eventboat@latest

Verify:

eventboat help

You should see the help screen with 11 commands listed.

What’s in the binary

Component	Included
Engine (spool/settle/checkpoint)	✅
CLI (verify/test/run/trigger/jobs/explain/replay/repl/lsp/plugin/mcp)	✅
Built-in sources (kafka/http_server/cron/file/sql)	✅
Built-in sinks (kafka/http/file/drop)	✅
Built-in codecs (json/raw/csv/avro/protobuf)	✅
MCP server (15 tools)	✅
LSP (diagnostics/completion/hover)	✅
Admin REST + SSE + read-only UI	✅
OpenTelemetry (OTLP + Prometheus)	✅
SQLite storage (pure Go, no CGO)	✅

Next steps

What is Eventboat?

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Eventboat routes events through directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) of transforms — from sources (Kafka, HTTP, cron, SQL, files) to sinks (Kafka, HTTP, files), with at-least-once delivery, dead-lettering, and replay.

It is agent-native: every capability is accessible through MCP (Model Context Protocol), CLI, and a language server — so AI agents can write, verify, deploy, and operate pipelines autonomously.

What makes it different

Dimension	Approach
Predicates	CEL (Kubernetes standard) — zero custom DSL, huge training corpus
Transforms	Starlark (Python dialect, sandboxed, deterministic)
Verification	Four machine gates: verify, test, explain, operate
Reliability	Seven invariant tests, spool/settle/checkpoint engine on SQLite
Jobs	Cron scheduling, catchup windows, typed parameters, backfill
Extension	CEL → Starlark → WASM → gRPC out-of-process plugins
Interop	CESQL dialect (CloudEvents), official TCK 100%

The one-line pitch

Eventboat lets AI agents build and run event pipelines that don’t lose messages — because machines verify every step before it goes live.

Architecture

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Three-layer model

YAML (+overlay) → Config (typed) → Static IR → Runtime Engine
 ↓
 Source → Transform → Sink plugins

Config layer: YAML parsing, strict schema validation, variable substitution
Static IR: validated DAG + precompiled CEL programs + Starlark programs + schema
Runtime: spool + settle + checkpoint engine, consuming only the IR

Reliability model

source → [spool: append-only durable queue] → in-memory DAG → sinks
 │ │
 └── checkpoint ←── settle tracker ←── terminal states

Spool: every message hits SQLite before the DAG sees it (invariant 1)
Settle: each message settles when all branches reach terminal state
Checkpoint: advances only over settled prefix (invariant 2)
Crash recovery: kill -9 → restart → replay from checkpoint, never lose (invariant 3)
Dead letters: exhausted retries → DLQ store with query + replay CLI

Seven invariant tests

Each has a dedicated test that must pass in CI:

Configuration

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Top-level sections

Section	Required	Purpose
`apiVersion` / `kind` / `metadata`	✅	Resource identity (K8s convention)
`sources`	✅ (≥1)	Topology: where events come from
`transforms`	optional	Topology: what happens to events
`sinks`	✅ (≥1)	Topology: where events go
`run`	job pipelines only	Job scheduling (mode/schedule/overlap/catchup_window)
`parameters`	job optional	Typed job parameters with defaults
`constants`	optional	Read-only values visible to scripts and predicates
`hooks`	optional	Lifecycle hooks (failure/success → inline sink)
`limits`	optional	Per-pipeline resource limits
`edge_defaults`	optional	Default edge attributes
`codecs`	optional	Named codec declarations
`dlq`	optional	Dead-letter policy

Three-section topology

Nodes are organized by section; edges declared on the downstream side via from:

Your First Pipeline

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The three-section format

Every Eventboat pipeline is a single YAML file with three top-level sections: sources, transforms, and sinks — connected by from edges.

apiVersion: eventboat/v3
kind: Pipeline
metadata: { name: my-first-pipeline }

sources:
 ingest:
 cron: { expression: "*/5 * * * *" } # every 5 minutes

transforms:
 hello:
 from: [ingest]
 script: |
 payload.greeting = "hello from eventboat"
 payload.timestamp = meta.ingest_time

sinks:
 console:
 from: [hello]
 drop: {} # discard (demo)

Verify (gate 1)

eventboat verify --config pipeline.yaml

Output: pipeline.yaml: 0 error(s), 0 warning(s)