SocketCluster
Scalable open source pub/sub SDK with support for RPC, JWT authentication and Kubernetes —
SocketCluster is an open source pub/sub SDK for building real-time applications over WebSockets. It addresses the challenges of maintaining ordered message processing, handling authentication, and scaling message brokers across distributed deployments. The framework is designed around asynchronous iteration, allowing data and events to be consumed with async/await and for-await-of loops rather than event listener callbacks.
The SDK provides lightweight pub/sub channels, RPC support, and JWT authentication by default. Middleware streams (MIDDLEWARE_HANDSHAKE, MIDDLEWARE_INBOUND, MIDDLEWARE_OUTBOUND, MIDDLEWARE_INBOUND_RAW) allow access control, throttling, and data transformation. Backpressure monitoring is available through socket.getInboundBackpressure() and socket.getOutboundBackpressure(). The socketcluster CLI tool includes kubectl shortcut commands and Kubernetes .yaml files for deployment, with scc-worker and scc-broker instances that can be scaled via kubectl. Client libraries are available for JavaScript, Java/Android, Python, .NET, Go, Swift/iOS, Ruby, and Unity.
SocketCluster targets developers building real-time, event-driven applications that require scalable message distribution and connection resilience. It is distributed as open source software, with documentation, guides, and an API reference available on GitHub.
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