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The Debezium connector for PlanetScale runs on Confluent Cloud as a custom connector: you upload the connector’s Kafka Connect plugin archive once, then create connectors from it like any managed connector. This page walks through the upload and the connector wizard. Before you start, you need:

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Upload the plugin and create the connector

Upload the plugin archive as a custom connector and configure it like a self-hosted Kafka Connect connector.
1
In Confluent Cloud, go to Connectors → Add plugin. In the Upload custom connector plugin dialog choose Create new plugin, give it a name such as PlanetScale 3.6.3.Final-r1, pick the cloud provider of your Kafka cluster, and upload planetscale-debezium-connector-planetscale-<version>.zip (zip or jar, 250 MB maximum). Take a look at our connector releases on GitHub.
Confluent Cloud: Upload custom connector plugin dialog with the PlanetScale connector zip
When a new connector release comes out, use Add version to an existing plugin on the same dialog instead of creating a new plugin.
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Click Continue. Confluent reads the plugin manifest from the archive and shows the plugin details: the version, the type (Source), the documentation link, and the connector classes it found.
Confluent Cloud: connector plugin details listing the four connector classes found in the archive
The archive contains four connector classes. Use com.planetscale.debezium.PlanetscaleConnector. The other three (com.planetscale.labs.io.debezium.connector.vitess…, com.planetscale.labs.io.debezium.connector.mysql…, and io.debezium.connector.mysql.MySqlConnector) are internal dependencies bundled with the plugin and are not meant to be run on their own.Click Create connector to go straight to creating a connector from the new plugin.You can also come back later: the plugin stays listed under Connectors → Connector Plugins (filter on Custom). From there, Get started creates a connector from it, and Add version uploads a newer release of the archive next to the existing one.
Confluent Cloud: Connector Plugins page showing the PlanetScale custom plugin with Get started and Add version
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The Add connector wizard opens on Connector details. Select the plugin version, keep the connector type on Source, and under Select class choose com.planetscale.debezium.PlanetscaleConnector.Under Kafka details, the defaults work: the connector targets Java 17, so JDK version 17 or newer is fine, and any offered Kafka version from 3.6 up is supported.
Confluent Cloud: Add connector wizard, connector details step with the PlanetScale class selected
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On Kafka access, pick or create the API key the connector uses to write to your cluster.
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On Configuration, Confluent shows the connector’s settings as a form. Fill in:
  • Topic prefix: the prefix for the topics the connector creates.
  • Keyspace: your PlanetScale database name.
  • Shard: leave empty to capture all shards. Ignore the field’s tooltip example of "0" for an unsharded keyspace: an unsharded Vitess keyspace’s shard is named -, and a 0 here makes the connector fail to start.
  • vgtid and gtid: leave at current to start streaming from the current position, after the initial snapshot.
  • Vitess database hostname and port: the hostname from your PlanetScale connection string, and 443. The port field is pre-filled with the connector’s default 15991. Change it to 443, the only port PlanetScale listens on.
  • User and Password: your PlanetScale password credentials. The password field is masked and stored encrypted by Confluent.
Confluent Cloud: Add connector wizard, configuration step with the PlanetScale connection settings
Confluent manages the offset and schema-history storage for you; there is nothing to configure for them.
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On Networking, add your PlanetScale hostname with port 443 (for example aws.connect.psdb.cloud:443) as a connection endpoint. Confluent allow-lists outbound traffic to it; without this the connector cannot reach PlanetScale. Confluent’s endpoint syntax is <hostname>:<port>, so include the port.
Confluent Cloud: Add connector wizard, networking step with the PlanetScale hostname as connection endpoint
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Choose a size on Sizing (one task is enough; the connector runs a single task), then Review and launch. The connector shows Provisioning for a minute or two and then Running with one task; the topics named <topic prefix>.<database>.<table> fill with the initial snapshot followed by live changes.
Confluent Cloud: PlanetScale connector overview showing Running with one task running
Under Topics, filter on your topic prefix to see one topic per captured table. Without a Table include list, every table in the database gets a topic.
Confluent Cloud: Topics page listing one topic per PlanetScale table under the connector's topic prefix
Your consumers subscribe to these topics; each message is a Debezium change event for one row.

Debezium connector for PlanetScale

Confluent custom connectors

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