NATS Messaging

Build event-driven systems with NATS. Sets up pub/sub, request/reply, JetStream persistent streaming, and key-value store for microservice messaging — a lightweight alternative to Kafka and RabbitMQ.

This skill makes Claude a NATS expert. It designs subject hierarchies for pub/sub and request/reply, configures JetStream for durable streaming with consumers, replay, and at-least-once delivery, and uses the KV and object stores. Covers queue groups for load balancing, clustering and super-clusters, and client wiring in Go, Python, and JavaScript for real-time, event-driven architectures.

When to use

Use when setting up pub/sub or event-driven messaging, configuring JetStream durable streams, replacing Kafka or RabbitMQ with NATS, or wiring microservice communication.

Examples

Set up pub/sub

Subject design

Design a NATS subject hierarchy for order events and wire up a Go publisher and subscriber

Durable streaming

JetStream

Configure a JetStream stream with a durable consumer that replays missed messages on reconnect

Queue groups

Load balance

Set up a NATS queue group so three worker instances share the processing of a task subject