Kafka Error UNSUPPORTED_COMPRESSION_TYPE
Error code 76 · Non-retriable Producer
The requesting client does not support the compression type of given partition.
Common Causes
- Producer sends messages compressed with `zstd` but the consumer (older client library) or broker (pre-2.1) does not support zstd
- Broker has `compression.type=lz4` set for a topic but the consuming client library predates LZ4 support
- Using `snappy` compression with a client that is missing the native snappy library in its environment
Solutions
- Align compression types: check broker/topic `compression.type` setting and ensure all consumers run a client version that supports it
- Downgrade producer compression to `gzip` or `lz4` for broad compatibility if you cannot upgrade all consumers simultaneously
- For zstd: upgrade all consumers to Kafka client 2.1+ before enabling zstd on producers; check with `kafka-broker-api-versions.sh` to confirm broker support
Diagnostic Commands
# Check topic compression configuration
kafka-configs.sh --bootstrap-server localhost:9092 --describe --entity-type topics --entity-name <topic> | grep compression
# Check broker supported API versions
kafka-broker-api-versions.sh --bootstrap-server localhost:9092 | grep -i 'Produce\|version'
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