Rift

PostgreSQL CDC pipeline in a single Go binary. No Kafka. No JVM. No complexity.

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The problem

Syncing data out of Postgres usually means:

Postgres → Debezium → Kafka → Kafka Connect → Destination

Four systems to run, monitor, and debug. Most small teams don't need that complexity.

Rift

Postgres → Rift → Destination

One binary. One config file. Done.

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How it works

Rift connects to your Postgres database using logical replication and streams every INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE to your destinations in real time.

If a destination goes down, Rift writes events to a local BoltDB disk queue and automatically drains them when the destination recovers. No events lost.

DDL changes like ALTER TABLE and CREATE TABLE are captured via PostgreSQL event triggers and streamed to destinations as structured events - so your downstream systems always know when the schema changes.

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Quickstart

1. Enable logical replication in postgresql.conf

wal_level = logical

2. Create rift.yaml

source:
  type: postgres
  url: postgres://user:pass@localhost:5432/mydb?replication=database
  slot: rift_slot
  publication: rift_pub

destinations:
  - name: my-webhook
    type: webhook
    url: https://myapp.com/webhook/changes
    headers:
      Authorization: Bearer your-token

  - name: analytics-db
    type: postgres
    url: postgres://user:pass@analytics:5432/analytics

  - name: cache
    type: redis
    url: redis://localhost:6379

queue:
  enabled: true
  path: ./rift-queue
  max_size_mb: 1000

filter:
  script: ./filter.js

3. Install and run

go install github.com/mujib77/rift@latest
rift run

Or build locally:

go build -o rift .
./rift run

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JS Filtering

Filter events at source before they consume bandwidth:

function filter(event) {
  // only sync enterprise users
  if (event.data.plan !== 'enterprise') return false

  // drop test emails
  if (event.data.email.includes('test@')) return false

  // drop deletes
  if (event.operation === 'DELETE') return false

  return true
}

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DDL Tracking + Auto-Apply

Most CDC tools break when you run ALTER TABLE. Rift handles it — and actually keeps your destinations in sync.

When a schema change happens on the source, Rift captures the exact SQL via PostgreSQL event triggers, streams it to every destination as a structured event, and automatically applies it to Postgres destinations:

{
  "table": "public.users",
  "operation": "DDL",
  "data": {
    "command": "ALTER TABLE",
    "object_type": "table",
    "object_name": "public.users",
    "query_text": "ALTER TABLE users ADD COLUMN city TEXT;",
    "captured_at": "2026-05-20T14:32:00Z"
  }
}

Non-Postgres destinations (webhook, Redis) receive the same event as structured metadata so downstream systems can react to schema changes instead of breaking silently.

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Event format

{
  "table": "users",
  "operation": "INSERT",
  "data": {
    "id": "1",
    "name": "Mujib",
    "email": "mujib@example.com"
  },
  "lsn": "0/16C752F8",
  "timestamp": "2026-05-20T14:32:00Z"
}

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Destinations

Type	Status	Description
Webhook	✅ v0.1.0	HTTP POST with JSON payload
HTTP	✅ v0.1.0	Generic HTTP endpoint
Postgres	✅ v0.3.0	Real-time DB to DB sync
Redis	✅ v0.4.0	Pub/sub + rolling event list

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Disk Queue

When a destination goes offline Rift switches to air-gap mode automatically.

Events write to local BoltDB instead of being dropped. When the destination recovers Rift drains the queue and resumes. No events lost. No manual intervention.

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Roadmap

v0.5.0  ✅  DDL schema tracking via event triggers
v0.6.0  ✅  DDL auto-apply to Postgres destinations + Cobra CLI
v1.0.0  →   Production ready — Debezium alternative

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Why not Debezium?

	Debezium	Rift
Dependencies	Java + Kafka + ZooKeeper	None
Setup time	Hours	Minutes
Binary size	~500MB	~15MB
DDL handling	Breaks pipelines	Streams as events + auto-applies to Postgres
Disk resilience	Needs Kafka	Embedded BoltDB
Filtering	Kafka Connect SMT	Simple JS function

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Requirements

• PostgreSQL 12+ with wal_level = logical
• Go 1.26+

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License

MIT