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mqttui is EdJoPaTo’s terminal MQTT client for interactively viewing topic traffic or publishing a message. Its README also documents a publish command for one-off sends, retained messages, and payloads read from standard input, plus a logging mode that writes received messages to standard output. You need access to an MQTT broker; the documented default URI is mqtt://localhost.

What mqttui does

MQTT is a lightweight publish/subscribe messaging protocol: clients exchange messages through a broker rather than addressing one another directly. Eclipse Mosquitto’s MQTT manual describes the protocol and broker model.

EdJoPaTo describes mqttui as a way to “Subscribe to a MQTT Topic or publish something quickly from the terminal.” The project README documents an interactive terminal interface that can subscribe to all topics or a selected topic, along with separate publishing and logging workflows. See the mqttui README for the project’s own command syntax and release guidance.

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Connect to a broker

An MQTT client needs a broker to connect to. The README uses mqtt://localhost as the default broker URI and demonstrates a connection to test.mosquitto.org. The latter is a public test-broker example, not a private or production broker; do not send sensitive data to a public test service.

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If you do not have a broker, use a broker you control or an explicitly public test broker. MQTTX’s documentation describes EMQX Cloud as a public broker for testing, but using a hosted service is optional, not a requirement for mqttui: MQTTX manual.

Install mqttui

The project README documents two installation routes: download and extract a release archive, then place the executable somewhere on your PATH; or clone the source and install it with Cargo. It also provides Windows archive guidance. Check the project’s current releases and README before downloading: exact release versions and platform or architecture availability can change.

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Subscribe to MQTT topics interactively

Start mqttui with the broker connection you intend to use, then choose whether to view all topics or a particular topic in its interactive interface. The README documents both subscription scopes. A broad subscription is useful for discovering traffic on a test broker, while a selected topic narrows the live view to a known stream.

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Use a broker and topic namespace for which you have authorization. A subscription only shows messages delivered to that client under the broker’s access rules; an empty view does not by itself establish that the publisher is inactive.

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Publish a message

The README documents a publish subcommand that takes a topic and payload. It also shows retained publishing and reading a payload from standard input. The exact flags and invocation syntax are maintained in the project README; consult it for the version you install rather than assuming flags from another MQTT client will work unchanged.

  • Topic and payload: provide the destination topic and message content for a one-off test or send.
  • Retained message: retained publishing asks the broker to keep the latest retained value for that topic for future subscribers. Consider whether that behavior is appropriate before sending.
  • Standard input: piping payload data lets a script or another command supply the message instead of placing it directly in the command line.

Log received messages to standard output

For non-interactive use, mqttui has a documented logging mode that writes received messages to stdout. The README’s example includes the topic, QoS, payload, and retained-message information. This makes the mode relevant when output should be consumed by a shell pipeline or captured by another process; use the README’s current syntax for enabling it.

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How mqttui compares with other MQTT clients

Choose based on how you want to work, which protocol and transports you need, and whether you are inspecting live traffic or automating a send or receive task. The cited documentation supports these workflow distinctions; it does not establish a performance ranking.

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Tool Interface and workflow Documented protocol or features
mqttui Interactive terminal topic subscription, publish subcommand, and stdout logging. The cited README describes these workflows; protocol version and transport details are not stated there.
MQTTX Cross-platform desktop client for testing connections and publishing or subscribing. MQTT 5.0; its manual also describes WebSocket support and payload format conversion. MQTTX manual
MQTTX CLI Command-line client for MQTT tasks. MQTT 5.0, according to the MQTTX CLI README.
mosquitto_pub and mosquitto_sub Individual command-line publish and subscribe clients supplied with the Mosquitto package. Listed as command-line clients in the MQTT.org software catalog.

For a live terminal view, mqttui’s interactive subscription is the directly documented fit. For scripted, discrete publish and subscribe commands, Mosquitto’s command-line clients or MQTTX CLI are adjacent options. Choose MQTTX’s desktop application if you prefer a graphical interface or need its documented payload conversion and WebSocket features.

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