Apicurio Registry is a Java-based API and schema registry that stores and retrieves APIs and schemas for use across distributed systems. The project is built primarily in Java and provides both REST APIs and a web user interface for managing schema and API artifacts. It serves as a central repository for schema definitions and API specifications, making it particularly valuable in microservices architectures and event-driven systems.
The registry supports multiple persistence backends, allowing users to choose the storage mechanism that best fits their infrastructure. Available storage options include in-memory storage for development, KafkaSQL for leveraging Kafka as a persistent store, PostgreSQL for traditional relational database deployments, and SQL Server as a community-contributed option. Starting with version 3.0, the project produces a single executable artifact that can be configured to use any of these storage variants through environment variables or command-line arguments, simplifying deployment across different environments.
Apicurio Registry provides built-in support for multiple schema formats and serialization standards. The system handles Avro and Protobuf schemas natively, enabling organizations to work with industry-standard schema definitions. The registry also integrates with Kafka, making it particularly useful for organizations building event streaming architectures. Beyond schema storage, the project includes artifact versioning capabilities, allowing teams to manage multiple versions of their schemas and APIs with full historical tracking.
The project follows semantic versioning and maintains a clear support policy where the two most recent minor versions receive security patches. Docker images are automatically built and published for each commit to the main branch, with multiple tagging strategies available including version-pinned tags, floating minor-series tags, and latest tags for both stable releases and development snapshots. The project provides separate container images for the registry server and the UI component.
Security is a core consideration in Apicurio Registry. The system supports OpenID Connect (OIDC) based authentication and authorization, allowing organizations to integrate with their existing identity providers. Configuration for OIDC is available through environment variables for both the REST API and the user interface, enabling federated authentication across components.
The build system is organized into three tiers to accommodate different development workflows. The local tier enables quick iteration by building only core components, the default tier includes serializers and CLI tools, and the full tier adds the MCP server, Go SDK, and Kubernetes operator for complete CI and release builds. Integration tests and examples are available as optional build profiles.
The project shares contributors with related ecosystems including Keycloak, Quarkus, and Strimzi Kafka Operator, indicating integration within a broader cloud-native technology stack.
