March 2026: Delivered a targeted fix in apache/pulsar to preserve and propagate Kafka headers via Kafka Connect into Pulsar messages. The change propagates headers as message properties, updates KafkaConnectSource to extract headers, and includes tests validating correct header propagation. This resolves the silent dropping of headers and improves interoperability with Kafka Connect, enabling downstream systems to rely on header metadata for routing, filtering, and auditing. The work tightens integration with external connectors and reduces debugging time for users relying on header-based metadata.

September 2025 monthly summary for apache/pulsar: Upgraded Debezium IO connectors to 3.2.2 and aligned API surfaces to ensure compatibility across database connectors. Implemented internal API changes by renaming DatabaseHistory to SchemaHistory to reflect Debezium 3.2 changes, reducing drift and simplifying future upgrades.

In May 2025, I focused on stabilizing topic routing for Pulsar's Kafka Connect Source Connector. I delivered a bug fix that ensures the connector uses a fully-qualified topic name when provided and valid; otherwise it constructs the topic with the default namespace, correcting topic routing and preventing misrouted source records. This change reduces data misrouting, strengthens integration reliability between Pulsar and Kafka, and contributes to overall pipeline stability.