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parsec publish

Push a single message to a channel.

# Inline body
./bin/parsec publish public:webapp.system.status --data '{"msg":"hello"}'

# From a file
./bin/parsec publish public:webapp.system.status --file ./payload.json

# From stdin (pipe-friendly)
echo '{"msg":"hello"}' | ./bin/parsec publish public:webapp.system.status

What it does

publish calls the Publish RPC. The server validates the channel name through channels.ParseName, confirms the channel exists and is open, ships the data to Centrifuge, and touches LastActive so the sweeper does not close the channel out from under an active publisher.

Bodies are opaque bytes. Parsec does not impose a schema; the contract is between the publisher and the subscriber. JSON is conventional because every consumer language can parse it cheaply, but you can ship protobuf, msgpack, or raw text just as easily.

Source precedence

Exactly one source is honored, picked in this order:

  1. --data / -d — inline.
  2. --file / -f — read the named file.
  3. stdin — only when neither of the above is set.

Mixing sources is an operator error and the CLI returns PARSEC_INVALID_ARGUMENT.

What you get back

The CLI prints a descriptor envelope with the broker’s publish ack:

{
  "code": "OK",
  "payload": {
    "offset": 14,
    "epoch": "abc123"
  }
}

The offset is the per-channel monotonic publication index Centrifuge assigns. Late subscribers use (offset, epoch) to ask for a recovery stream — they catch up on the publications they missed.

Failure modes

CodeCause
PARSEC_CHANNEL_INVALIDName does not match the grammar.
PARSEC_CHANNEL_NOT_FOUNDChannel was never opened, or expired.
PARSEC_CHANNEL_CLOSEDPublic channel past its TTL — reopen first.
PARSEC_AUTH_DENIEDMissing or expired bearer.
PARSEC_BROKER_NOT_READYServer is still booting; retry shortly.

For private channels, the bearer is the operator mgmt token — not the end-user access token. End users publish via the websocket.

Reference

NAME:
   parsec publish - Publish a message to a channel

USAGE:
   parsec publish [options] <channel-name>

OPTIONS:
   --server string           (default: "http://localhost:8000") [$PARSEC_SERVER]
   --token string             [$PARSEC_TOKEN]
   --data string, -d string  Inline message body
   --file string, -f string  Read message body from file
   --help, -h                show help

GLOBAL OPTIONS:
   --json  Output the parsec manifest as a descriptor envelope

See also