MQTop is a lightweight Python CLI tool for developers and SREs working with RabbitMQ, especially in Kubernetes environments. It provides a top-like live view of queues and can automatically manage kubectl port-forward for RabbitMQ running inside a cluster.

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .

This will install the mqtop command in your virtualenv.

MQTop reads its configuration from:

• ~/.mqtop/config.toml

Start by copying the example config from the repo:

mkdir -p ~/.mqtop
cp config.example.toml ~/.mqtop/config.toml

Adjust provider definitions to match your environment. Example dev-k8s provider:

[providers.dev-k8s]
type = "k8s"
context = "dev"
namespace = "messaging"
service = "rabbitmq"
remote_amqp_port = 5672
local_amqp_port = 5673
local_ui_port = 15672
username = "guest"
password = "guest"

• Default top view (auto-uses provider dev-k8s):

mqtop

The top view is a Textual TUI. It shows, among others:

• current queue depth (ready, unacked),

• basic rates (pub/s, del/s),

• per-session totals (pubΔ, delΔ) since MQTop was started.

• Explicit provider and refresh interval:

mqtop --provider dev-k8s --refresh 1.0

• List configured providers:

mqtop providers list

• Manually manage Kubernetes port-forward:

mqtop k8s forward start dev-k8s
mqtop k8s forward status dev-k8s
mqtop k8s forward stop dev-k8s

• Peek messages from a queue (non-destructive):

mqtop msg peek my_queue_name -P dev-k8s -n 5

• Inside the TUI:
  • p – open provider selector (choose profile and confirm with Enter),
  • q – quit,
  • status bar shows current profile and connection state (direct vs K8s port-forward, errors, etc.).

The codebase is intentionally structured to be educational:

• src/mqtop/config.py – typed configuration models and TOML handling.
• src/mqtop/k8s.py – small adapter around kubectl port-forward.
• src/mqtop/monitor.py – RabbitMQ Management API integration and queue metrics helpers.
• src/mqtop/tui.py – Textual-based main TUI (profiles, status bar).
• src/mqtop/cli.py – Typer-based CLI wiring everything together.

Comments and structure should help you see how a typical modern Python CLI project is organised.