About Edge Agent

Edge Agent is the operational surface for SeaTunnel Edge Agent — a lightweight collector on edge hosts where source data is only reachable locally (log files, host-local paths, and similar). The agent buffers outbound records in WAL and forwards batches to a running SeaTunnel job through the EdgeSocket line protocol.

Edge Agent is not a replacement for SeaTunnel Engine. Typical topology:

  Edge host                         SeaTunnel Engine cluster
  +------------------+              +---------------------------+
  | Edge Agent       |  EdgeSocket  | Job with EdgeSocket Source|
  | (this module)    | -----------> | (ingest + pipeline)       |
  +------------------+              +---------------------------+

When to use Edge Agent

• Sources exist only on edge machines (for example /var/log, application log directories).
• You want a small, long-lived daemon with local durability before network send.
• The downstream pipeline uses EdgeSocket Source on the engine side.

When not to use Edge Agent

• Sources are reachable directly from the engine cluster (use connector sources on the engine instead).
• You need full SeaTunnel transform/sink orchestration on the edge host (deploy engine workers or another runtime there).

Glossary

Term	Definition
WAL	The local outbound queue durability mechanism in Edge Agent, used to persist and retry records until the engine returns RECEIVED for a batch.
BEST_EFFORT	Delivery behavior in this release: persist to local WAL and retry until RECEIVED; duplicate delivery can occur.
WAL row states	PENDING (ready), SENDING (in-flight), ACKED (engine returned RECEIVED for the batch), DEAD (retry limit exceeded).
Engine response codes	ACK confirms authentication only. RECEIVED confirms batch ingest and moves a SENDING WAL row to ACKED. Other responses are AUTH_FAILED, REJECTED, RETRY, QUEUE_FULL, and DECRYPT_FAILED.

Recommended reading order

Phase	Document	Description
Try it out	Quick Start	Local test → connect to Engine
Install	Download / Deployment Guide	Package download and production setup
Configure	Input Configuration / Output Configuration	Scenario-based YAML examples
Reference	Configuration Reference	Full agent.yaml parameter tables
Deep dive	Architecture Overview	Design, reliability and Engine boundary
Engine side	EdgeSocket Source	Engine-side receive protocol
Operate	Operations	Start/stop, logs, troubleshooting