[question] Message skipped by Centrifugo when using publication data mode and NATS/Google pub/sub async consumers

[ajayaks]

I was trying to do the below:-

• Setup:-

• centrifugo html client

• centrifugo server running as docker container version 6.3.1

• external broker like NATS/Google pub/sub for async consumer

• Flow:-

• Write message to external broker like via Google pub/sub topic or NATs Jetstream via native publish commands like nats pub '{"method":"publish","payload":{"channel":"testchannel1","data":{"hello":"world"}}}'

• All of the above components are integrated and I can see in the logs that consumers and client also subscribed to the channel.

• Centrifugo also confirms that it tries to read but always showing the below:-

• centrifugo | {"level":"debug","channel":"testchannel1","client":"2c093829-72c4-4435-9fa2-1ca4c35ed649","user":"123722","time":"2025-10-07T18:10:07Z","message":"client subscribed to channel"}
  centrifugo | {"level":"debug","consumer":"natsasync1","subject":"centrifugo.payments","time":"2025-10-07T18:10:47Z","message":"received message from subject"}
  centrifugo | {"level":"info","consumer":"natsasync1","time":"2025-10-07T18:10:47Z","message":"no channels found, skipping message"}

any reason why its not working and what would be the solution for the same.
I m running the consumer with publication_data_mode enabled.

"publication_data_mode": {
"enabled": true
}

{
"name": "natsasync1",
"type": "nats_jetstream",
"enabled": true,
"nats_jetstream": {
"url": "nats://host.docker.internal:4222",
"stream_name": "centrifugo",
"subjects": ["centrifugo.payments"],
"durable_consumer_name": "centrifugo_payments_consumer",
"deliver_policy": "new",
"max_ack_pending": 100,
"publication_data_mode": {
"enabled": true
}
}
}
On some analysis this feature is not supported in 6.3.1 version and would be available in 6.4 or so. Is this correct? If yes then why its not mentioned on the https://centrifugal.dev/docs/server/consumers
...

Versions

Centrifugo version is 6.3.1
Client library used is centrifuge- of version
Operating system is macOS

Steps to Reproduce How can the bug be triggered?

• run the centrifugo image v6
• run the nats image with jetstream or can use google pub/sub as external broker as async consumer.
• post messages to the external broker via their native commands or api calls etc ...

...

Expected behavior What output or behaviour were you expecting instead?
centrifugo should be able to read the publised messages from external broker and should be pushed to the channel -> UI websocket.

...

Code Snippets A minimum viable code snippet can be useful.

Your code here.

[FZambia]

Hello @ajayaks

Everything seems expected here: Centrifugo skips the message and reports it with no channels found, skipping message log.

Happens because you are using publication_data_mode - in this case message you are publishing should have only a payload (i.e. data from your JSON) which you need to publish into channel. And everything else (like which Centrifugo channels to publish into) is expected to come in message metadata/headers.

Currently docs for consumers are not very good because there are tons of options and requires some extra effort to make it better. Hopefully will do at some point. For now maybe take a look at description of Publication data mode for Kafka consumer - https://centrifugal.dev/docs/server/consumers#consumerskafkapublication_data_mode - for Nats and Google PUB/SUB it's mostly the same.

I will transform the title of your issue to be more exact.

[ajayaks]

Hi @FZambia , we can close this one as I figured out that I have to use

• {"method":"publish","payload":{…}} without publication mode instead of {"method":"publish","params":{…}}.
• Use header with publication mode enabled and with like 'Json/String data'.
  Thanks for the pointing out.

[FZambia]

Cool! Let's keep open as a reminder to improve Async Consumers documentation - PG and Kafka described normally there, but other consumers mostly by copying options from configdoc command - I believe hard to follow.