DOC-1608 auto topic creation in cloud (#418)

micheleRP · web-flow · commit 006534cc0f79 · 2025-09-23T11:28:52.000-06:00
* DOC-1608 auto topic creation in cloud

* minor edit

* add topic limit

* add auto_create_topics_enabled

* update playbook &amp; what's new

* updated overview for BYOC/Dedicated only

* replace original note

* revert playbook
diff --git a/modules/get-started/pages/cloud-overview.adoc b/modules/get-started/pages/cloud-overview.adoc
@@ -335,7 +335,7 @@ xref:develop:data-transforms/how-transforms-work.adoc[Data transforms] (Wasm) pr
 
 == Redpanda Cloud vs Self-Managed feature compatibility
 
-Because Redpanda Cloud is a fully-managed service that provides maintenance, data and partition balancing, upgrades, and recovery, much of the cluster maintenance required for Self-Managed users is not necessary for Redpanda Cloud users. Also, Redpanda Cloud is opinionated about Kafka configurations. For example, automatic topic creation is disabled. Some systems expect the Kafka service to automatically create topics when a message is produced to a topic that doesn't exist. (You can create topics in Redpanda Cloud on the *Topics* page or with `rpk topic create`.)
+Because Redpanda Cloud is a fully-managed service that provides maintenance, data and partition balancing, upgrades, and recovery, much of the cluster maintenance required for Self-Managed users is not necessary for Redpanda Cloud users. Also, Redpanda Cloud is opinionated about Kafka configurations. For example, automatic topic creation is disabled. Some systems expect the Kafka service to automatically create topics when a message is produced to a topic that doesn't exist. (You can enable this for BYOC and Dedicated clusters with the `auto_create_topics_enabled` cluster property.)
 
 New clusters in Redpanda Cloud generally include functionality added in Self-Managed versions immediately. Existing clusters include new functionality when they get upgraded to the latest version. 
 
diff --git a/modules/get-started/pages/create-topic.adoc b/modules/get-started/pages/create-topic.adoc
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 
 
 
-Topics provide a way to organize events. After creating a cluster, you can create a topic in it. 
+Topics provide a way to organize events. After creating a cluster, you can create a topic in it. Each cluster can have up to 40,000 topics.
 
 Topic properties are populated from information stored in the broker. Redpanda features, such as Tiered Storage, are enabled and configured by default in Redpanda Cloud. For Dedicated and BYOC clusters, you can optionally overwrite some settings.
 
diff --git a/modules/get-started/pages/whats-new-cloud.adoc b/modules/get-started/pages/whats-new-cloud.adoc
@@ -16,6 +16,12 @@ Ask your AI assistant to "Create a new topic called user-events" or "List all cl
 
 The Redpanda Cloud MCP Server uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to extend AI assistants with Redpanda-specific capabilities, making cloud operations more accessible through conversational interfaces.
 
+=== Automatic topic creation and topic limit
+
+For BYOC and Dedicated clusters, you can now configure the `auto_create_topics_enabled` cluster property to automatically create a topic if a client produces to a non-existent topic. 
+
+For all clusters: each cluster now has a limit of 40,000 topics.
+
 == August 2025
 
 === Manage custom resource tags in BYOC
diff --git a/modules/reference/pages/properties/cluster-properties.adoc b/modules/reference/pages/properties/cluster-properties.adoc
@@ -8,4 +8,4 @@ NOTE: Some properties require a cluster restart for updates to take effect. This
 
 == Cluster configuration
 
-include::ROOT:reference:properties/cluster-properties.adoc[tags=audit_enabled;audit_excluded_principals;audit_excluded_topics;data_transforms_enabled;data_transforms_logging_line_max_bytes;iceberg_catalog_type;iceberg_delete;iceberg_enabled;iceberg_rest_catalog_client_id;iceberg_rest_catalog_client_secret;iceberg_rest_catalog_token;iceberg_rest_catalog_authentication_mode;iceberg_rest_catalog_base_location;iceberg_rest_catalog_endpoint;iceberg_rest_catalog_oauth2_server_uri;iceberg_rest_catalog_warehouse;iceberg_rest_catalog_request_timeout_ms;iceberg_default_partition_spec;iceberg_invalid_record_action;iceberg_target_lag_ms;iceberg_rest_catalog_trust;iceberg_rest_catalog_crl;data_transforms_per_function_memory_limit;data_transforms_binary_max_size;log_segment_ms;http_authentication;iceberg_catalog_base_location;default_topic_replications;minimum_topic_replications;oidc_discovery_url;oidc_principal_mapping;oidc_token_audience;sasl_mechanisms;tls_min_version;audit_log_num_partitions;data_transforms_per_core_memory_reservation;iceberg_disable_snapshot_tagging;enable_consumer_group_metrics;schema_registry_enable_authorization;kafka_connections_max_per_ip;kafka_connections_max_overrides]
+include::ROOT:reference:properties/cluster-properties.adoc[tags=audit_enabled;audit_excluded_principals;audit_excluded_topics;data_transforms_enabled;data_transforms_logging_line_max_bytes;iceberg_catalog_type;iceberg_delete;iceberg_enabled;iceberg_rest_catalog_client_id;iceberg_rest_catalog_client_secret;iceberg_rest_catalog_token;iceberg_rest_catalog_authentication_mode;iceberg_rest_catalog_base_location;iceberg_rest_catalog_endpoint;iceberg_rest_catalog_oauth2_server_uri;iceberg_rest_catalog_warehouse;iceberg_rest_catalog_request_timeout_ms;iceberg_default_partition_spec;iceberg_invalid_record_action;iceberg_target_lag_ms;iceberg_rest_catalog_trust;iceberg_rest_catalog_crl;data_transforms_per_function_memory_limit;data_transforms_binary_max_size;log_segment_ms;http_authentication;iceberg_catalog_base_location;default_topic_replications;minimum_topic_replications;oidc_discovery_url;oidc_principal_mapping;oidc_token_audience;sasl_mechanisms;tls_min_version;audit_log_num_partitions;data_transforms_per_core_memory_reservation;iceberg_disable_snapshot_tagging;enable_consumer_group_metrics;schema_registry_enable_authorization;kafka_connections_max_per_ip;kafka_connections_max_overrides;auto_create_topics_enabled]

Original file line number	Diff line number	Diff line change
`@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@`
`4`	`4`
`5`	`5`
`6`	`6`
`7`		`-Topics provide a way to organize events. After creating a cluster, you can create a topic in it.`
	`7`	`+Topics provide a way to organize events. After creating a cluster, you can create a topic in it. Each cluster can have up to 40,000 topics.`
`8`	`8`
`9`	`9`	`Topic properties are populated from information stored in the broker. Redpanda features, such as Tiered Storage, are enabled and configured by default in Redpanda Cloud. For Dedicated and BYOC clusters, you can optionally overwrite some settings.`
`10`	`10`
Original file line number	Diff line number	Diff line change
`@@ -8,4 +8,4 @@ NOTE: Some properties require a cluster restart for updates to take effect. This`
`8`	`8`
`9`	`9`	`== Cluster configuration`
`10`	`10`
`11`		-include::ROOT:reference:properties/cluster-properties.adoc[tags=audit_enabled;audit_excluded_principals;audit_excluded_topics;data_transforms_enabled;data_transforms_logging_line_max_bytes;iceberg_catalog_type;iceberg_delete;iceberg_enabled;iceberg_rest_catalog_client_id;iceberg_rest_catalog_client_secret;iceberg_rest_catalog_token;iceberg_rest_catalog_authentication_mode;iceberg_rest_catalog_base_location;iceberg_rest_catalog_endpoint;iceberg_rest_catalog_oauth2_server_uri;iceberg_rest_catalog_warehouse;iceberg_rest_catalog_request_timeout_ms;iceberg_default_partition_spec;iceberg_invalid_record_action;iceberg_target_lag_ms;iceberg_rest_catalog_trust;iceberg_rest_catalog_crl;data_transforms_per_function_memory_limit;data_transforms_binary_max_size;log_segment_ms;http_authentication;iceberg_catalog_base_location;default_topic_replications;minimum_topic_replications;oidc_discovery_url;oidc_principal_mapping;oidc_token_audience;sasl_mechanisms;tls_min_version;audit_log_num_partitions;data_transforms_per_core_memory_reservation;iceberg_disable_snapshot_tagging;enable_consumer_group_metrics;schema_registry_enable_authorization;kafka_connections_max_per_ip;kafka_connections_max_overrides]
	`11`	+include::ROOT:reference:properties/cluster-properties.adoc[tags=audit_enabled;audit_excluded_principals;audit_excluded_topics;data_transforms_enabled;data_transforms_logging_line_max_bytes;iceberg_catalog_type;iceberg_delete;iceberg_enabled;iceberg_rest_catalog_client_id;iceberg_rest_catalog_client_secret;iceberg_rest_catalog_token;iceberg_rest_catalog_authentication_mode;iceberg_rest_catalog_base_location;iceberg_rest_catalog_endpoint;iceberg_rest_catalog_oauth2_server_uri;iceberg_rest_catalog_warehouse;iceberg_rest_catalog_request_timeout_ms;iceberg_default_partition_spec;iceberg_invalid_record_action;iceberg_target_lag_ms;iceberg_rest_catalog_trust;iceberg_rest_catalog_crl;data_transforms_per_function_memory_limit;data_transforms_binary_max_size;log_segment_ms;http_authentication;iceberg_catalog_base_location;default_topic_replications;minimum_topic_replications;oidc_discovery_url;oidc_principal_mapping;oidc_token_audience;sasl_mechanisms;tls_min_version;audit_log_num_partitions;data_transforms_per_core_memory_reservation;iceberg_disable_snapshot_tagging;enable_consumer_group_metrics;schema_registry_enable_authorization;kafka_connections_max_per_ip;kafka_connections_max_overrides;auto_create_topics_enabled]