# Cloud Topics: the Metastore

DevFeed: [Cloud Topics: the Metastore](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/cloud-topics-the-metastore-12687.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.redpanda.com/blog/cloud-topics-metastore>)

Author: Andrew Wong

Published: 2026-06-11T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Redpanda](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/redpanda.md>)

Topics: [Kafka](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/kafka.md>), [Cloud](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cloud.md>), [rocksdb](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/rocksdb.md>), [data](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/data.md>)

Tags: [architecture](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/architecture.md>), [cloud](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cloud.md>), [consumer](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/consumer.md>), [engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/engineering.md>), [kafka](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/kafka.md>), [learn](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/learn.md>), [mapping](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mapping.md>), [memory](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/memory.md>), [object-storage](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/object-storage.md>), [retention](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/retention.md>), [rocksdb](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/rocksdb.md>), [scale](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/scale.md>), [serialization](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/serialization.md>), [storage](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/storage.md>)

## AI overview

This article explains Redpanda's metastore for Cloud Topics. The metastore maps Apache Kafka offsets to byte ranges in L1 objects stored in object storage, while tracking metadata such as leader-term boundaries and compaction state. Redpanda built a general-purpose key-value store, inspired by LevelDB and RocksDB and implemented as an LSM tree, to scale metadata independently of memory, local disk, and metadata formats.

## Source excerpt

Learn how Redpanda's metastore powers Cloud Topics, from offset lookups and whole cluster restore to cross-region read replicas, and why it's built to be a foundational primitive for the future.