load_sqs

Loads bytes from Amazon SQS queues.

load_sqs queue:str, [poll_time=duration, aws_iam=record]

Description

Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) is a fully managed message queuing service to decouple and scale microservices, distributed systems, and serverless applications. The load_sqs operator reads bytes from messages of an SQS queue.

The load_sqs operator uses long polling, which helps reduce your cost of using SQS by reducing the number of empty responses when there are no messages available to return in reply to a message request. Use the poll_time option to adjust the timeout.

The operator requires the following AWS permissions:

• sqs:GetQueueUrl
• sqs:ReceiveMessage
• sqs:DeleteMessage

queue: str

The name of the queue to use.

poll_time = duration (optional)

The long polling timeout per request.

The value must be between 1 and 20 seconds.

Defaults to 3s.

aws_iam = record (optional)

Configures explicit AWS credentials or IAM role assumption. If not specified, the operator uses the default AWS credential chain.

{
  region: string,        // AWS region for API requests.
  access_key_id: string, // AWS access key ID.
  secret_access_key: string, // AWS secret access key.
  session_token: string, // session token for temporary credentials.
  assume_role: string,   // ARN of IAM role to assume.
  session_name: string,  // session name for role assumption.
  external_id: string,   // external ID for role assumption.
  web_identity: record,  // OIDC web identity token configuration.
}

The access_key_id and secret_access_key must be specified together. If neither is specified, the operator uses the default AWS credential chain:

1. Environment variables (AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY)
2. Shared credentials file (~/.aws/credentials)
3. IAM role for Amazon EC2 or ECS task role
4. Instance metadata service

Web identity authentication

The web_identity option enables OIDC-based authentication using the AWS AssumeRoleWithWebIdentity API. This lets you authenticate with AWS resources using OpenID Connect tokens from external identity providers like Azure, Google Cloud, or custom OIDC endpoints.

When web_identity is specified, you must also provide assume_role with the ARN of the IAM role configured to trust your identity provider.

The web_identity record accepts the following fields:

{
  token_file: string,       // path to file containing the JWT token.
  token_endpoint: {         // HTTP endpoint configuration.
    url: string,            // endpoint URL to fetch tokens from.
    headers: record,        // HTTP headers for the request.
    path: string,           // JSON path to extract token from response.
  },
  token: string,            // direct token value.
}

Exactly one of token_file, token_endpoint, or token must be specified:

• token_file: Path to a file containing the JWT token. This is the standard approach for Kubernetes workload identity (EKS, AKS, GKE) where the platform mounts a token file into the pod.

• token_endpoint: Configuration for fetching tokens from an HTTP endpoint. Use this for Azure IMDS or similar metadata services. The nested record contains:

  • url (required): The HTTP endpoint URL that returns a token, such as http://169.254.169.254/metadata/identity/oauth2/token?... for Azure IMDS.

  • headers: HTTP headers to include in the token request. For Azure IMDS, you typically need {Metadata: "true"}.

  • path: JSON path to extract the token from the endpoint response. Defaults to .access_token. Set to null for endpoints that return the token as plain text.

• token: Direct token value as a string. Useful for testing or when the token is available from another source.

Credentials are automatically refreshed before expiration, with exponential backoff retry logic for transient failures.

Examples

Read JSON messages from the SQS queue tenzir:

load_sqs "tenzir"

Read JSON messages with a 20-second long poll timeout:

load_sqs "tenzir", poll_time=20s

Read messages using explicit credentials:

load_sqs "my-queue", aws_iam={
  region: "us-east-1",
  access_key_id: secret("aws-key"),
  secret_access_key: secret("aws-secret")
}

Read messages by assuming an IAM role:

load_sqs "my-queue", aws_iam={
  region: "eu-west-1",
  assume_role: "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/my-sqs-role",
  session_name: "tenzir-session"
}

See Also

• save_sqs
• SQS