NATS is a high-performance, lightweight, open-source messaging system designed for building modern distributed systems, across any cloud or any arbitrary, user-defined edge.

It supports pub/sub, request/reply, and streaming with persistence (via JetStream), all through a single binary with minimal resource usage and sub-millisecond latency.

Official clients are available in Go, Rust, JavaScript (Node and Web), TypeScript (Deno), Python, Java, C#, C, Ruby, Elixir, and a CLI—plus 30+ community-contributed clients—making it easy to integrate across nearly any tech stack.

NATS was built on intentional design choices: location independence, many-to-many communication, and an async-first model.

These principles shape how NATS works across environments—from a single process to global systems. Core communication and data patterns emerge naturally. Pub/sub, request/reply, queueing, streaming, key-value, and object storage all operate within the same system, without extra infra or fragile abstractions.

The result: a single connective fabric that stays simple as systems scale. Apps remain decoupled, resilient, and easier to operate, while teams avoid the complexity and sprawl that come with stitching together specialized tools.

NATS thrives anywhere systems are distributed. Its core foundations are designed for environments with many endpoints and services—where components are dynamic, loosely coupled, and constantly changing.

NATS also excels at the edge: on low-resource devices, across fleets of vehicles, or anywhere computing moves closer to users. The same connective layer works consistently, no matter the environment.

With leaf nodes and superclusters, NATS lets teams evolve topology over time. New clouds, regions, or edge locations can be added without downtime or redesign, allowing architectures to grow organically instead of being locked into early decisions.