Every topic keeps a browsable history of the messages it is currently retaining, so you can confirm exactly what was published and when. Use it to check a payload while debugging a subscribing flow, to verify that a producer is sending what you expect, or to answer a partner's question about what arrived. This article covers opening message history, filtering it, inspecting a payload, and purging a topic's messages.
Before you begin
- The Topics license must be enabled for your account.
- To view a topic's message history, you need access to the topic. Monitor users can view history and payloads for topics registered to integrations they monitor. See Who can view history and purge.
- To purge messages, you need manage access on the topic.
Open message history
- Go to Resources > Topics.
- On the topic's row, select View messages.
Message history opens as a full-screen drawer titled Message history: followed by the topic name.
The drawer has two panels:
- Message history — a table of retained messages, with Time and Message columns. The Message column shows a single-line preview of the payload.
- Message details — the full payload of the selected message, read-only.
The first message is selected automatically. Drag the divider to resize the panels, or use the toggle in the drawer header to hide and show the details panel.
[Screenshot: The Message history drawer for a topic, showing the messages table with Time and Message columns alongside the Message details panel with a formatted JSON payload.]
Read the message list
Messages are listed oldest first, and the order can't be reversed.
This is deliberate. A topic stores messages as a sequential log, and oldest-first is the order the log serves them in. Presenting them newest-first would mean fetching pages only to discard and reverse them, so there is no sort control on the Time column.
To find recent messages, filter by date range instead.
Note: Message history shows only what the topic is currently retaining. Messages older than the topic's retention period are gone and don't appear. See Create and manage topics for how retention works.
Filter by date range
Select the filter icon on the Time column and choose a range:
- Last hour
- Last 24 hours
- Last 7 days
- Last 30 days
- All time
- A custom range
Every range is bounded by the topic's retention window. Selecting Last 30 days on a topic with 7-day retention still shows at most 7 days of messages.
If nothing matches, the list shows:
No messages match these filters. Try a wider date range.
To re-fetch the list and pick up messages published since you opened the drawer, select Refresh.
Inspect a payload
Select any row. The full JSON payload appears in the Message details panel, formatted and read-only.
You can't edit, resend, or delete an individual message from history. Message history is for inspection only.
Search isn't available
Message history in this release is browse-and-filter only. There is no search box, and there are no message ID or trace key columns.
To trace a specific record through a subscribing flow, use that flow's run console and error management instead. Records created from topic messages carry the message ID as their trace key by default, and you can derive a business identifier using the listener's Override trace key template field. See Subscribe a flow to a topic.
Who can view history and purge
Message history, including payload contents, is visible to everyone who can see the topic:
| Role | Message history | Purge messages |
|---|---|---|
| Account owner and administrators | All topics | Yes |
| Manage All | All topics | Yes |
| Monitor All | All topics, read-only | No — the action isn't shown |
| Manage user on a registered integration | Topics registered to that integration | Yes |
| Monitor user on a registered integration | Topics registered to that integration, read-only | No — the action isn't shown |
Monitor users can read payloads. This matches what those users already see elsewhere: record data and retry data for the same messages are visible to them in the run console and in error management once a subscribing flow processes them.
Purge a topic's messages
Purging permanently removes every message a topic is retaining. Use it to clear test data or bad payloads without deleting and rebuilding the topic.
You need manage access on the topic. Monitor users don't see the action at all.
- Go to Resources > Topics.
- On the topic's row, select View messages.
- In the message history header, select Purge messages.
- Read the confirmation and select the confirming action.
The confirmation states:
This permanently deletes all messages in '{{name}}', including any outside your current date filter. You cannot undo this. Messages cannot be deleted individually — purging always clears the entire topic.
Subscribers are not affected and will continue to receive new messages.
Warning: Purging can't be undone. There is no recovery path for purged messages — they aren't moved to the Recycle bin, and restoring the topic doesn't bring them back.
What purging does and doesn't affect
Purging always clears the entire topic. The date filter applied to the table doesn't limit what is purged. If you have filtered to the last hour, purging still deletes every retained message, including older ones you can't currently see.
Individual messages can't be deleted. Retention expiry and a whole-topic purge are the only ways messages are removed.
Subscriptions are unaffected. Each subscription keeps its position and continues with new messages. No subscriber action is needed after a purge, and no subscribing flow errors because of one.
The confirmation shows no message count. A count isn't available, and a number taken from the currently loaded page would be wrong whenever the filter hides older messages.
Purges are recorded in the topic's audit log.
Note: Purge messages stays available even when the table looks empty. Because a message count isn't available, the view can't reliably distinguish an empty topic from a filtered-empty view — and purging a topic that has no messages does nothing.