Forwarding Data

Last updated Aug 4, 2026

Two basic ways to send data out of AnyLog — a SQL query over REST, and a one-off message via mqtt publish.

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Two basic ways to get data or a message out of AnyLog to an external system: querying data over REST, or publishing a one-off message to an MQTT broker.

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1. REST — SQL command via GET or POST

Issue a SQL query against a node over HTTP, either as a GET with the command in a header, or as a POST with the command in a JSON body (useful where custom headers aren’t available — browsers, some GUIs, etc.).

GET:

curl -X GET 'http://10.0.0.78:32349' \
  -H 'command: sql mydb format=table "select * from ping_sensor where timestamp >= now() - 1 hour limit 10"' \
  -H 'User-Agent: AnyLog/1.23' \
  -H "destination: network" \
  -w "\n"

Equivalent POST:

curl -X POST 'http://10.0.0.78:32349' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "command": "sql mydb format=table \"select * from ping_sensor where timestamp >= now() - 1 hour limit 10\"",
    "AnyLog-Agent": "AnyLog/1.23",
    "destination": "network"
  }' \
  -w "\n"

Both return the same result set. See Using REST for the full GET/POST reference, including why AnyLog-Agent (not User-Agent) is the key to use in a POST body specifically.

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2. MQTT — mqtt publish

Publish a single message directly to an MQTT broker from the AnyLog CLI — useful for a one-off test message or a simple manual alert, as opposed to run msg client/run message broker, which set up an ongoing subscribe/host relationship.

AL > help mqtt

Usage:
        mqtt publish where broker = [url] and port = [port] and user = [user] and password = [password]
        and topic = [topic] and message = [message] and qos = [value]

Explanation:
        Publish a message to the MQTT broker

user/password are only needed if the broker requires authentication; qos defaults to 0 if omitted.

Publishing a plain string

mqtt publish where broker = "driver.cloudmqtt.com" and port = 18975 and user = [user] and password = [password] and topic = test and message = "hello world"

Replace [user]/[password] with your own broker credentials — never hard-code real ones into a saved script or shared document.

Publishing structured JSON data

For anything beyond a quick string test, define the message as a JSON object first, then reference it by variable name in the mqtt publish command. This is also how you’d simulate a device sending a real reading.

Define the message:

<message={"id":"ec798767-617c-467c-984f-ba5fddd474f1",
	"device":"Random-Integer-Generator01",
	"created":1625862443151,
	"origin":1625862443149315045,
	"readings":[{	"id":"4b553911-e41f-4146-a863-a8e5a9ad1cfc",
			"origin":1625862443149271124,
			"device":"Random-Integer-Generator01",
			"name":"RandomValue_Int32",
			"value":"-998060882",
			"valueType":"Int32"}]}>

The < > wrapper lets the AnyLog CLI treat this multi-line JSON as a single command — you can paste the block above directly into the CLI as-is.

Publish it — !message refers back to the variable just defined:

mqtt publish where broker=!ip and port=7850 and topic=mqtt-test and message=!message

Here broker=!ip publishes to this node’s own broker (assuming one is running on port 7850) rather than a third-party one — swap in a real broker address and credentials the same way as the plain-string example above if publishing externally.

See Message Broker for the broader picture of AnyLog’s MQTT roles (subscribing as a client vs. running as the broker itself) — mqtt publish is a separate, simpler command from either of those: it just sends one message and returns, rather than starting a standing process.

node_configs.env