Tarmac AWS SQS Documentation

Tarmac is a desktop client for AWS SQS. You fetch messages into a local cache, inspect them without another SQS call, and stage changes before they touch the queue.

Working with SQS

SQS is not a database. There is no way to browse a queue without side effects. Every message you receive starts a visibility timer, and every destructive action is a live API call against shared infrastructure. Three ideas shape how you work in Tarmac:

1. Fetch once, inspect locally. Messages you fetch are cached on your machine with full-text search and faceted filters. You can search, filter, and re-read thousands of messages without touching SQS again.
2. Visibility costs your consumers something. Tarmac receives with a 15-minute visibility timeout by default. While that timer runs, your real consumers cannot receive those messages, so pick a window that covers your review and no more. Live Tail holds each message for one second instead.
3. Stage first, publish deliberately. Deletes, sends, and edited sends are staged locally. Nothing in that batch changes on the queue until you review it and press Publish Actions, and every action reports success or failure on its own. Queue-wide DLQ redrives start an AWS message-move task directly and cannot be staged.

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