The Apache Kafka Raft (KRaft) protocol is a consensus protocol used in Apache Kafka to manage metadata, simplifying the architecture by consolidating responsibility into Kafka itself, rather than relying on ZooKeeper. This allows for improved scalability and reduced bottlenecks as the cluster grows. KRaft mode is available in the Apache Kafka 3.1 release but is not yet ready for production environments. Resources are available to learn more about KRaft, including a blog post by Guozhang Wang, which explores the rationale behind its implementation, and a module in the Confluent Developer site's Apache Kafka Internal Architecture course, led by Jun Rao, one of the original co-creators of Apache Kafka. Configuration changes related to removing ZooKeeper from Kafka are also discussed, including updates to clients and services, Schema Registry, and administrative tools. A guide is available to get started with Apache Kafka in KRaft mode, while a GitHub repo provides a Gitpod workspace definition for running an Apache Kafka KRaft mode cluster.