hello again
here are the relevant settings which need to be added to your config file
# bootstrap server url
bootstrap.servers=$yourcluster.aws.confluent.cloud:9092
# security protocol
producer.security.protocol=SASL_SSL
# sasl mechanism
producer.sasl.mechanism=PLAIN
# sasl jaas config
producer.sasl.jaas.config=org.apache.kafka.common.security.plain.PlainLoginModule required username='api_key_from_confluent_cloud' password='api_secret_from_confluent_cloud';
# confluent cloud refuses to create topic if you use default replication factor of 1
confluent.topic.replication.factor=3