Apache Kafka 2.6 included KIP-585 which adds support for defining predicates against which transforms are conditionally executed, as well as a Filter Single Message Transform to drop messages - which in combination means that you can conditionally drop messages.
As part of Apache Kafka, Kafka Connect ships with pre-built Single Message Transforms and Predicates, but you can also write you own. The API for each is documented: Transformation / Predicate . The predicates that ship with Apache Kafka are:
RecordIsTombstone - The value part of the message is null (denoting a tombstone message)
HasHeaderKey - Matches if a header exists with the name given
TopicNameMatches - Matches based on topic
Read more: 🎄 Twelve Days of SMT 🎄 - Day 11: Predicate and Filter