# Brokers
A broker connects RustStream to a message transport. The framework ships an in-memory broker for
development and tests; production brokers are separate crates you add as a dependency.
Handlers, routers, codecs, and middleware are broker-agnostic, so moving between brokers is a
one-line change at `with_broker`.
| [Memory](memory.md) | `ruststream` (feature `memory`) | in-process, for development and tests |
| [NATS](nats.md) | [`ruststream-nats`](https://github.com/powersemmi/ruststream-nats) | Core NATS and JetStream |
To implement a broker for another transport, see [Broker authors](../broker-authors/index.md).
## Switching brokers
Every broker constructs synchronously and connects lazily (the runtime calls `Broker::connect` once
at startup), so the same handlers and routers run on any of them; only the broker construction
differs by one line inside `with_broker`.
=== "Memory"
<!-- inline-rust: side-by-side broker-switch comparison; the NATS half depends on the external ruststream-nats crate and has no in-repo compiled home, so both halves stay inline to read in parallel -->
```rust
use ruststream::memory::MemoryBroker;
use ruststream::runtime::{AppInfo, RustStream};
#[ruststream::app]
fn app() -> RustStream {
RustStream::new(AppInfo::new("orders", "0.1.0"))
.with_broker(MemoryBroker::new(), |b| b.include_router(routes::orders()))
}
```
=== "NATS"
<!-- inline-rust: NATS half of the broker-switch comparison; depends on the external ruststream-nats crate, no in-repo compiled home -->
```rust
use ruststream::runtime::{AppInfo, RustStream};
use ruststream_nats::NatsBroker;
#[ruststream::app]
fn app() -> RustStream {
RustStream::new(AppInfo::new("orders", "0.1.0"))
.with_broker(NatsBroker::new("nats://localhost:4222"), |b| {
b.include_router(routes::orders())
})
}
```
Subscriptions that need broker-specific options (consumer groups, durable names) use that broker's
descriptor in the `#[subscriber(..)]` decorator; see
[broker-specific descriptors](../guides/subscribers.md#broker-specific-descriptors).