diff --git a/sysadm/data-silos/kafka/index.rst b/sysadm/data-silos/kafka/index.rst
--- a/sysadm/data-silos/kafka/index.rst
+++ b/sysadm/data-silos/kafka/index.rst
@@ -3,5 +3,10 @@
 Kafka
 =====
 
+.. toctree::
+   :titlesonly:
+
+   manage-topics
+
 .. todo::
    This page is a work in progress.
diff --git a/sysadm/data-silos/kafka/manage-topics.rst b/sysadm/data-silos/kafka/manage-topics.rst
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sysadm/data-silos/kafka/manage-topics.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,128 @@
+.. _manage-topics:
+
+Reference: Manage topics
+========================
+
+.. admonition:: Intended audience
+   :class: important
+
+   sysadm members
+
+
+In the following documentation, we'll describe the common actions we have to
+periodically execute during deployments.
+
+The demonstrated commands are triggered from one of the kafka cluster nodes (be it
+staging or production).
+
+Common configuration
+--------------------
+
+Once connected to the nodes, we have a bunch of environment variable to setup:
+
+::
+
+   KAFKA_TOPICS=/opt/kafka/bin/kafka-topics.sh
+   KAFKA_CONSUMER_GROUPS=/opt/kafka/bin/kafka-consumer-groups.sh
+
+
+staging
+-------
+
+The following setup is expected for staging:
+
+::
+
+   export KAFKA_SERVER=storage1.internal.staging.swh.network:9092
+   export NB_PARTITIONS=64
+   export REPLICATION_FACTOR=1
+
+production
+----------
+
+The following setup is expected for staging:
+
+::
+
+   export KAFKA_SERVER=kafka1.internal.softwareheritage.org:9092
+   export NB_PARTITIONS=256
+   export REPLICATION_FACTOR=2
+
+
+Note: Report to the :ref:`service-url` page to determine what kafka server to use.
+
+
+Topic naming
+------------
+
+
+Existing topics are prefixed with the following names:
+
+- swh.journal.objects: Objects written (by loaders) in the archive are pushed in those
+  topics
+- swh.journal.indexed: Objects written by the indexers (derived out of the objects in
+  the archive)
+
+.. warning:: FIXME: Update topics with test topics and eventually the new provenance
+             ones
+
+Examples:
+
+- `swh.journal.objects.directory`
+- `swh.journal.indexed.origin_extrinsic_metadata`
+- ...
+
+
+Topic (re)creation
+------------------
+
+.. warning:: Topics must be created before any services consume or write to them.
+             Otherwise, they will be created with the wrong configuration.
+
+
+If a topic got created without the proper configuration, we can delete it:
+
+.. code::
+
+   $KAFKA_TOPICS --bootstrap-server $KAFKA_SERVER \
+    --topic $TOPIC \
+    --delete
+
+And then create it back with the proper setup:
+
+.. code::
+
+   $KAFKA_TOPICS  --bootstrap-server $KAFKA_SERVER \
+     --create --topic $TOPIC \
+     --partitions $NB_PARTITIONS \
+     --replication-factor $REPLICATION_FACTOR
+
+Note:
+Provided the `TOPIC` variable is set appropriately.
+
+
+Consumer group reset
+--------------------
+
+Once in a while, due to a change in data format, or migration, we need to reset the
+topics so the consumer can restart from scratch.
+
+Example of consumer groups:
+
+- `swh.indexer.journal_client.extrinsic_metadata`: anonymous consumer group
+- `swh-indexer-prod-01-swh.indexer.journal_client.extrinsic_metadata`: authenticated
+  production consumer group is prefixed by the user name
+
+.. code::
+
+   $KAFKA_CONSUMER_GROUPS \
+     --bootstrap-server $KAFKA_SERVER \
+     --group $CONSUMER_GROUP \
+     --reset-offsets --to-earliest \
+     --all-topics
+
+Note:
+
+- Provided the `CONSUMER_GROUP` variable is set appropriately
+- The reset can be more restrictive on specific topics, replace `--all-topics` by
+  `--topic $TOPIC` (can be called multiple times if multiple topics is involved)