NATS JetStream messages being processed multiple times by my consumer even when messages are acknowledged

Question

I'm using NATS JetStream to publish and consume messages in a .NET 8 application using NATS.Net. While publishing 10 messages, my consumer processes each message twice, despite calling msg.AckAsync().Interestingly, changing the MaxDeliver setting results in messages being processed more times accordingly. If I don't set MaxDeliver then message get processed only once. Below is my code for both publishing and consuming messages:

using NATS.Client.Core;
using NATS.Client.JetStream;
using NATS.Client.JetStream.Models;
using NATS.Client.Serializers.Json;
using System.Buffers;
using System.Text;
using System.Text.Json;


try
{
    int count = 0;
    NatsAuthOpts authOpts = new NatsAuthOpts();
    var natsOpts = NatsOpts.Default with
    {
        //SerializerRegistry = new MyProtoBufSerializerRegistry(),
        SerializerRegistry = NatsJsonSerializerRegistry.Default,
        Url = "nats://localhost:53810",
        AuthOpts = authOpts
    };

    string subject = "test.new.*";
    string streamName = "sample-new";

    await using var nats = new NatsConnection(natsOpts);
    var js = new NatsJSContext(nats);

    await js.CreateStreamAsync(new StreamConfig(name: streamName, subjects: new[] { subject }));
     
    // Publish new order messages
    for (var i = 0; i < 10; i++)
    { 
        var message = new SampleEvent("John.Doe", "Sample Message", DateTime.Now.ToString(), i.ToString());
        var ack = await js.PublishAsync("test.new.first", message);
        ack.EnsureSuccess();
    }
    List<long> backOff = new List<long> { 10000 };

    ConsumerConfig consumerConfig = new ConsumerConfig(name: "first-new-consumer");
    consumerConfig.DeliverPolicy = ConsumerConfigDeliverPolicy.All;
    consumerConfig.MaxDeliver = 2;
    consumerConfig.Backoff = backOff;

    var consumer = await js.CreateOrUpdateConsumerAsync(stream: streamName, consumerConfig);

    await foreach (var msg in consumer.ConsumeAsync<SampleEvent>())
    {
        var order = msg.Data;
        Console.WriteLine($"Processing {msg.Data} {order.ToString()}...");
        await msg.AckAsync();
        Console.WriteLine(++count); 
    }
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
}

public class SampleEvent
{
    public SampleEvent()
    {
    }

    public SampleEvent(string userName, string message, string utcTime, string count)
    {
        UserName = userName;
        Message = message;
        UtcTime = utcTime;
        Count = count;
    }

    public string UserName { get; set; }
    public string Message { get; set; }
    public string UtcTime { get; set; }
    public string Count { get; set; }
    public override string ToString()
    {
        return JsonSerializer.Serialize(this);
    }
}

I expect each message to be processed only once by the consumer, regardless of the MaxDeliver setting.If a record is not acknowledged only then that record should get processed again.

Answer 1

Try creating a durable consumer by adding a field called durable and a name for it.

For example:

consumerConfig.Durable = "your_durable_name";