---
title: "Streaming Replication Protocol Interface"
id: logicaldecoding-walsender
pg_version: "20devel"
---

<a id="logicaldecoding-walsender"></a>

## 47.3. Streaming Replication Protocol Interface

The commands 
- `CREATE_REPLICATION_SLOT slot_name LOGICAL output_plugin`
- `DROP_REPLICATION_SLOT slot_name` [ `WAIT` ]
- `START_REPLICATION SLOT slot_name LOGICAL ...`

 are used to create, drop, and stream changes from a replication slot, respectively. These commands are only available over a replication connection; they cannot be used via SQL. See [Section 54.4](protocol-replication.md) for details on these commands. 

The command [pg_recvlogical](app-pgrecvlogical.md) can be used to control logical decoding over a streaming replication connection. (It uses these commands internally.)