In our third Spotlight feature, we're excited to shine a light on Brett—a Splunk consultant, innovative developer, and esteemed member of the SplunkTrust. With over six years of experience, Brett has become a key figure in the Splunk community. His journey into app development began in 2019, driven by his passion for solving real-world problems, often fueled by unique use cases and his own creative spark. When he's not transforming data, Brett brings his love for video games, cars, and public transport into his work, while also dedicating time to hobbyist coding, open-source contributions, and home automation projects. Join us as we dive into Brett's inspiring journey!
How Building Custom Apps Transformed My Career
I've been a Splunk Consultant for 6 years, currently with Deloitte Australia, and a member of the SplunkTrust for three and a half years. I began developing Splunk apps in 2019 to solve a specific customer problem that couldn't achieve the right outcome using Add-on Builder, so I taught myself how to use the SDK and write apps directly in Python. My first app was a GDI app to get audit logs from Atlassian Cloud.
That experience sparked my journey into app development, leading me to build dozens of apps, most of them available in Splunkbase, to ingest and manage various data sources in Splunk.
From Personal App Dev Projects to Innovation and Success at Splunk
This has allowed me to continue learning and improving my skills without losing interest, which provides better outcomes for customers, and also contributes interesting use cases to the breadth of what Splunk can do.
A memorable moment was when a group of Splunk interns were demoing a public transport use case they had built using my GTFS app, without realizing I was the developer.
A Journey from Data Center Monitoring to Cybersecurity Expertise
I've been a Splunk user since 2016, and primary work in Splunk Enterprise, however the last few years I have had to focus more on Splunk Cloud. I got into Splunk through a quirky start—using it to monitor air conditioners after seeing a demo from a salesperson. So my entrance into Splunk was monitoring data center air conditioners, weirdly enough. My focus later shifted to cybersecurity, especially in the financial sector, where I deepened my expertise. Now, I work broadly across Splunk, often in cybersecurity, and have published several single-purpose apps on Splunkbase.
The Have I Been Pwned Domain Search app.
This app is a service that can notify individuals and organizations when their credentials have been found in a data breach. Domain search is a newer feature that allows organizations to search for all breaches that include any email in their domains, and access that via API. The Have I Been Pwned Domain Search app takes your API key and downloads all the breach information for the domains you have verified with Have I Been Pwned. It uses a custom Splunk UI setup page to make it easy to get started, and has a bunch of built in dashboards so you can quickly visualize and investigate the data.
Building a Game-Changing Splunk App with Troy Hunt's API
As soon as Troy Hunt, creator of Have I Been Pwned, announced the Domain Search API, I knew it would be a highly valuable data source for Splunk, because it's exactly what I wanted in Splunk 6 years earlier when I was working as a Cyber Security Analyst.
So despite not having any customers asking for it, or even having a use for it myself, I got to work building the best app I possibly could, and even collaborated with Troy directly to suggest improvements that made the App work even better. It can be used by any industry, any company, any type of business that will need this or that will take advantage of the support given by the app. As a result the app was highlighted on Troy's blog and I met up with him in person for a coffee chat after the release.
Top Developer Tools and Resources for Building Apps
I used to build all my apps in Config Explorer by Chris Younger, which I still highly recommend for anyone using Enterprise, but these days I am using Dev Containers in VSCode, so that I can build fully custom user interfaces with Splunk UI. The Splunk UI framework has been fantastic to work with and their tutorials were enough to get me started without even knowing React. My other two main resources are just using dev.splunk.com and reading the Splunk spec files directly.
Tips and Best Practices for Beginners Building Apps for Splunk
I think that Add-on Builder is a great starting point, but to become a skilled app developer, you really need to go beyond what it's capable of and understand how the systems work. The more you learn to combine its capabilities yourself, the better your Splunk capabilities will be.
So, the only other advice I tend to give people is just use Splunk, build everything in Splunk, do anything in Splunk because it's just a great way to learn and find the edge cases. Each challenge, driven by personal motivation, has become a valuable step forward in my development journey.
Think of Splunk as a Swiss army knife: it can do almost anything, and pushing its limits is a great way to learn and a whole lot of fun.
Off the Clock, Still in the Code
One of the reasons I have so many Splunk apps is because I do enjoy coding. I think software development and coding is sort of one of my hobbies. I also maintain numerous Home Assistant integrations, open source libraries, and am working on a vehicle telematics app for the Splunk EdgeHub. Not because anyone's asked me to because I want to see if that's possible. So again, it's just things I enjoy and I'm interested in messing around with. Outside, I enjoy cycling and walking with my family.
Conclusion
Brett’s journey through the Splunk ecosystem is a testament to what’s possible when passion meets purpose. From solving real-world problems to building tools just for fun, his story highlights how curiosity and creativity can evolve into impactful innovation.
Whether he’s building tools to monitor game data, contributing to cybersecurity, or just exploring what’s possible with Splunk, Brett brings both passion and purpose to everything he does. His journey reminds us that some of the best solutions—and most fulfilling projects—come from ideas we’re personally excited about. And in Brett’s case, that excitement continues to drive both his professional success and his contributions to the wider Splunk community.
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