diff --git a/src/main/java/se/yolean/kafka/keyvalue/KafkaClientOnceLiveness.java b/src/main/java/se/yolean/kafka/keyvalue/KafkaClientOnceLiveness.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d17b4c0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/se/yolean/kafka/keyvalue/KafkaClientOnceLiveness.java
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+package se.yolean.kafka.keyvalue;
+
+import javax.inject.Inject;
+import javax.inject.Singleton;
+
+import org.eclipse.microprofile.health.HealthCheck;
+import org.eclipse.microprofile.health.HealthCheckResponse;
+import org.eclipse.microprofile.health.Liveness;
+
+/**
+ * Instead of catching and analyzing org.apache.kafka.common.errors.TimeoutException
+ * we want to trigger non-liveness if we've never seen proof of a working kafka connection.
+ * BUT we don't want to go non-live in case kafka fails to respond,
+ * because such termination could lead to cascading failure.
+ */
+@Liveness
+@Singleton
+public class KafkaClientOnceLiveness implements HealthCheck {
+
+  @Inject
+  ConsumerAtLeastOnce consumer;
+
+  HealthCheckResponse ok = HealthCheckResponse.builder().name("Had a Kafka connection").up().build();
+  boolean assigningSuccessWasSeen = false;
+
+  @Override
+  public HealthCheckResponse call() {
+    if (consumer != null && consumer.stage != null) {
+      if (consumer.stage.metricValue > ConsumerAtLeastOnce.Stage.Assigning.metricValue) {
+        assigningSuccessWasSeen = true;
+      }
+      if (!assigningSuccessWasSeen && consumer.stage.equals(ConsumerAtLeastOnce.Stage.Assigning)) {
+        return HealthCheckResponse.builder().name("Had a Kafka connection").down().build();
+      }
+    }
+    return ok;
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/src/test/java/se/yolean/kafka/keyvalue/KafkaClientOnceLivenessTest.java b/src/test/java/se/yolean/kafka/keyvalue/KafkaClientOnceLivenessTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..83e7ab6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/java/se/yolean/kafka/keyvalue/KafkaClientOnceLivenessTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+package se.yolean.kafka.keyvalue;
+
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.*;
+
+import org.eclipse.microprofile.health.HealthCheckResponse.State;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+import org.mockito.Mockito;
+
+class KafkaClientOnceLivenessTest {
+
+  /**
+   * This is behavior we no longer want if we instead aim to recover from kafka client connection failures, or terminate programmatically
+   */
+  @Test
+  void testCallAtAssigned() {
+    KafkaClientOnceLiveness liveness = new KafkaClientOnceLiveness();
+    liveness.consumer = Mockito.mock(ConsumerAtLeastOnce.class);
+
+    assertEquals(true, liveness.call().getState().equals(State.UP),
+        "Should report live until the opposite is proven");
+    liveness.consumer.stage = ConsumerAtLeastOnce.Stage.Assigning;
+    assertEquals(true, liveness.call().getState().equals(State.DOWN),
+        "Might be ok to trigger non-liveness on the hopefully brief assigning phase");
+    liveness.consumer.stage = ConsumerAtLeastOnce.Stage.Resetting;
+    assertEquals(true, liveness.call().getState().equals(State.UP),
+        "As soon as we're out of Assigning we should be live");
+    liveness.consumer.stage = ConsumerAtLeastOnce.Stage.Assigning;
+    assertEquals(true, liveness.call().getState().equals(State.UP),
+        "From now on we should always be up");
+  }
+
+}