Elasticsearch API

Base URL
http://api.example.com

Elasticsearch provides REST APIs that are used by the UI components and can be called directly to configure and access Elasticsearch features.

Documentation source and versions

This documentation is derived from the main branch of the elasticsearch-specification repository. It is provided under license Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International. This documentation contains work-in-progress information for future Elastic Stack releases.

Last update on Feb 12, 2025.

This API is provided under license Apache 2.0.

Authentication

The API accepts 3 different authentication methods:

Api key auth (http_api_key)

Elasticsearch APIs support key-based authentication. You must create an API key and use the encoded value in the request header. For example:

curl -X GET "${ES_URL}/_cat/indices?v=true" \
  -H "Authorization: ApiKey ${API_KEY}"

To get API keys, use the /_security/api_key APIs.

Basic auth (http)

Basic auth tokens are constructed with the Basic keyword, followed by a space, followed by a base64-encoded string of your username:password (separated by a : colon).

Example: send a Authorization: Basic aGVsbG86aGVsbG8= HTTP header with your requests to authenticate with the API.

Bearer auth (http)

Elasticsearch APIs support the use of bearer tokens in the Authorization HTTP header to authenticate with the API. For examples, refer to Token-based authentication services

Get an autoscaling policy Added in 7.11.0

GET /_autoscaling/policy/{name}

NOTE: This feature is designed for indirect use by Elasticsearch Service, Elastic Cloud Enterprise, and Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes. Direct use is not supported.

Path parameters

  • name string Required

    the name of the autoscaling policy

Query parameters

  • Period to wait for a connection to the master node. If no response is received before the timeout expires, the request fails and returns an error.

Responses

  • 200 application/json
    Hide response attributes Show response attributes object
GET /_autoscaling/policy/{name}
curl \
 --request GET http://api.example.com/_autoscaling/policy/{name}
Response examples (200)
This may be a response to `GET /_autoscaling/policy/my_autoscaling_policy`.
{
   "roles": <roles>,
   "deciders": <deciders>
}

Create or update an autoscaling policy Added in 7.11.0

PUT /_autoscaling/policy/{name}

NOTE: This feature is designed for indirect use by Elasticsearch Service, Elastic Cloud Enterprise, and Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes. Direct use is not supported.

Path parameters

  • name string Required

    the name of the autoscaling policy

Query parameters

  • Period to wait for a connection to the master node. If no response is received before the timeout expires, the request fails and returns an error.

  • timeout string

    Period to wait for a response. If no response is received before the timeout expires, the request fails and returns an error.

application/json

Body Required

Responses

  • 200 application/json
    Hide response attribute Show response attribute object
    • acknowledged boolean Required

      For a successful response, this value is always true. On failure, an exception is returned instead.

PUT /_autoscaling/policy/{name}
curl \
 --request PUT http://api.example.com/_autoscaling/policy/{name} \
 --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
 --data '"{\n  \"roles\": [],\n  \"deciders\": {\n    \"fixed\": {\n    }\n  }\n}"'
Request examples
{
  "roles": [],
  "deciders": {
    "fixed": {
    }
  }
}
The API method and path for this request: `PUT /_autoscaling/policy/my_autoscaling_policy`. It creates `my_autoscaling_policy` using the fixed autoscaling decider, applying to the set of nodes having (only) the `data_hot` role.
{
  "roles" : [ "data_hot" ],
  "deciders": {
    "fixed": {
    }
  }
}
Response examples (200)
{
  "acknowledged": true
}

Delete an autoscaling policy Added in 7.11.0

DELETE /_autoscaling/policy/{name}

NOTE: This feature is designed for indirect use by Elasticsearch Service, Elastic Cloud Enterprise, and Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes. Direct use is not supported.

Path parameters

  • name string Required

    the name of the autoscaling policy

Query parameters

  • Period to wait for a connection to the master node. If no response is received before the timeout expires, the request fails and returns an error.

  • timeout string

    Period to wait for a response. If no response is received before the timeout expires, the request fails and returns an error.

Responses

  • 200 application/json
    Hide response attribute Show response attribute object
    • acknowledged boolean Required

      For a successful response, this value is always true. On failure, an exception is returned instead.

DELETE /_autoscaling/policy/{name}
curl \
 --request DELETE http://api.example.com/_autoscaling/policy/{name}
Response examples (200)
This may be a response to either `DELETE /_autoscaling/policy/my_autoscaling_policy` or `DELETE /_autoscaling/policy/*`.
{
  "acknowledged": true
}









Create a behavioral analytics collection Technical preview

PUT /_application/analytics/{name}

Path parameters

  • name string Required

    The name of the analytics collection to be created or updated.

Responses

  • 200 application/json
    Hide response attributes Show response attributes object
    • acknowledged boolean Required

      For a successful response, this value is always true. On failure, an exception is returned instead.

    • name string Required
PUT /_application/analytics/{name}
curl \
 --request PUT http://api.example.com/_application/analytics/{name}
Response examples (200)
{
  "acknowledged": true,
  "name": "string"
}

Delete a behavioral analytics collection Technical preview

DELETE /_application/analytics/{name}

The associated data stream is also deleted.

Path parameters

  • name string Required

    The name of the analytics collection to be deleted

Responses

  • 200 application/json
    Hide response attribute Show response attribute object
    • acknowledged boolean Required

      For a successful response, this value is always true. On failure, an exception is returned instead.

DELETE /_application/analytics/{name}
curl \
 --request DELETE http://api.example.com/_application/analytics/{name}
Response examples (200)
{
  "acknowledged": true
}









Get aliases

GET /_cat/aliases

Get the cluster's index aliases, including filter and routing information. This API does not return data stream aliases.

IMPORTANT: CAT APIs are only intended for human consumption using the command line or the Kibana console. They are not intended for use by applications. For application consumption, use the aliases API.

Query parameters

  • expand_wildcards string | array[string]

    The type of index that wildcard patterns can match. If the request can target data streams, this argument determines whether wildcard expressions match hidden data streams. It supports comma-separated values, such as open,hidden.

  • The period to wait for a connection to the master node. If the master node is not available before the timeout expires, the request fails and returns an error. To indicated that the request should never timeout, you can set it to -1.

Responses

GET /_cat/aliases
curl \
 --request GET http://api.example.com/_cat/aliases
Response examples (200)
[
  {
    "alias": "string",
    "index": "string",
    "filter": "string",
    "routing.index": "string",
    "routing.search": "string",
    "is_write_index": "string"
  }
]
























Get a document count

GET /_cat/count/{index}

Get quick access to a document count for a data stream, an index, or an entire cluster. The document count only includes live documents, not deleted documents which have not yet been removed by the merge process.

IMPORTANT: CAT APIs are only intended for human consumption using the command line or Kibana console. They are not intended for use by applications. For application consumption, use the count API.

Path parameters

  • index string | array[string] Required

    A comma-separated list of data streams, indices, and aliases used to limit the request. It supports wildcards (*). To target all data streams and indices, omit this parameter or use * or _all.

Responses

GET /_cat/count/{index}
curl \
 --request GET http://api.example.com/_cat/count/{index}
Response examples (200)
[
  {
    "": 42.0,
    "timestamp": "string",
    "count": "string"
  }
]








Get the cluster health status

GET /_cat/health

IMPORTANT: CAT APIs are only intended for human consumption using the command line or Kibana console. They are not intended for use by applications. For application consumption, use the cluster health API. This API is often used to check malfunctioning clusters. To help you track cluster health alongside log files and alerting systems, the API returns timestamps in two formats: HH:MM:SS, which is human-readable but includes no date information; Unix epoch time, which is machine-sortable and includes date information. The latter format is useful for cluster recoveries that take multiple days. You can use the cat health API to verify cluster health across multiple nodes. You also can use the API to track the recovery of a large cluster over a longer period of time.

Query parameters

  • time string

    The unit used to display time values.

    Values are nanos, micros, ms, s, m, h, or d.

  • ts boolean

    If true, returns HH:MM:SS and Unix epoch timestamps.

Responses

GET /_cat/health
curl \
 --request GET http://api.example.com/_cat/health
Response examples (200)
[
  {
    "": 42.0,
    "timestamp": "string",
    "cluster": "string",
    "status": "string",
    "node.total": "string",
    "node.data": "string",
    "shards": "string",
    "pri": "string",
    "relo": "string",
    "init": "string",
    "unassign.pri": "string",
    "unassign": "string",
    "pending_tasks": "string",
    "max_task_wait_time": "string",
    "active_shards_percent": "string"
  }
]












Get master node information

GET /_cat/master

Get information about the master node, including the ID, bound IP address, and name.

IMPORTANT: cat APIs are only intended for human consumption using the command line or Kibana console. They are not intended for use by applications. For application consumption, use the nodes info API.

Query parameters

  • local boolean

    If true, the request computes the list of selected nodes from the local cluster state. If false the list of selected nodes are computed from the cluster state of the master node. In both cases the coordinating node will send requests for further information to each selected node.

  • Period to wait for a connection to the master node.

Responses

GET /_cat/master
curl \
 --request GET http://api.example.com/_cat/master
Response examples (200)
[
  {
    "id": "string",
    "host": "string",
    "ip": "string",
    "node": "string"
  }
]












Get datafeeds Added in 7.7.0

GET /_cat/ml/datafeeds/{datafeed_id}

Get configuration and usage information about datafeeds. This API returns a maximum of 10,000 datafeeds. If the Elasticsearch security features are enabled, you must have monitor_ml, monitor, manage_ml, or manage cluster privileges to use this API.

IMPORTANT: CAT APIs are only intended for human consumption using the Kibana console or command line. They are not intended for use by applications. For application consumption, use the get datafeed statistics API.

Path parameters

  • datafeed_id string Required

    A numerical character string that uniquely identifies the datafeed.

Query parameters

  • Specifies what to do when the request:

    • Contains wildcard expressions and there are no datafeeds that match.
    • Contains the _all string or no identifiers and there are no matches.
    • Contains wildcard expressions and there are only partial matches.

    If true, the API returns an empty datafeeds array when there are no matches and the subset of results when there are partial matches. If false, the API returns a 404 status code when there are no matches or only partial matches.

  • h string | array[string]

    Comma-separated list of column names to display.

  • s string | array[string]

    Comma-separated list of column names or column aliases used to sort the response.

  • time string

    The unit used to display time values.

    Values are nanos, micros, ms, s, m, h, or d.

Responses

  • Hide response attributes Show response attributes object
    • id string

      The datafeed identifier.

    • state string

      Values are started, stopped, starting, or stopping.

    • For started datafeeds only, contains messages relating to the selection of a node.

    • The number of buckets processed.

    • The number of searches run by the datafeed.

    • The total time the datafeed spent searching, in milliseconds.

    • The average search time per bucket, in milliseconds.

    • The exponential average search time per hour, in milliseconds.

    • node.id string

      The unique identifier of the assigned node. For started datafeeds only, this information pertains to the node upon which the datafeed is started.

    • The name of the assigned node. For started datafeeds only, this information pertains to the node upon which the datafeed is started.

    • The ephemeral identifier of the assigned node. For started datafeeds only, this information pertains to the node upon which the datafeed is started.

    • The network address of the assigned node. For started datafeeds only, this information pertains to the node upon which the datafeed is started.

GET /_cat/ml/datafeeds/{datafeed_id}
curl \
 --request GET http://api.example.com/_cat/ml/datafeeds/{datafeed_id}
Response examples (200)
[
  {
    "id": "string",
    "state": "started",
    "assignment_explanation": "string",
    "buckets.count": "string",
    "search.count": "string",
    "search.time": "string",
    "search.bucket_avg": "string",
    "search.exp_avg_hour": "string",
    "node.id": "string",
    "node.name": "string",
    "node.ephemeral_id": "string",
    "node.address": "string"
  }
]