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 9.0 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 May 6, 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

Autoscaling

Get an autoscaling policy Added in 7.11.0

GET /_autoscaling/policy/{name}
Api key auth Basic auth Bearer auth

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

External documentation

Path parameters

  • name string Required

    the name of the autoscaling policy

Query parameters

  • master_timeout string

    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}' \
 --header "Authorization: $API_KEY"
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}
Api key auth Basic auth Bearer auth

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

External documentation

Path parameters

  • name string Required

    the name of the autoscaling policy

Query parameters

  • master_timeout string

    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 "Authorization: $API_KEY" \
 --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}
Api key auth Basic auth Bearer auth

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

External documentation

Path parameters

  • name string Required

    the name of the autoscaling policy

Query parameters

  • master_timeout string

    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}' \
 --header "Authorization: $API_KEY"
Response examples (200)
This may be a response to either `DELETE /_autoscaling/policy/my_autoscaling_policy` or `DELETE /_autoscaling/policy/*`. 
{
  "acknowledged": true
}

Get the autoscaling capacity Added in 7.11.0

GET /_autoscaling/capacity
Api key auth Basic auth Bearer auth

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

This API gets the current autoscaling capacity based on the configured autoscaling policy. It will return information to size the cluster appropriately to the current workload.

The required_capacity is calculated as the maximum of the required_capacity result of all individual deciders that are enabled for the policy.

The operator should verify that the current_nodes match the operator’s knowledge of the cluster to avoid making autoscaling decisions based on stale or incomplete information.

The response contains decider-specific information you can use to diagnose how and why autoscaling determined a certain capacity was required. This information is provided for diagnosis only. Do not use this information to make autoscaling decisions.

External documentation

Query parameters

  • master_timeout string

    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 attribute Show response attribute object
    • policies object Required
      Hide policies attribute Show policies attribute object
      • * object Additional properties
        Hide * attributes Show * attributes object
        • required_capacity object Required
          Hide required_capacity attributes Show required_capacity attributes object
          • node object Required
            Hide node attributes Show node attributes object
          • total object Required
            Hide total attributes Show total attributes object
        • current_capacity object Required
          Hide current_capacity attributes Show current_capacity attributes object
          • node object Required
            Hide node attributes Show node attributes object
          • total object Required
            Hide total attributes Show total attributes object
        • current_nodes array[object] Required
          Hide current_nodes attribute Show current_nodes attribute object
        • deciders object Required
          Hide deciders attribute Show deciders attribute object
GET /_autoscaling/capacity 
curl \
 --request GET 'http://api.example.com/_autoscaling/capacity' \
 --header "Authorization: $API_KEY"
Response examples (200)
This may be a response to `GET /_autoscaling/capacity`. 
{
  policies: {}
}

Behavioral analytics