cat indices API

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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 get index API.

Returns high-level information about indices in a cluster, including backing indices for data streams.

Request

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GET /_cat/indices/<target>

GET /_cat/indices

Prerequisites

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  • If the Elasticsearch security features are enabled, you must have the monitor or manage cluster privilege to use this API. You must also have the monitor or manage index privilege for any data stream, index, or alias you retrieve.

Description

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Use the cat indices API to get the following information for each index in a cluster:

  • Shard count
  • Document count
  • Deleted document count
  • Primary store size
  • Total store size of all shards, including shard replicas

These metrics are retrieved directly from Lucene, which Elasticsearch uses internally to power indexing and search. As a result, all document counts include hidden nested documents.

To get an accurate count of Elasticsearch documents, use the cat count or count APIs.

Path parameters

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<target>
(Optional, string) Comma-separated list of data streams, indices, and aliases used to limit the request. Supports wildcards (*). To target all data streams and indices, omit this parameter or use * or _all.

Query parameters

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bytes
(Optional, byte size units) Unit used to display byte values.
format
(Optional, string) Short version of the HTTP accept header. Valid values include JSON, YAML, etc.
h
(Optional, string) Comma-separated list of column names to display.
health

(Optional, string) Health status used to limit returned indices. Valid values are:

  • green
  • yellow
  • red

By default, the response includes indices of any health status.

help
(Optional, Boolean) If true, the response includes help information. Defaults to false.
include_unloaded_segments
(Optional, Boolean) If true, the response includes information from segments that are not loaded into memory. Defaults to false.
local

(Optional, boolean)

Deprecated in 7.11.0.

This parameter does not affect the request. It will be removed in a future release.

master_timeout
(Optional, time units) 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. Defaults to 30s.
pri (primary shards)
(Optional, Boolean) If true, the response only includes information from primary shards. Defaults to false.
s
(Optional, string) Comma-separated list of column names or column aliases used to sort the response.
time
(Optional, time units) Unit used to display time values.
v
(Optional, Boolean) If true, the response includes column headings. Defaults to false.
expand_wildcards

(Optional, string) 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. Supports comma-separated values, such as open,hidden. Valid values are:

all
Match any data stream or index, including hidden ones.
open
Match open, non-hidden indices. Also matches any non-hidden data stream.
closed
Match closed, non-hidden indices. Also matches any non-hidden data stream. Data streams cannot be closed.
hidden
Match hidden data streams and hidden indices. Must be combined with open, closed, or both.
none
Wildcard patterns are not accepted.

Examples

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GET /_cat/indices/my-index-*?v=true&s=index

The API returns the following response:

health status index            uuid                   pri rep docs.count docs.deleted store.size pri.store.size
yellow open   my-index-000001  u8FNjxh8Rfy_awN11oDKYQ   1   1       1200            0     88.1kb         88.1kb
green  open   my-index-000002  nYFWZEO7TUiOjLQXBaYJpA   1   0          0            0       260b           260b