This content applies to: Elasticsearch Observability Security

Use Console to run API requests against Elasticsearch, and view the responses. Console is available in your Elastic UI under Dev Tools.

Requests are made in the left pane, and responses are displayed in the right pane.

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Console keeps a request history, making it easy to find and repeat requests. It also provides links to API documentation.

Write requests

Console understands commands in a cURL-like syntax. For example, the following is a GET request to the Elasticsearch _search API.

GET /_search
{
  "query": {
    "match_all": {}
  }
}

Here is the equivalent command in cURL:

curl "${ES_URL}/_search" \
-H "Authorization: ApiKey ${API_KEY}" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d'
{
  "query": {
    "match_all": {}
  }
}'

When you paste a cURL command into Console, it is automatically converted to Console syntax. To convert Console syntax into cURL syntax, select the action icon () and choose Copy as cURL. Once copied, an API key will need to be provided for the calls to work from external environments.

Autocomplete

When you're typing a command, Console makes context-sensitive suggestions. These suggestions show you the parameters for each API and speed up your typing. To configure your preferences for autocomplete, go to Settings.

Comments

You can write comments or temporarily disable parts of a request by using double forward slashes (//) or pound (#) signs to create single-line comments.

# This request searches all of your indices.
GET /_search
{
  // The query parameter indicates query context.
  "query": {
    "match_all": {} // Matches all documents.
  }
}

You can also use a forward slash followed by an asterisk (/*) to mark the beginning of multi-line comments. An asterisk followed by a forward slash (*/) marks the end.

GET /_search
{
  "query": {
    /*"match_all": {
      "boost": 1.2
    }*/
    "match_none": {}
  }
}

Variables

Select Variables to create, edit, and delete variables.

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You can refer to these variables in the paths and bodies of your requests. Each variable can be referenced multiple times.

GET ${pathVariable}
{
  "query": {
    "match": {
      "${bodyNameVariable}": "${bodyValueVariable}"
    }
  }
}

Auto-formatting

The auto-formatting capability can help you format requests. Select one or more requests that you want to format, select the action icon (), and then select Auto indent.

For example, you might have a request formatted like this:

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Console adjusts the JSON body of the request to apply the indents.

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If you select Auto indent on a request that is already well formatted, Console collapses the request body to a single line per document. This is helpful when working with the Elasticsearch bulk APIs.

Submit requests

When you're ready to submit the request to Elasticsearch, select the green triangle.

You can select multiple requests and submit them together. Console sends the requests to Elasticsearch one by one and shows the output in the response pane. Submitting multiple requests is helpful when you're debugging an issue or trying query combinations in multiple scenarios.

View API docs

To view the documentation for an API endpoint, select the action icon () and select Open documentation.

Get your request history

Console maintains a list of the last 500 requests that Elasticsearch successfully executed. To view your most recent requests, select History. If you select a request and select Apply, it is added to the editor at the current cursor position.

Configure Console settings

You can configure the Console font size, JSON syntax, and autocomplete suggestions in Settings.

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Get keyboard shortcuts

For a list of available keyboard shortcuts, select Help.