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You're viewing version 3.8 of the OpenSearch documentation. This version is no longer maintained. For the latest version, see the current documentation. For information about OpenSearch version maintenance, see Release Schedule and Maintenance Policy.

Communicate with OpenSearch

You interact with OpenSearch clusters using the REST API. Through the REST API, you can change most OpenSearch settings, modify indexes, check cluster health, get statistics—almost everything. You can use clients like cURL or any programming language that can send HTTP requests.

You can send HTTP requests in your terminal or in the Dev Tools console in OpenSearch Dashboards.

If you need to communicate with OpenSearch in your programming language, see the Clients section for a list of available clients.

Sending requests in a terminal

When sending cURL requests in a terminal, the request format varies depending on whether you’re using the Security plugin:

  • Without Security plugin: Use http:// URLs and no authentication.
  • With Security plugin: Use https:// URLs and provide username/password credentials.

As an example, consider a request to the Cluster Health API.

If you’re not using the Security plugin, send the following request:

curl -X GET "http://localhost:9200/_cluster/health"

If you’re using the Security plugin, provide the username and password in the request. The default username is admin, and the password is set in your docker-compose.yml file in the OPENSEARCH_INITIAL_ADMIN_PASSWORD=<custom-admin-password> setting:

curl -X GET "https://localhost:9200/_cluster/health" -ku admin:<custom-admin-password>

Pretty format

OpenSearch generally returns responses in a flat JSON format by default. For a human-readable response body, provide the pretty query parameter:

curl -X GET "http://localhost:9200/_cluster/health?pretty"

For more information about pretty and other useful query parameters, see Common REST parameters.

Request body

For requests that contain a body, specify the Content-Type header and provide the request payload in the -d (data) option:

curl -X GET "http://localhost:9200/_search?pretty" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d'
{
  "query": {
    "match_all": {}
  }
}'

Sending requests in Dev Tools

The Dev Tools console in OpenSearch Dashboards uses a simpler syntax to format REST requests as compared to the cURL command. To send requests in Dev Tools, use the following steps:

  1. Access OpenSearch Dashboards by opening http://localhost:5601/ in a web browser on the same host that is running your OpenSearch cluster. If you’re using the Security plugin, access OpenSearch Dashboards by opening https://localhost:5601/. The default username is admin, and the password is set in your docker-compose.yml file in the OPENSEARCH_INITIAL_ADMIN_PASSWORD=<custom-admin-password> setting.
  2. On the top menu bar, go to Management > Dev Tools.
  3. In the left pane of the console, enter the following request: 
     GET _cluster/health

  4. Choose the triangle icon on the upper right of the request to submit the query. You can also submit the request by pressing Ctrl+Enter (or Cmd+Enter for Mac users). To learn more about using the OpenSearch Dashboards console for submitting queries, see Console.

In most of the OpenSearch documentation, requests are presented in the Dev Tools console format.

Further reading

  • For information about the OpenSearch REST API, see the REST API reference.
  • For information about OpenSearch language clients, see Clients.

Next steps

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