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Aliases API

Aliases let clients address a collection by a stable name that can be moved to a different target collection later. This is useful for zero-downtime reindexing, versioned collections, and tenant-specific views.

Routes​

MethodEndpointPurpose
GET/aliasesList all aliases
GET/collections/{collection}/aliasesList aliases that target a collection
POST/PUT/aliases/{alias}Create or update an alias
GET/aliases/{alias}Get one alias
DELETE/aliases/{alias}Delete an alias

List Aliases​

curl http://localhost:9200/aliases

Example response:

{
  "aliases": [
    {
      "name": "products_live",
      "collection_name": "products_v2"
    }
  ]
}

List Aliases for a Collection​

curl http://localhost:9200/collections/products_v2/aliases

The same filtering can also be requested with the collection query parameter:

curl "http://localhost:9200/aliases?collection=products_v2"

Create or Update Alias​

Endpoint: POST /aliases/{alias} or PUT /aliases/{alias}

Request body accepts collection_name or collection:

curl -X PUT http://localhost:9200/aliases/products_live \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"collection_name":"products_v2"}'

Alternative body:

{
  "collection": "products_v2"
}

The target collection must already exist.

Get Alias​

curl http://localhost:9200/aliases/products_live

Delete Alias​

curl -X DELETE http://localhost:9200/aliases/products_live

Reindexing Pattern​

  1. Create products_v2 with the new schema.
  2. Import or backfill documents into products_v2.
  3. Validate searches against products_v2.
  4. Move the alias:
curl -X PUT http://localhost:9200/aliases/products_live \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"collection_name":"products_v2"}'
  1. Delete the old collection after consumers have moved past it.