[role="xpack"]
[[watcher-api-put-watch]]
=== Put Watch API

The PUT watch API either registers a new watch in {watcher} or update an
existing one. Once registered, a new document will be added to the `.watches`
index, representing the watch, and its trigger will immediately be registered
with the relevant trigger engine (typically the scheduler, for the `schedule`
trigger).

IMPORTANT:  Putting a watch must be done via this API only. Do not put a watch
            directly to the `.watches` index using Elasticsearch's Index API.
            If {security} is enabled, make sure no `write` privileges are
            granted to anyone over the `.watches` index.

The following example adds a watch with the `my-watch` id that has the following
characteristics:

* The watch schedule triggers every minute.
* The watch search input looks for any 404 HTTP responses that occurred in the
  last five minutes.
* The watch condition checks if any search hits where found.
* When found, the watch action sends an email to an administrator.

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
PUT _xpack/watcher/watch/my-watch
{
  "trigger" : {
    "schedule" : { "cron" : "0 0/1 * * * ?" }
  },
  "input" : {
    "search" : {
      "request" : {
        "indices" : [
          "logstash*"
        ],
        "body" : {
          "query" : {
            "bool" : {
              "must" : {
                "match": {
                   "response": 404
                }
              },
              "filter" : {
                "range": {
                  "@timestamp": {
                    "from": "{{ctx.trigger.scheduled_time}}||-5m",
                    "to": "{{ctx.trigger.triggered_time}}"
                  }
                }
              }
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "condition" : {
    "compare" : { "ctx.payload.hits.total" : { "gt" : 0 }}
  },
  "actions" : {
    "email_admin" : {
      "email" : {
        "to" : "admin@domain.host.com",
        "subject" : "404 recently encountered"
      }
    }
  }
}
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE

A watch has the following fields:

[options="header"]
|======
| Name              | Description

| `trigger`         | The {xpack-ref}/trigger.html[trigger] that defines when
                      the watch should run.

| `input`           | The {xpack-ref}/input.html[input] that defines the input
                      that loads the data for the watch.

| `condition`       | The {xpack-ref}/condition.html[condition] that defines if
                      the actions should be run.

| `actions`         | The list of {xpack-ref}/actions.html[actions] that will be
                      run if the condition matches

| `metadata`        | Metadata json that will be copied into the history entries.

| `throttle_period` | The minimum time between actions being run, the default
                      for this is 5 seconds. This default can be changed in the
                      config file with the setting `xpack.watcher.throttle.period.default_period`.
|======

[float]
==== Timeouts

When updating a watch while it is executing, the put action will block and wait
for the watch execution to finish. Depending on the nature of the watch, in some
situations this can take a while. For this reason, the put watch action is
associated with a timeout that is set to 10 seconds by default. You can control
this timeout by passing in the `master_timeout` parameter.

The following snippet shows how to change the default timeout of the put action
to 30 seconds:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
PUT _xpack/watcher/watch/my-watch?master_timeout=30s
--------------------------------------------------

[[watcher-api-put-watch-active-state]]
==== Controlling Default Active State

When adding a watch you can also define its initial
{xpack-ref}/how-watcher-works.html#watch-active-state[active state]. You do that
by setting the `active` parameter. The following command add a watch and sets it
to be inactive by default:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
PUT _xpack/watcher/watch/my-watch?active=false
--------------------------------------------------

NOTE: If you omit the `active` parameter, the watch is active by default.