If you need to update a document's fields in your index, you can use the update document API operation. You can do so by specifying the new data you want to be in your index or by including a script in your request body, which OpenSearch runs to update the document. By default, the update operation only updates a document that exists in the index. If a document does not exist, the API returns an error. To _upsert_ a document (update the document that exists or index a new one), use the [upsert](#upsert) operation.
refresh | Enum | If true, OpenSearch refreshes shards to make the operation visible to searching. Valid options are `true`, `false`, and `wait_for`, which tells OpenSearch to wait for a refresh before executing the operation. Default is `false`. | No
_source | Boolean or List | Whether or not to include the `_source` field in the response body. Default is `false`. This parameter also supports a comma-separated list of source fields for including multiple source fields in the query response. | No
_source_excludes | List | A comma-separated list of source fields to exclude in the query response. | No
_source_includes | List | A comma-separated list of source fields to include in the query response. | No
timeout | Time | How long to wait for a response from the cluster. | No
wait_for_active_shards | String | The number of active shards that must be available before OpenSearch processes the update request. Default is 1 (only the primary shard). Set to `all` or a positive integer. Values greater than 1 require replicas. For example, if you specify a value of 3, the index must have two replicas distributed across two additional nodes for the operation to succeed. | No
Your request body must contain the information with which you want to update your document. If you only want to replace certain fields in your document, your request body must include a `doc` object containing the fields that you want to update:
Upsert is an operation that conditionally either updates an existing document or inserts a new one based on information in the object.
In the following example, the `upsert` operation updates the `first_name` and `last_name` fields if a document already exists. If a document does not exist, a new one is indexed using content in the `upsert` object.
Consider an index that contains the following document:
```json
{
"_index": "sample-index1",
"_id": "1",
"_score": 1,
"_source": {
"first_name": "Bruce",
"last_name": "Wayne"
}
}
```
After the upsert operation, the document's `first_name` and `last_name` fields are updated and an `age` field is added. If the document does not exist in the index, a new document is indexed with the fields specified in the `upsert` object. In both cases, the document is as follows: