The cat shards operation lists the state of all primary and replica shards and how they are distributed.
## Example
```
GET _cat/shards?v
```
To see only the information about shards of a specific index, add the index name after your query.
```
GET _cat/shards/<index>?v
```
If you want to get information for more than one index, separate the indices with commas:
```
GET _cat/shards/index1,index2,index3
```
## Path and HTTP methods
```
GET _cat/shards
```
## URL parameters
All cat shards URL parameters are optional.
In addition to the [common URL parameters]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/opensearch/rest-api/cat/index#common-url-parameters), you can specify the following parameter:
Parameter | Type | Description
:--- | :--- | :---
bytes | Byte size | Specify the units for byte size. For example, `7kb` or `6gb`. For more information, see [Supported units]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/opensearch/units/).
local | Boolean | Whether to return information from the local node only instead of from the master node. Default is false.
master_timeout | Time | The amount of time to wait for a connection to the master node. Default is 30 seconds.
time | Time | Specify the units for time. For example, `5d` or `7h`. For more information, see [Supported units]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/opensearch/units/).
## Response
```json
index | shard | prirep | state | docs | store | ip | | node
plugins | 0 | p | STARTED | 0 | 208b | 172.18.0.4 | odfe-node1
plugins | 0 | r | STARTED | 0 | 208b | 172.18.0.3 | odfe-node2