---
title: Now
description: The now processor sets the current timestamp to the specified field of the event. The now processor will overwrite the target field if it already exists...
url: https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/reference/beats/heartbeat/now
products:
  - Beats
  - Heartbeat
applies_to:
  - Elastic Cloud Serverless: Generally available
  - Elastic Stack: Generally available since 9.1
---

# Now
The `now` processor sets the current timestamp to the specified field of the event. The `now` processor will overwrite the target field if it already exists.
The specified target field can be a nested field. The `now` processor will throw an error and leave the original event unchanged if the target nested field has an existing non-object as a parent.
<definitions>
  <definition term="field">
    The target field.
  </definition>
</definitions>

For example, this configuration:
```yaml
processors:
  - now:
      field: event.created
```

Results in the following event:
```json
{
  "event": {
    "created": "2025-04-08T12:00:00.000000042Z"
  }
}
```

The event will be unchanged if the target nested field has an existing non-object as a parent, given:
```yaml
processors:
  - now:
      field: event.created
```

The following event will not be altered:
```json
{
  "event": "foo"
}
```