---
title: stack es indices create cli command
description: Create an index. Behaviour flags: --dry-run — validate all inputs and exit without performing any action 
url: https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/4118/reference/elastic-cli/cli/stack/es/indices/create
applies_to:
  - Elastic Cloud Serverless: Preview
  - Elastic Stack: Preview
---

# stack es indices create cli command
<cli-modifiers>
</cli-modifiers>

```bash
elastic stack es indices create --index <index> [options]
```

Create an index.
**Behaviour flags:**
`--dry-run` — validate all inputs and exit without performing any action

## Options

<definitions>
  <definition term="--index string required">
    Name of the index you wish to create.
    Index names must meet the following criteria: * Lowercase only
    - Cannot include `\`, `/`, `*`, `?`, `"`, `<`, `>`, `|`, ` ` (space character), `,`, or `#`
    - Indices prior to 7.0 could contain a colon (`:`), but that has been deprecated and will not be supported in later versions
    - Cannot start with `-`, `_`, or `+`
    - Cannot be `.` or `..`
    - Cannot be longer than 255 bytes (note thtat it is bytes, so multi-byte characters will reach the limit faster)
    - Names starting with `.` are deprecated, except for hidden indices and internal indices managed by plugins
  </definition>
  <definition term="--master-timeout string">
    Period to wait for a connection to the master node.
    If no response is received before the timeout expires, the request fails and returns an error.
  </definition>
  <definition term="--timeout string">
    Period to wait for a response.
    If no response is received before the timeout expires, the request fails and returns an error.
  </definition>
  <definition term="--wait-for-active-shards string">
    The number of shard copies that must be active before proceeding with the operation.
    Set to `all` or any positive integer up to the total number of shards in the index (`number_of_replicas+1`).
  </definition>
  <definition term="--aliases string">
    Aliases for the index.
  </definition>
  <definition term="--mappings string">
    Mapping for fields in the index. If specified, this mapping can include:
    - Field names
    - Field data types
    - Mapping parameters
  </definition>
  <definition term="--settings string">
    Configuration options for the index.
  </definition>
  <definition term="--error-trace">
    When set to `true` Elasticsearch will include the full stack trace of errors
    when they occur.
  </definition>
  <definition term="--filter-path string">
    Comma-separated list of filters in dot notation which reduce the response
    returned by Elasticsearch.
    **Repeatable:** pass `--filter-path` multiple times to supply more than one value
  </definition>
  <definition term="--human">
    When set to `true` will return statistics in a format suitable for humans.
    For example `"exists_time": "1h"` for humans and
    `"exists_time_in_millis": 3600000` for computers. When disabled the human
    readable values will be omitted. This makes sense for responses being consumed
    only by machines.
  </definition>
  <definition term="--pretty">
    If set to `true` the returned JSON will be "pretty-formatted". Only use
    this option for debugging only.
  </definition>
  <definition term="--input-file string">
    path to a JSON file to use as command input
  </definition>
  <definition term="--dry-run">
    validate all inputs and exit without performing any action (preview changes without applying them)
  </definition>
</definitions>


## Global Options

<definitions>
  <definition term="--json">
    output as JSON
  </definition>
</definitions>