Get the status for a data stream lifecycle

GET /{index}/_lifecycle/explain

Auth

Get information about an index or data stream's current data stream lifecycle status, such as time since index creation, time since rollover, the lifecycle configuration managing the index, or any errors encountered during lifecycle execution.

About data stream lifecycle

Required privileges

Index privileges manage_data_stream_lifecycle view_index_metadata

Path parameters

index union string | string[] required: Comma-separated list of index names to explain

Query parameters

include_defaults boolean · default: false: Indicates if the API should return the default values the system uses for the index's lifecycle
master_timeout string · default: 30s: The period to wait for a connection to the master node.

Response

application/json

indices map string to object required

Examples

Request Console 1 / 8 languages

Console Kibana Dev Tools

GET .ds-metrics-2023.03.22-000001/_lifecycle/explain

JavaScript Elasticsearch JavaScript Client

const response = await client.indices.explainDataLifecycle({
  index: ".ds-metrics-2023.03.22-000001",
});

Python Elasticsearch Python Client

resp = client.indices.explain_data_lifecycle(
    index=".ds-metrics-2023.03.22-000001",
)

curl Shell

curl -X GET "$ELASTICSEARCH_URL/.ds-metrics-2023.03.22-000001/_lifecycle/explain" \
  -H "Authorization: ApiKey $ELASTIC_API_KEY"

Java Elasticsearch Java Client

client.indices().explainDataLifecycle(e -> e
    .index(".ds-metrics-2023.03.22-000001")
);

C# Elasticsearch .NET Client

var response = await client.Indices.ExplainDataLifecycleAsync(indices: new[] { ".ds-metrics-2023.03.22-000001" });

PHP Elasticsearch PHP Client

$resp = $client->indices()->explainDataLifecycle([
    "index" => ".ds-metrics-2023.03.22-000001",
]);

Ruby Elasticsearch Ruby Client

response = client.indices.explain_data_lifecycle(
  index: ".ds-metrics-2023.03.22-000001"
)

Response

The API reports any errors related to the lifecycle execution for the target index.

{
  "indices": {
    ".ds-my-data-stream-test-2026.10.17-000001": {
      "index": ".ds-my-data-stream-test-2026.10.17-000001",
      "managed_by_lifecycle": true,
      "index_creation_date_millis": 1792195511314,
      "time_since_index_creation": "3.07d",
      "rollover_date_millis": 1792440980120,
      "time_since_rollover": "5.51h",
      "generation_time": "5.51h",
      "lifecycle": {
        "enabled": true,
        "data_retention": "30d",
        "effective_retention": "30d",
        "retention_determined_by": "data_stream_configuration"
      },
      "error": {
        "first_occurrence_millis": 1792441580075,
        "message": """{"type":"exception","reason":"Force merge request only had 1 successful shards out of a total of 2"}""",
        "last_recorded_millis": 1792460779960,
        "retry_count": 52
      }
    },
    ".ds-my-data-stream-test-2026.10.19-000002": {
      "index": ".ds-my-data-stream-test-2026.10.19-000002",
      "managed_by_lifecycle": true,
      "index_creation_date_millis": 1792440980129,
      "time_since_index_creation": "5.51h",
      "lifecycle": {
        "enabled": true,
        "data_retention": "30d",
        "effective_retention": "30d",
        "retention_determined_by": "data_stream_configuration"
      }
    }
  }
}