[role="xpack"]
[[watcher-api-start]]
=== Start watch service API
++++
<titleabbrev>Start watch service</titleabbrev>
++++

Starts the {watcher} service if it is not already running.

[[watcher-api-start-request]]
==== {api-request-title}

`POST _watcher/_start`

[[watcher-api-start-prereqs]]
==== {api-prereq-title}

* You must have `manage_watcher` cluster privileges to use this API. For more
information, see <<security-privileges>>.

//[[watcher-api-start-desc]]
//==== {api-description-title}

//[[watcher-api-start-path-params]]
//==== {api-path-parms-title}

[[watcher-api-start-query-params]]
==== {api-query-parms-title}

`master_timeout`::
(Optional, <<time-units, time units>>) Specifies the period of time 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. Defaults to `30s`.

//[[watcher-api-start-request-body]]
//==== {api-request-body-title}

//[[watcher-api-start-response-body]]
//==== {api-response-body-title}

//[[watcher-api-start-response-codes]]
//==== {api-response-codes-title}

[[watcher-api-start-example]]
==== {api-examples-title}

[source,console]
--------------------------------------------------
POST _watcher/_start
--------------------------------------------------

{watcher} returns the following response if the request is successful:

[source,console-result]
--------------------------------------------------
{
   "acknowledged": true
}
--------------------------------------------------
