[role="xpack"]
[[watcher-api-update-settings]]
=== Update Watcher index settings
++++
<titleabbrev>Update Watcher settings</titleabbrev>
++++

.New API reference
[sidebar]
--
For the most up-to-date API details, refer to {api-es}/group/endpoint-watcher[{watcher} APIs].
--

This API allows a user to modify the settings for the Watcher internal index (`.watches`). Only a subset of settings
are allowed to be modified. This includes:

- `index.auto_expand_replicas`
- `index.number_of_replicas`
- Any setting with the prefix `index.routing.allocation.exclude.`
- Any setting with the prefix `index.routing.allocation.include.`
- Any setting with the prefix `index.routing.allocation.require.`

Modification of `index.routing.allocation.include._tier_preference` is an exception and is not allowed as the Watcher
shards must always be in the `data_content` tier.

An example of modifying the Watcher settings:

[source,console]
----------------------------------------------------------------
PUT /_watcher/watch/test_watch
{
  "trigger": {
    "schedule": {
      "hourly": {
        "minute": [ 0, 5 ]
        }
      }
  },
  "input": {
    "simple": {
      "payload": {
        "send": "yes"
      }
    }
  },
  "condition": {
    "always": {}
  }
}
----------------------------------------------------------------
// TESTSETUP

[source,console]
-----------------------------------------------------------
PUT /_watcher/settings
{
  "index.auto_expand_replicas": "0-4"
}
-----------------------------------------------------------

The configurable settings can be retrieved using the <<watcher-api-get-settings,Get Watcher index settings>> API.