Elasticsearch API results are USUALLY displayed in JSON format, which is not always easy to read. Human eyes require compact and aligned text, especially when looking at a TERMINAL. In order to meet this need, cat APIs (compact and aligned text APIs) have been developed. Thus, the cat APIs feature offered by Elasticsearch facilitates an easier-to-read and comprehend printing format for Elasticsearch results. Cat APIs return plain text instead of traditional JSON, which is comprehensible by users. You can view the available operations in the cat API by running the following commands:

Additionally, you may use the following parameters with your query.

• Verbose (v?): Gives results in a nice format or more verbose OUTPUT. Use this parameter to see what each column represents.
  • Syntax:

• Help (?help): Provides a list of the available headers and COLUMNS for a given operation. You can view all available headers by using this parameter.
  • Syntax:

• Headers (?h): Limit the output to specified headers or columns in the command.
  • Syntax:

• Numeri format (?format): Provide different types of numeric output, such as bytes, size, and time VALUE.
• Sort (?sort): Sorts the table by the specified columns as the parameter value.