AWS opensearch-service documentation change

Service: opensearch-service · 2026-05-13 · Documentation low

File: opensearch-service/latest/developerguide/serverless-semantic-enrichment.md

Summary

Added new 'Update an existing index' section explaining how to modify semantic enrichment fields, disable enrichment, and documented update limitations

Security assessment

Changes are functional updates about index management operations. No security vulnerabilities, patches, or security features are mentioned. The note about custom pipelines blocking updates is operational, not security-related.

Diff

diff --git a/opensearch-service/latest/developerguide/serverless-semantic-enrichment.md b/opensearch-service/latest/developerguide/serverless-semantic-enrichment.md
index 7e2681971..61286a9cf 100644
--- a//opensearch-service/latest/developerguide/serverless-semantic-enrichment.md
+++ b//opensearch-service/latest/developerguide/serverless-semantic-enrichment.md
@@ -7 +7 @@
-IntroductionWhat is semantic searchModel details and performance benchmarkLanguages SupportedSet up an automatic semantic enrichment index for serverless collectionsData ingestion and searchConfiguring permissions for automatic semantic enrichmentQuery RewritesLimitations of automatic semantic enrichmentPricing
+IntroductionWhat is semantic searchModel details and performance benchmarkLanguages SupportedSet up an automatic semantic enrichment index for serverless collectionsUpdate an existing indexData ingestion and searchConfiguring permissions for automatic semantic enrichmentQuery RewritesLimitations of automatic semantic enrichmentPricing
@@ -104,0 +105,80 @@ You can also use CloudFormation templates (Type:AWS::OpenSearchServerless::Colle
+## Update an existing index
+
+You can update an existing index to add new semantic enrichment fields, enable or disable semantic enrichment on existing fields, or add non-semantic text fields. Use the `update-index` command and provide only the fields you want to change in the `index-schema`. Fields not included in the request are left unchanged.
+
+###### Note
+
+Index `settings` cannot be updated. If you include a `settings` block in the request, the operation returns a validation error. To change index settings, you must delete and recreate the index.
+
+To update an index using the AWS CLI, use the `update-index` command:
+    
+    
+    aws opensearchserverless update-index \
+    --id [collection_id] \
+    --index-name [index_name] \
+    --index-schema [index_body]
+
+### Add a new semantic enrichment field
+
+You can add a new `text` field with semantic enrichment enabled to an existing index. The service automatically sets up the required ML model, ingest pipeline, and search pipeline. New documents indexed after the update are enriched automatically.
+
+###### Important
+
+Existing documents are not backfilled. To populate the semantic enrichment field on existing documents, you must re-ingest them after the update. Until re-ingested, existing documents will not benefit from semantic search on the new field.
+    
+    
+    aws opensearchserverless update-index \
+    --id my-collection-id \
+    --index-name product-catalog \
+    --index-schema '{
+        "mappings": {
+            "properties": {
+                "description": {
+                    "type": "text",
+                    "semantic_enrichment": {
+                        "status": "ENABLED",
+                        "language_options": "english"
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }'
+
+### Disable semantic enrichment on a field
+
+To disable semantic enrichment on a field that currently has it enabled, set `status` to `DISABLED`. The field is removed from the ingest and search pipelines. The underlying text field and its embedding field remain in the index but are no longer enriched.
+    
+    
+    aws opensearchserverless update-index \
+    --id my-collection-id \
+    --index-name product-catalog \
+    --index-schema '{
+        "mappings": {
+            "properties": {
+                "title_semantic": {
+                    "type": "text",
+                    "semantic_enrichment": {
+                        "status": "DISABLED"
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }'
+
+### Update limitations
+
+The following operations are not supported by `update-index` and require you to delete and recreate the index:
+
+  * **Changing`language_options`** on a field that currently has semantic enrichment enabled. Disable the field first, then re-enable it with the new language option.
+
+  * **Updating nested fields.** Semantic enrichment is only supported on top-level `text` fields.
+
+  * **Updating index`settings`.**
+
+
+
+
+###### Note
+
+If the index has a custom ingest or search pipeline that was not created by automatic semantic enrichment, the update operation is blocked. Remove the custom pipeline before adding semantic enrichment fields.
+