# Can you hook an existing Elasticsearch index to Elastic App search
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/can-you-hook-an-existing-elasticsearch-index-to-elastic-app-search/222508
**Category:** Elastic Search
**Tags:** elastic-app-search
**Created:** [March 6, 2020, 8:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/can-you-hook-an-existing-elasticsearch-index-to-elastic-app-search/222508 "2020-03-06T20:00:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@SanshilaG](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/SanshilaG)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2020, 8:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/can-you-hook-an-existing-elasticsearch-index-to-elastic-app-search/222508/1 "2020-03-06T20:00:50Z")
I want to integrate App Search in my project. App search runs fine out of the box. But I have an application that is running on Elasticsearch, I was wondering if I could use this existing index as a backend for App search? If No, is it because documents are indexed differently for App Search engine compared to Elasticsearch? Also, why can't I access App search documents from my elasticsearch cluster (localhost:9200)?
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### Author:  [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2020, 1:41pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/can-you-hook-an-existing-elasticsearch-index-to-elastic-app-search/222508/2 "2020-03-07T13:41:36Z")
You need to reindex using AppSearch.
---
### Author:  [@SanshilaG](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/SanshilaG)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2020, 2:49pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/can-you-hook-an-existing-elasticsearch-index-to-elastic-app-search/222508/3 "2020-03-09T14:49:15Z")
Where do the Appsearch documents reside? I can see that they are not an index on elasticsearch. I can't find it on localhost:9200. I wanted to know if I can browse app-search index and documents like indices and documents on elasticsearch.
I did not find any information related to it on Elastic and Swift type documentation.
---
### Author:  [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2020, 3:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/can-you-hook-an-existing-elasticsearch-index-to-elastic-app-search/222508/4 "2020-03-09T15:46:10Z")
I don't know. And actually it should not be exposed or used by anything else than AppSearch.
Basically you send documents to AppSearch. You send queries to AppSearch.
You should not really be aware that the back end is actually elasticsearch 🙂
That being said, I just started an AppSearch instance on [cloud.elastic.co](http://cloud.elastic.co) and ran from Kibana:
```auto
GET /_cat/indices/.app-search*/?v&h=index
```
And I can see:
```auto
index
.app-search-actastic-clusters
.app-search-actastic-loco_moco_accounts_v2-key-unique-constraint
.app-search-actastic-users-email-unique-constraint
.app-search-actastic-user_external_identities_v1
.app-search-actastic-loco_moco_document_position_queries
.app-search-actastic-document_types
.app-search-actastic-elasticsearch_indices
.app-search-actastic-loco_moco_accounts_v3-key-unique-constraint
.app-search-actastic-loco_moco_role_engines
.app-search-esqueues-me_queue_v1_index_adder
.app-search-esqueues-me_queue_v1_analytics_events
.app-search-actastic-synonyms
.app-search-actastic-loco_moco_document_positions
.app-search-actastic-loco_moco_api_tokens
.app-search-actastic-index_pointers
.app-search-actastic-loco_togo_role_mappings_v1
.app-search-actastic-loco_moco_invitations
.app-search-actastic-reindex_jobs
.app-search-actastic-user_external_identities_v1-external_id-service_type-unique-constraint
.app-search-actastic-engines_v5-account_id-loco_moco_account_id-slug-unique-constraint
.app-search-esqueues-me_queue_v1_reindexer
.app-search-esqueues-me_queue_v1_schema_updater
.app-search-actastic-engines_v3-account_id-loco_moco_account_id-slug-unique-constraint
.app-search-actastic-loco_moco_accounts-key-unique-constraint
.app-search-actastic-engines_v7-key-unique-constraint
.app-search-actastic-index_pointers_v2
.app-search-actastic-engines-key-unique-constraint
.app-search-actastic-document_types-engine_id-slug-unique-constraint
.app-search-esqueues-me_queue_v1_refresh_document_counts
.app-search-esqueues-me_queue_v1_mailer
.app-search-actastic-loco_togo_role_mapping_engines_v1-engine_oid-loco_togo_role_mapping_id-unique-constraint
.app-search-actastic-engines_v4-account_id-loco_moco_account_id-slug-unique-constraint
.app-search-actastic-users_v2
.app-search-actastic-clusters-name-unique-constraint
.app-search-actastic-users_v2-email-unique-constraint
.app-search-actastic-engines_v6-key-unique-constraint
.app-search-actastic-engine_document_backends
.app-search-actastic-loco_moco_api_token_engines
.app-search-actastic-loco_moco_search_settings
.app-search-actastic-engines
.app-search-actastic-loco_togo_role_mapping_engines_v1
.app-search-actastic-loco_moco_roles
.app-search-actastic-loco_moco_api_tokens-authentication_token-unique-constraint
.app-search-actastic-engines-account_id-loco_moco_account_id-slug-unique-constraint
.app-search-actastic-engines_v5-key-unique-constraint
.app-search-actastic-engines_v6-account_id-loco_moco_account_id-slug-unique-constraint
.app-search-esqueues-me_queue_v1_indexed_doc_remover
.app-search-actastic-loco_togo_migrations_v1
.app-search-actastic-engines_v2-account_id-loco_moco_account_id-slug-unique-constraint
.app-search-actastic-loco_moco_role_engines_v2
.app-search-actastic-loco_moco_roles_v2
.app-search-actastic-loco_moco_accounts_v2
.app-search-actastic-loco_moco_document_position_queries_v3
.app-search-actastic-loco_moco_document_position_queries_v2
.app-search-actastic-loco_moco_accounts_v3
.app-search-actastic-loco_moco_invitations_v3
.app-search-actastic-loco_moco_invitations_v2
.app-search-actastic-engines_v4-key-unique-constraint
.app-search-esqueues-me_queue_v1_engine_destroyer
.app-search-actastic-engines_v3-key-unique-constraint
.app-search-actastic-users
.app-search-actastic-engines_v7
.app-search-actastic-engines_v7-account_id-loco_moco_account_id-slug-unique-constraint
.app-search-actastic-engines_v6
.app-search-actastic-engines_v5
.app-search-actastic-engines_v4
.app-search-actastic-engines_v3
.app-search-actastic-engines_v2
.app-search-esqueues-me_queue_v1_document_destroyer
.app-search-db-lock
.app-search-actastic-engines_v2-key-unique-constraint
.app-search-actastic-loco_moco_accounts
```
So I believe there should be something there...
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2020, 3:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/can-you-hook-an-existing-elasticsearch-index-to-elastic-app-search/222508/5 "2020-04-06T15:46:13Z")
This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
---
### Author:  [@JonasLavoie](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/JonasLavoie)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2022, 2:32pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/can-you-hook-an-existing-elasticsearch-index-to-elastic-app-search/222508/6 "2022-06-16T14:32:17Z")
Hey all - we've recently introduced new functionality on two fronts that will certainly help with the use case at hand:
1. [A way to use existing Elasticsearch indices with App Search.](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/app-search/current/elasticsearch-engines.html) You can still create and managed indices (via engines) with App Search, but this gives you more flexibility on where and how the data is indexed. If some restaurants are _bring your own wine_, App Search is now _bring your own Elasticsearch index_ 🙂
2. [A way to use the Elasticsearch Query DSL for any App Search engine.](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/app-search/current/elasticsearch-search-guide.html) This means even the most demanding of queries can be issued against App Search engines, with all the automatic goodness of Analytics capture, for example.
Hope this helps you all on this thread, and perhaps any other peer that stumbles upon this thread!
-- Jonas