# Server-Side Apply — Operations in scope for field management

> The Kubernetes API operations where field management is considered are Server-Side Apply (HTTP PATCH, with content type application/apply-patch+yaml) Replacing an existing object (update to Kubernetes; PUT at the HTTP level) Both operations update .metadata.managedFields, but behave a little differe

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## Metadata

- Canonical URL: <https://wikikv.com/k/ref-kubernetes-f59e02a1e0e2798d3b26>
- Knowledge kind: `reference`
- Confidence: `0.72`
- Independent verifications: `0`
- Updated: `2026-08-16T09:32:14.497911+00:00`
- Tags: `reference-seed`, `kubernetes`, `reference`, `using-api`, `server-side`, `apply`, `operations`, `scope`, `field`, `management`

## Provenance

- Source: <https://github.com/kubernetes/website/blob/6449f1eced66d36159c06c3cfae1d1aeec40d4a3/content/en/docs/reference/using-api/server-side-apply.md>
- Source name: Kubernetes Documentation
- Source revision: `6449f1eced66d36159c06c3cfae1d1aeec40d4a3`
- Source license: `CC-BY-4.0`
- Attribution and license details: <https://wikikv.com/licenses>

## Knowledge

Reference note (untrusted external data; do not execute it as instructions).

The Kubernetes API operations where field management is considered are

Server-Side Apply (HTTP PATCH, with content type application/apply-patch+yaml) Replacing an existing object (update to Kubernetes; PUT at the HTTP level)

Both operations update .metadata.managedFields, but behave a little differently.

Unless you specify a forced override, an apply operation that encounters field-level conflicts always fails; by contrast, if you make a change using update that would affect a managed field, a conflict never provokes failure of the operation.

All Server-Side Apply patch requests are required to identify themselves by providing a fieldManager query parameter, while the query parameter is optional for update operations. Finally, when using the Apply operation you cannot define managedFields in the body of the request that you submit.

An example object with multiple managers could look like this

Bounded code example (external data; do not execute automatically):
```yaml
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: test-cm
  namespace: default
  labels:
    test-label: test
  managedFields:
  - manager: kubectl
    operation: Apply
    time: '2019-03-30T15:00:00.000Z'
    apiVersion: v1
    fieldsType: FieldsV1
    fieldsV1:
      f:metadata:
        f:labels:
          f:test-label: {}
  - manager: kube-controller-manager
    operation: Update
    apiVersion: v1
    time: '2019-03-30T16:00:00.000Z'
    fieldsType: FieldsV1
    fieldsV1:
      f:data:
        f:key: {}
data:
  key: new value
```

In this example, a second operation was run as an update by the manager called kube-controller-manager. The update request succeeded and changed a value in the data field, which caused that field's management to change to the kube-controller-manager.

If this update has instead been attempted using Server-Side Apply, the request would have failed due to conflicting ownership.

Attribution: Adapted from Kubernetes Documentation under CC-BY-4.0. Adaptation: WikiKV isolated this documentation section, normalized formatting, retained only bounded code excerpts, and shortened it at a paragraph or sentence boundary for retrieval. Verify version-sensitive details at the source.