---
title: "topic modify"
slug: "topic-modify"
tags: ["5.3"]
updated: 2026-10-27T17:25:00Z
published: 2026-10-27T17:25:00Z
canonical: "docs.vastdata.com/topic-modify"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vastdata.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# topic modify

This command modifies a topic.

## Usage

```plaintext
topic modify --database-name NAME
             --name NAME
             [--new-name NEW_NAME]
             [--retention-ms MILLISECONDS]
             [--message-timestamp-type CreateTime|LogAppendTime] 
             [--message-timestamp-before-max-ms MILLISECONDS]
             [--message-timestamp-after-max-ms MILLISECONDS]
```

## Required Parameters

| `--database-name NAME` | The name of the database where the topic resides. |
| --- | --- |
| `--name NAME` | The name of the topic to be modified. |

## Options

| `--new-name NEW_NAME` | This option lets you rename an existing topic. |
| --- | --- |
| `--retention-ms MILLISECONDS` | The amount of time, in milliseconds, to keep an event record in the topic. When the retention period for a record expires, the records is deleted from the topic. |
| `--message-timestamp-type CreateTime\|LogAppendTime` | Determines how the event timestamp is set: - `CreateTime` (default): The timestamp is based on the time when the event was encountered at the event producer. - `LogAppendTime`: The timestamp is based on the time when the event record was added to the log at the event broker. |
| `--message-timestamp-before-max-ms MILLISECONDS` | If the message timestamp type is set to `CreateTime`, specify this option to determine how much earlier the message timestamp can be than the broker timestamp. If this value is exceeded, the message is rejected. |
| `--message-timestamp-after-max-ms MILLISECONDS` | If the message timestamp type is set to `CreateTime`, specify this option to determine how much later the message timestamp can be than the broker timestamp. If this value is exceeded, the message is rejected. |

## Example

To set the message timestamp type to `LogAppendTime`:

```plaintext
vcli: admin> topic modify --database-name kafkatopics --name mytopic --message-timestamp-type LogAppendTime
```