Update

Modifies an existing item. Pass the full key as keyword arguments, then use the 5 update actions.

Update Actions

Action	Description	DynamoDB clause
set	Set attribute values	SET #attr = :val
remove	Remove attributes	REMOVE #attr
append	Append to a list	SET #attr = list_append(#attr, :val)
add	Increment number or add to set	ADD #attr :val
delete	Remove elements from a set	DELETE #attr :val

Basic Usage

orders.update(
    user_id="usr_123", order_id="ord_789",
    set={"status": "SHIPPED", "shipped_at": "2025-02-24"},
    remove=["temp_notes"],
    append={"history": {"action": "shipped", "at": "2025-02-24"}},
    add={"version": 1, "tags": {"urgent"}},
    delete={"old_tags": {"deprecated"}},
)

Nested Paths

Nested paths work in set:

orders.update(
    user_id="usr_123", order_id="ord_456",
    set={"address.city": "Lima", "items[0].qty": 5},
)

Multiple actions can be combined in a single update() call.