How do I update/upsert a document in Mongoose?

Mongoose now supports this natively with findOneAndUpdate (calls MongoDB findAndModify).

The upsert = true option creates the object if it doesn't exist. defaults to false.

var query = {'username': req.user.username};
req.newData.username = req.user.username;

MyModel.findOneAndUpdate(query, req.newData, {upsert: true}, function(err, doc) {
    if (err) return res.send(500, {error: err});
    return res.send('Succesfully saved.');
});

---

In older versions Mongoose does not support these hooks with this method:

• defaults
• setters
• validators
• middleware

Well, I waited long enough and no answer. Finally gave up the whole update/upsert approach and went with:

ContactSchema.findOne({phone: request.phone}, function(err, contact) {
    if(!err) {
        if(!contact) {
            contact = new ContactSchema();
            contact.phone = request.phone;
        }
        contact.status = request.status;
        contact.save(function(err) {
            if(!err) {
                console.log("contact " + contact.phone + " created at " + contact.createdAt + " updated at " + contact.updatedAt);
            }
            else {
                console.log("Error: could not save contact " + contact.phone);
            }
        });
    }
});

Does it work? Yep. Am I happy with this? Probably not. 2 DB calls instead of one.
Hopefully a future Mongoose implementation would come up with a Model.upsert function.

You were close with

Contact.update({phone:request.phone}, contact, {upsert: true}, function(err){...})

but your second parameter should be an object with a modification operator for example

Contact.update({phone:request.phone}, {$set: { phone: request.phone }}, {upsert: true}, function(err){...})

I just burned a solid 3 hours trying to solve the same problem. Specifically, I wanted to "replace" the entire document if it exists, or insert it otherwise. Here's the solution:

var contact = new Contact({
  phone: request.phone,
  status: request.status
});

// Convert the Model instance to a simple object using Model's 'toObject' function
// to prevent weirdness like infinite looping...
var upsertData = contact.toObject();

// Delete the _id property, otherwise Mongo will return a "Mod on _id not allowed" error
delete upsertData._id;

// Do the upsert, which works like this: If no Contact document exists with 
// _id = contact.id, then create a new doc using upsertData.
// Otherwise, update the existing doc with upsertData
Contact.update({_id: contact.id}, upsertData, {upsert: true}, function(err{...});

I created an issue on the Mongoose project page requesting that info about this be added to the docs.