How do I programmatically update pathauto paths for an entity? If an entity has opted into auto generated paths, you could simply re-save the entity. However saving an entity is particularly inefficient, and the path/routing system runs outside of the entity system. 

How do I update a path for an entity without saving the entity?
You could use the pathauto.generator service provided by Pathauto:

\Drupal::service('pathauto.generator')-&gt;updateEntityAlias($entity, 'update');