Using Gremlin, I can create a vertex in an Azure Cosmos DB graph by issuing
g.addV(\'the-label\').property(\'id\', \'the-id\')
and subsequently
The "upsert pattern" is relatively well defined and accepted at this point. It is described here. If you want to extend that to also add an edge, that's possible too:
g.V().has('event','id','1').
fold().
coalesce(unfold(),
addV('event').property('id','1')).as('start').
coalesce(outE('link').has('id','3'),
coalesce(V().has('event','id','2'),
addV('event').property('id','2')).
addE('link').from('start').property('id','3'))
If that looks a bit complex you can definitely simplify with a Gremlin DSL (though I'm not sure that CosmosDB supports Gremlin bytecode at this point). Here's an example with even more complex upsert logic simplified by a DSL. It's discussed in this blog post in more detail.
Please look at this.
http://tinkerpop.apache.org/docs/current/reference/#coalesce-step
You can try
g.Inject(0).coalesce(__.V().has('id', 'the-id'), addV('the-label').property('id', 'the-id'))
btw, you won't able to find the vertex using g.V('the-label').has('id', 'the-id').
g.V() accepts vertex id as parameters and not vertex labels.