Authentication

This guide explains how to authenticate API calls to your Pinecone project.

Overview

All API calls to your Pinecone index authenticate with an API key for the project containing the target index. If you are using a client, like the Python or Node.js clients, you can initialize a client object, which allows you to provide your API key in one place and use it multiple times. If you are making HTTP requests with a tool like cURL, the HTTP request must include a header that specifies the API key. This topic describes each method.

Finding your Pinecone API key

To find your API key, open the Pinecone console and click API Keys. This view also displays the environment for your project.

Initialize a client

To initialize a client with your API key and environment, use the following code:

Python

import pinecone

pinecone.init(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY", environment="YOUR_ENVIRONMENT")

Function calls with this client use the authentication information provided at initialization. For example:

Python

# Creates an index using the API key and environment stored in the client 'pinecone'.
pinecone.create_index("auth-guide", dimension=8, metric="euclidean")

Add a header to an HTTP request

When issuing an HTTP request to Pinecone, each request must contain an Api-Key header that specifies an API key. This API key must be valid for a project in the environment specified in the URL.

curl

curl -i -X POST \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'Api-Key: YOUR_API_KEY_HERE' \
  https://controller.YOUR_ENVIRONMENT.pinecone.io/databases \
  -d '{
    "name": "auth-guide",
    "dimension": 8,
    "metric": "euclidean"
  }'

Next steps

• Learn more about using the Pinecone Python client.
• Learn more about using the Pinecone Node client.