Authentication

Getting an API key

Sign in to the Pinecone console, navigate to API Keys, and create or copy an existing key.

Environment variable (recommended)

Set PINECONE_API_KEY before running your application:

export PINECONE_API_KEY=your-key-here

The client reads it automatically when you call Pinecone() with no arguments:

from pinecone import Pinecone

pc = Pinecone()

Explicit argument

Pass the key directly if you manage secrets through your own mechanism:

from pinecone import Pinecone

pc = Pinecone(api_key="your-key-here")

Missing key error

If no API key can be resolved from either the argument or the environment variable, the client raises PineconeValueError on construction:

from pinecone import Pinecone, PineconeValueError

try:
    pc = Pinecone()
except PineconeValueError as e:
    print(e)  # "No API key provided. Pass api_key='...' or set the PINECONE_API_KEY environment variable."

Security best practices

Never hardcode API keys in source files. Use environment variables or a secrets manager. As a lightweight alternative, the python-dotenv package loads a local .env file (which you add to .gitignore):

pip install python-dotenv

from dotenv import load_dotenv
from pinecone import Pinecone

load_dotenv()  # reads PINECONE_API_KEY from .env
pc = Pinecone()