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pinecone-cli

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by pinecone-io · part of pinecone-io/skills

Guide for using the Pinecone CLI (pc) to manage Pinecone resources from the terminal. The CLI supports ALL index types (standard, integrated, sparse) and all…

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🧩 One of 7 skills in the pinecone-io/skills package — works on its own, and pairs well with its siblings.

Guide for using the Pinecone CLI (pc) to manage Pinecone resources from the terminal. The CLI supports ALL index types (standard, integrated, sparse) and all…

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name: pinecone-cli description: Guide for using the Pinecone CLI (pc) to manage Pinecone resources from the terminal. The CLI supports ALL index types (standard, integrated, sparse) and all vector operations — unlike the MCP which only supports integrated indexes. Use for batch operations, vector management, backups, namespaces, CI/CD automation, and full control over Pinecone resources. argument-hint: install | auth | index [op] | vector [op] | backup | namespace

Pinecone CLI (pc)

Manage Pinecone from the terminal. The CLI is especially valuable for vector operations across all index types — something the MCP currently can't do.

CLI vs MCP

CLIMCP
Index typesAll (standard, integrated, sparse)Integrated only
Vector ops (upsert, query, fetch, update, delete)✅❌
Text search on integrated indexes✅✅
Backups, namespaces, org/project mgmt✅❌
CI/CD / scripting✅❌

Common Commands

TaskCommand
List indexespc index list
Create serverless indexpc index create -n my-index -d 1536 -m cosine -c aws -r us-east-1
Index statspc index stats -n my-index
Upload vectors from filepc index vector upsert -n my-index --file ./vectors.json
Query by vectorpc index vector query -n my-index --vector '[0.1, ...]' -k 10 --include-metadata
Query by vector IDpc index vector query -n my-index --id "doc-123" -k 10
Fetch vectors by IDpc index vector fetch -n my-index --ids '["vec1","vec2"]'
List vector IDspc index vector list -n my-index
Delete vectors by filterpc index vector delete -n my-index --filter '{"genre":"classical"}'
List namespacespc index namespace list -n my-index
Create backuppc backup create -i my-index -n "my-backup"
JSON output (for scripting)Add -j to any command

Interesting Things You Can Do

Query with custom vectors (not just text)

Unlike the MCP, the CLI lets you query any index with raw vector values — useful when you generate embeddings externally (OpenAI, HuggingFace, etc.):

Copy & paste — that's it
pc index vector query -n my-index \
  --vector '[0.1, 0.2, ..., 0.9]' \
  --filter '{"source":{"$eq":"docs"}}' \
  -k 20 --include-metadata

Pipe embeddings directly into queries

Copy & paste — that's it
jq -c '.embedding' doc.json | pc index vector query -n my-index --vector - -k 10

Bulk metadata update with preview

Copy & paste — that's it
# Preview first
pc index vector update -n my-index \
  --filter '{"env":{"$eq":"staging"}}' \
  --metadata '{"env":"production"}' \
  --dry-run

# Apply
pc index vector update -n my-index \
  --filter '{"env":{"$eq":"staging"}}' \
  --metadata '{"env":"production"}'

Backup and restore

Copy & paste — that's it
# Snapshot before a migration
pc backup create -i my-index -n "pre-migration"

# Restore to a new index if something goes wrong
pc backup restore -i <backup-uuid> -n my-index-restored

Automate in CI/CD

Copy & paste — that's it
export PINECONE_CLIENT_ID="..."
export PINECONE_CLIENT_SECRET="..."
pc auth configure --client-id "$PINECONE_CLIENT_ID" --client-secret "$PINECONE_CLIENT_SECRET"
pc index vector upsert -n my-index --file ./vectors.jsonl --batch-size 1000

Script against JSON output

Copy & paste — that's it
# Get all index names as a list
pc index list -j | jq -r '.[] | .name'

# Check if an index exists before creating
if ! pc index describe -n my-index -j 2>/dev/null | jq -e '.name' > /dev/null; then
  pc index create -n my-index -d 1536 -m cosine -c aws -r us-east-1
fi

Reference Files

Documentation