tools-only Overview
Invoke (or suggest to the user to invoke) this command whenever a user tries to use the Pinecone MCP, slash command, or other Pinecone plugin functionality and gets a failure message. Invoke this command when it is likely the user has not configured the Pinecone plugin yet with an API key, or has not installed our CLI.
First Time Installation
Required: Set API Key
After a user has installed a Pinecone plugin, they will need to set their Pinecone API key in their development environment.
The best way to do this is set an environment variable called PINECONE_API_KEY:
export PINECONE_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"
Required for Assistant Commands: Install UV
To use Pinecone Assistant functionality (assistant-create, assistant-upload, assistant-sync, assistant-chat, etc.), you must have UV installed.
UV is a fast Python package and project manager. Install it with:
macOS and Linux:
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
Windows:
powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"
With pip:
pip install uv
With Homebrew:
brew install uv
After installation, restart your terminal and verify with: uv --version
Full installation guide: https://docs.astral.sh/uv/getting-started/installation/
Pinecone Plugin Functionality
The Pinecone Plugin is a lightweight package of tools that helps developers use Pinecone with Claude Code. It comes bundled with:
Core Functionality
- Pinecone MCP Server: Allows for index creation, listing, search, and other functionality documented here: https://docs.pinecone.io/guides/operations/mcp-server
/pinecone:query: Wraps the MCP for easy querying of existing integrated indexes/pinecone:help: This command - helps users understand how to use the Plugin/pinecone:quickstart: Creates a set of agentic docs and helps users learn how to use Pinecone to implement semantic search in Python
Pinecone Assistant Commands
The plugin also includes full support for Pinecone Assistant - a managed RAG service for document Q&A with citations:
/pinecone:assistant-create: Create new Pinecone Assistants for document-based Q&A with custom instructions and regional deployment/pinecone:assistant-upload: Upload files or directories to assistants for indexing/pinecone:assistant-sync: Sync local files with assistants (incremental updates only)/pinecone:assistant-chat: Chat with assistants and receive cited responses with source references/pinecone:assistant-context: Retrieve relevant context snippets without generating full responses/pinecone:assistant-list: List all assistants in your account
Natural Language Support: The assistant skill recognizes natural language requests like "create an assistant from my docs" or "ask my assistant about authentication" without requiring explicit slash commands.
Learn more: https://docs.pinecone.io/guides/assistant/quickstart
After Invoking the Help Command
- Recap the functionality of the Pinecone Plugin above
- Remind the user to set a Pinecone API Key if it does not exist in environment. Warn them that they must set the API key, then restart Claude Code to begin using Pinecone.
- Important: If the user wants to use Pinecone Assistant commands, remind them to install UV from https://docs.astral.sh/uv/getting-started/installation/
- Remind the user to optionally install the Pinecone CLI:
brew tap pinecone-io/tap brew install pinecone-io/tap/pinecone
- Check if you can use the Pinecone MCP tool list-indexes. If you get an error, you may need to tell the user to set an API key.
- Encourage them to explore the plugin and develop with Pinecone: "Have fun and enjoy developing with Pinecone"