Pinecone - Managed Vector Database

The vector database for production AI applications.

When to use Pinecone

Use when:

• Need managed, serverless vector database
• Production RAG applications
• Auto-scaling required
• Low latency critical (<100ms)
• Don't want to manage infrastructure
• Need hybrid search (dense + sparse vectors)

Metrics:

• Fully managed SaaS
• Auto-scales to billions of vectors
• p95 latency <100ms
• 99.9% uptime SLA

Use alternatives instead:

• Chroma: Self-hosted, open-source
• FAISS: Offline, pure similarity search
• Weaviate: Self-hosted with more features

Quick start

Installation

pip install pinecone-client

Basic usage

from pinecone import Pinecone, ServerlessSpec

# Initialize
pc = Pinecone(api_key="your-api-key")

# Create index
pc.create_index(
    name="my-index",
    dimension=1536,  # Must match embedding dimension
    metric="cosine",  # or "euclidean", "dotproduct"
    spec=ServerlessSpec(cloud="aws", region="us-east-1")
)

# Connect to index
index = pc.Index("my-index")

# Upsert vectors
index.upsert(vectors=[
    {"id": "vec1", "values": [0.1, 0.2, ...], "metadata": {"category": "A"}},
    {"id": "vec2", "values": [0.3, 0.4, ...], "metadata": {"category": "B"}}
])

# Query
results = index.query(
    vector=[0.1, 0.2, ...],
    top_k=5,
    include_metadata=True
)

print(results["matches"])

Core operations

Create index

# Serverless (recommended)
pc.create_index(
    name="my-index",
    dimension=1536,
    metric="cosine",
    spec=ServerlessSpec(
        cloud="aws",         # or "gcp", "azure"
        region="us-east-1"
    )
)

# Pod-based (for consistent performance)
from pinecone import PodSpec

pc.create_index(
    name="my-index",
    dimension=1536,
    metric="cosine",
    spec=PodSpec(
        environment="us-east1-gcp",
        pod_type="p1.x1"
    )
)

Upsert vectors

# Single upsert
index.upsert(vectors=[
    {
        "id": "doc1",
        "values": [0.1, 0.2, ...],  # 1536 dimensions
        "metadata": {
            "text": "Document content",
            "category": "tutorial",
            "timestamp": "2025-01-01"
        }
    }
])

# Batch upsert (recommended)
vectors = [
    {"id": f"vec{i}", "values": embedding, "metadata": metadata}
    for i, (embedding, metadata) in enumerate(zip(embeddings, metadatas))
]

index.upsert(vectors=vectors, batch_size=100)

Query vectors

# Basic query
results = index.query(
    vector=[0.1, 0.2, ...],
    top_k=10,
    include_metadata=True,
    include_values=False
)

# With metadata filtering
results = index.query(
    vector=[0.1, 0.2, ...],
    top_k=5,
    filter={"category": {"$eq": "tutorial"}}
)

# Namespace query
results = index.query(
    vector=[0.1, 0.2, ...],
    top_k=5,
    namespace="production"
)

# Access results
for match in results["matches"]:
    print(f"ID: {match['id']}")
    print(f"Score: {match['score']}")
    print(f"Metadata: {match['metadata']}")

Metadata filtering

# Exact match
filter = {"category": "tutorial"}

# Comparison
filter = {"price": {"$gte": 100}}  # $gt, $gte, $lt, $lte, $ne

# Logical operators
filter = {
    "$and": [
        {"category": "tutorial"},
        {"difficulty": {"$lte": 3}}
    ]
}  # Also: $or

# In operator
filter = {"tags": {"$in": ["python", "ml"]}}

Namespaces

how to use pinecone
CursorClaude CodeClineCodexWindsurfGooseGitHub CopilotVS CodeGemini CLIKiloOpencodeKimi CLIRoo ClineAiderContinueZedBolt.newLovablev0Replit AgentSweepSmol DeveloperDevinCavemanAmpAntigravity
How to use pinecone on Cursor
AI-first code editor with Composer
1
Prerequisites
Before installing skills in Cursor, ensure your development environment meets these requirements:
›Cursor installed and configured on your development machine
›Node.js version 16.0+ with npm package manager (verify with node --version)
›Active project directory or workspace where you want to add pinecone
2
Execute installation command
Execute the skills CLI command in your project's root directory to begin installation:
$npx skills add https://github.com/davila7/claude-code-templates --skill pineconecopy
The skills CLI fetches pinecone from GitHub repository davila7/claude-code-templates and configures it for Cursor.
3
Select Cursor when prompted
The CLI will show a list of available agents. Use arrow keys to navigate and space to select Cursor:
◆ Which agents do you want to install to?
│
│ ── Universal (.agents/skills) ── always included ────
│   • Amp
│   • Antigravity
│   • Cline
│   • Codex
│ ●Cursor(selected)
│   • Cursor
│   • Windsurf
4
Verify installation
Confirm successful installation by checking the skill directory location:
.cursor/skills/pinecone
Reload or restart Cursor to activate pinecone. Access the skill through slash commands (e.g., /pinecone) or your agent's skill management interface.
⚠
Security & Verification Notice
We perform automated surface-level scans (Gen AI Scanner, Socket, Snyk) during installation. These checks detect common vulnerabilities but do not guarantee complete security. Always review skill source code and verify the publisher's reputation before production use.
Skills execute code in your development environment. Always verify the publisher's identity, review recent commits, and test in isolated environments before production deployment.
Additional Resources
›View source code on GitHub›Skills CLI documentation›Learn more about Cursor›What are agent skills?