Manage assistants ↗

pinecone guide intermediate ide
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Summary: View, update, and delete, and check the status of assistants.

Original Documentation

Documentation Index#

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.pinecone.io/llms.txt Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

View, update, and delete, and check the status of assistants.

List assistants for a project#

You can get the name, status, and metadata for each assistant in your project as in the following example:

# To use the Python SDK, install the plugin:
# pip install --upgrade pinecone pinecone-plugin-assistant

from pinecone import Pinecone
pc = Pinecone(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

assistants = pc.assistant.list_assistants()
import { Pinecone } from '@pinecone-database/pinecone';

const pc = new Pinecone({ apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY' });

const assistants = await pc.listAssistants();
console.log(assistants);
PINECONE_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"

curl -X GET "https://api.pinecone.io/assistant/assistants" \
  -H "Api-Key: $PINECONE_API_KEY"

This operation returns a response like the following:

{
  "assistants": [
    {
      "name": "example-assistant",
      "instructions": "Use American English for spelling and grammar.",
      "metadata": {"team": "customer-support", "version": "1.0"},
      "status": "Initializing",
      "created_at": "2023-11-07T05:31:56Z",
      "updated_at": "2023-11-07T05:31:56Z"
    }
  ]
}

You can use the name value to check the status of an assistant.

You can list assistants using the Pinecone console.

Get the status of an assistant#

You can get the status and metadata for your assistant as in the following example:

# To use the Python SDK, install the plugin:
# pip install --upgrade pinecone pinecone-plugin-assistant

from pinecone import Pinecone
pc = Pinecone(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

assistant = pc.assistant.describe_assistant(
    assistant_name="example-assistant", 
)
import { Pinecone } from '@pinecone-database/pinecone';

const pc = new Pinecone({ apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY' });

const assistant = await pc.describeAssistant('example-assistant');
console.log(assistant);
PINECONE_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
ASSISTANT_NAME="example-assistant"

curl -X GET "https://api.pinecone.io/assistant/assistants/$ASSISTANT_NAME" \
  -H "Api-Key: $PINECONE_API_KEY"

This operation returns a response like the following:

{
  "name": "example-assistant",
  "instructions": "Use American English for spelling and grammar.",
  "metadata": {"team": "customer-support", "version": "1.0"},
  "status": "Initializing",
  "created_at": "2023-11-07T05:31:56Z",
  "updated_at": "2023-11-07T05:31:56Z"
}

The status field has the following possible values:

  • Initializing
  • Failed
  • Ready
  • Terminating

You can check the status of an assistant using the Pinecone console.

Change an assistant’s chat model#

The chat model is the underlying large language model (LLM) that powers the assistant’s responses. You can change the chat model for an existing assistant through the Pinecone console:

  1. On the Assistants page, select the assistant you want to update.
  2. In the sidebar on the right, select Settings (gear icon).
  3. Select the Chat model.

Add instructions to an assistant#

You can add or update the instructions for an existing assistant. Instructions are a short description or directive for the assistant to apply to all of its responses. For example, you can update the instructions to reflect the assistant’s role or purpose.

Instructions (maximum size 16 KB) are included in every chat API call. Longer instructions increase input token costs for each request and consume more of the LLM’s context window, reducing available space for retrieved context and conversation history.

For example:

# To use the Python SDK, install the plugin:
# pip install --upgrade pinecone pinecone-plugin-assistant

from pinecone import Pinecone

pc = Pinecone(api_key=YOUR_API_KEY)

assistant = pc.assistant.update_assistant(
    assistant_name="example-assistant", 
    instructions="Use American English for spelling and grammar.",
    metadata={"team": "customer-support", "version": "1.1"} # Optional metadata (max 16KB) for organizing assistants.
)
import { Pinecone } from '@pinecone-database/pinecone';

const pc = new Pinecone({ apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY' });

await pc.updateAssistant('example-assistant', {
  instructions: 'Use American English for spelling and grammar.',
  metadata: { team: 'customer-support', version: '1.1' }, // Optional metadata (max 16KB) for organizing assistants.
});
PINECONE_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"

curl -X PATCH "https://api.pinecone.io/assistant/assistants/example-assistant" \
  -H "Api-Key: $PINECONE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
  "instructions": "Use American English for spelling and grammar.",
  "metadata": {"team": "customer-support", "version": "1.1"}
}'

The example above returns a result like the following:

{
    "name":"example-assistant",
    "instructions":"Use American English for spelling and grammar.",
    "metadata":{"team": "customer-support", "version": "1.1"},
    "status":"Ready",
    "created_at":"2024-06-14T14:58:06.573004549Z",
    "updated_at":"2024-10-01T19:44:32.813235817Z"
}

You can add or update instructions for an assistant using the Pinecone console.

Delete an assistant#

You can delete an assistant as in the following example:

Deleting an assistant also deletes all files uploaded to the assistant. 

# To use the Python SDK, install the plugin:
# pip install --upgrade pinecone pinecone-plugin-assistant

from pinecone import Pinecone
pc = Pinecone(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

pc.assistant.delete_assistant(
    assistant_name="example-assistant", 
)
import { Pinecone } from '@pinecone-database/pinecone';

const pc = new Pinecone({ apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY' });

await pc.deleteAssistant('example-assistant');
PINECONE_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
ASSISTANT_NAME="example-assistant"

curl -X DELETE "https://api.pinecone.io/assistant/assistants/$ASSISTANT_NAME" \
  -H "Api-Key: $PINECONE_API_KEY"

You can delete an assistant using the Pinecone console.

Link last verified June 7, 2026. View original ↗
Source: Pinecone Docs
Link last verified: 2026-02-26