Target an index - Pinecone Docs

Do not target an index by name in production.When you target an index by name for data operations such as upsert and query, the SDK gets the unique DNS host for the index using the describe_index operation. This is convenient for testing but should be avoided in production because describe_index uses a different API than data operations and therefore adds an additional network call and point of failure. Instead, you should get an index host once and cache it for reuse or specify the host directly.

Target by index host (recommended)

This method is recommended for production:

When using Private Endpoints for private connectivity between your application and Pinecone, you must target the index using the Private Endpoint URL for the host.

from pinecone.grpc import PineconeGRPC as Pinecone

pc = Pinecone(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

index = pc.Index(host="INDEX_HOST")

import { Pinecone } from '@pinecone-database/pinecone';

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

// For the Node.js SDK, you must specify both the index host and name.
const index = pc.index("INDEX_NAME", "INDEX_HOST");

import io.pinecone.clients.Index;
import io.pinecone.configs.PineconeConfig;
import io.pinecone.configs.PineconeConnection;

public class TargetIndexByHostExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        PineconeConfig config = new PineconeConfig("YOUR_API_KEY");
        config.setHost("INDEX_HOST");
        PineconeConnection connection = new PineconeConnection(config);
        // For the Java SDK, you must specify both the index host and name.
        Index index = new Index(connection, "INDEX_NAME");
    }
}

package main

import (
    "context"
    "fmt"
    "log"

    "github.com/pinecone-io/go-pinecone/v4/pinecone"
)

func main() {
    ctx := context.Background()

    pc, err := pinecone.NewClient(pinecone.NewClientParams{
        ApiKey: "YOUR_API_KEY",
    })
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatalf("Failed to create Client: %v", err)
    }

    // This creates a new gRPC index connection, targeting the namespace "example-namespace"
    idxConnectionNs1, err := pc.Index(pinecone.NewIndexConnParams{Host: "INDEX_HOST", Namespace: "example-namespace"})
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatalf("Failed to create IndexConnection for Host %v: %v", idx.Host, err)
    }

    // This reuses the gRPC index connection, targeting a different namespace
	idxConnectionNs2 := idxConnectionNs1.WithNamespace("example-namespace2")
}

Get an index host

You can get the unique DNS host for an index from the Pinecone console or the Pinecone API. To get an index host from the Pinecone console:

Open the Pinecone console.
Select the project containing the index.
Select the index.
Copy the URL under HOST.

To get an index host from the Pinecone API, use the describe_index operation, which returns the index host as the host value:

from pinecone.grpc import PineconeGRPC as Pinecone

pc = Pinecone(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

pc.describe_index(name="docs-example")

# Response:
# {'deletion_protection': 'disabled',
#  'dimension': 1536,
#  'host': 'docs-example-4zo0ijk.svc.us-east1-aws.pinecone.io',
#  'metric': 'cosine',
#  'name': 'docs-example',
#  'spec': {'serverless': {'cloud': 'aws', 'region': 'us-east-1'}},
#  'status': {'ready': True, 'state': 'Ready'}}

import { Pinecone } from '@pinecone-database/pinecone';

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

await pc.describeIndex('docs-example');

// Response:
// {
//    "name": "docs-example",
//    "dimension": 1536,
//    "metric": "cosine",
//    "host": "docs-example-4zo0ijk.svc.us-east1-aws.pinecone.io",
//    "deletionProtection": "disabled",
//    "spec": {
//       "serverless": {
//          "cloud": "aws",
//          "region": "us-east-1"
//       }
//    },
//    "status": {
//       "ready": true,
//       "state": "Ready"
//    }
// }

import io.pinecone.clients.Pinecone;
import org.openapitools.db_control.client.model.*;

public class DescribeIndexExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Pinecone pc = new Pinecone.Builder("YOUR_API_KEY").build();
        IndexModel indexModel = pc.describeIndex("docs-example");
        System.out.println(indexModel);
    }
}

// Response:
// class IndexModel {
//     name: docs-example-java
//     dimension: 1536
//     metric: cosine
//     host: docs-example-4zo0ijk.svc.us-west2-aws.pinecone.io
//     deletionProtection: enabled
//     spec: class IndexModelSpec {
//         pod: null
//         serverless: class ServerlessSpec {
//             cloud: aws
//             region: us-east-1
//         }
//     }
//     status: class IndexModelStatus {
//         ready: true
//         state: Ready
//     }
// }

package main

import (
    "context"
    "encoding/json"
    "fmt"
    "log"

    "github.com/pinecone-io/go-pinecone/v4/pinecone"
)

func prettifyStruct(obj interface{}) string {
    bytes, _ := json.MarshalIndent(obj, "", "  ")
    return string(bytes)
}

func main() {
    ctx := context.Background()

    pc, err := pinecone.NewClient(pinecone.NewClientParams{
        ApiKey: "YOUR_API_KEY",
    })
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatalf("Failed to create Client: %v", err)
    }

    idx, err := pc.DescribeIndex(ctx, "docs-example")
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatalf("Failed to describe index \"%v\": %v", idx.Name, err)
    } else {
        fmt.Printf("index: %v\n", prettifyStruct(idx))
    }
}

// Response:
// index: {
// 	"name": "docs-example",
// 	"dimension": 1536,
// 	"host": "docs-example-govk0nt.svc.apw5-4e34-81fa.pinecone.io",
// 	"metric": "cosine",
//  "deletion_protection": "disabled",
// 	"spec": {
// 	  "serverless": {
// 		"cloud": "aws",
// 		"region": "us-east-1"
// 	  }
// 	},
// 	"status": {
// 	  "ready": true,
// 	  "state": "Ready"
// 	}
// }

PINECONE_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"

curl -i -X GET "https://api.pinecone.io/indexes/docs-example-curl" \
    -H "Api-Key: $PINECONE_API_KEY" \
    -H "X-Pinecone-Api-Version: 2025-10"

# Response:
# {
#    "name": "docs-example",
#    "metric": "cosine",
#    "dimension": 1536,
#    "status": {
#       "ready": true,
#       "state": "Ready"
#    },
#    "host": "docs-example-4zo0ijk.svc.us-east1-aws.pinecone.io",
#    "spec": {
#       "serverless": {
#          "region": "us-east-1",
#          "cloud": "aws"
#       }
#    }
# }

Target by index name

This method is convenient for testing but is not recommended for production:

from pinecone.grpc import PineconeGRPC as Pinecone

pc = Pinecone(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

index = pc.Index("docs-example")

import { Pinecone } from '@pinecone-database/pinecone';

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

// For the Node.js SDK, you must specify both the index host and name.
const index = pc.index('docs-example');

import io.pinecone.clients.Index;
import io.pinecone.clients.Pinecone;

public class GenerateEmbeddings {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws ApiException {
        Pinecone pc = new Pinecone.Builder("YOUR_API_KEY").build();
        Index index = pc.getIndexConnection("docs-example");
    }
}

// It is not possible to target an index by name in the Go SDK. 
// You must target an index by host.

​Target by index host (recommended)

​Get an index host

​Target by index name

Target by index host (recommended)

Get an index host

Target by index name