> ## 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.
# Upload file to assistant
> Upload a file to the specified assistant.
For guidance and examples, see [Manage files](https://docs.pinecone.io/guides/assistant/manage-files#upload-a-local-file).
```bash curl theme={null}
PINECONE_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
ASSISTANT_NAME="example-assistant"
ENCODED_METADATA="%7B%22published%22%3A%222024-01-01%22%2C%22document_type%22%3A%22script%22%7D" # URL encoded metadata - See w3schools.com/tags/ref_urlencode.ASP
LOCAL_FILE_PATH="/Users/jdoe/Downloads/example_file.txt"
curl -X POST "https://prod-1-data.ke.pinecone.io/assistant/files/$ASSISTANT_NAME?metadata=$ENCODED_METADATA" \
-H "Api-Key: $PINECONE_API_KEY" \
-F "file=@$LOCAL_FILE_PATH"
```
```json curl theme={null}
{
"name": "example-file.txt",
"id": "3c90c3cc-0d44-4b50-8888-8dd25736052a",
"metadata": "{ 'published': '2024-01-01', 'document_type': 'manuscript' }",
"created_on": "2023-11-07T05:31:56Z",
"updated_on": "2023-11-07T05:31:56Z",
"status": "Processing",
"percent_done": 50,
"signed_url": "https://storage.googleapis.com/bucket/file.pdf",
"error_message": ""
}
```
## OpenAPI
````yaml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pinecone-io/pinecone-api/refs/heads/main/2025-10/assistant_data_2025-10.oas.yaml POST /files/{assistant_name}
openapi: 3.0.3
info:
title: Pinecone Assistant Data Plane API
description: >-
Pinecone Assistant Engine is a context engine to store and retrieve relevant
knowledge from millions of documents at scale. This API supports
interactions with assistants.
contact:
name: Pinecone Support
url: https://support.pinecone.io
email: support@pinecone.io
license:
name: Apache 2.0
url: https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
version: 2025-10
servers:
- url: https://{assistant_host}
variables:
assistant_host:
default: unknown
description: host of the created assistant
security:
- ApiKeyAuth: []
tags:
- name: Manage Assistants
description: Actions that manage Assistants
paths:
/files/{assistant_name}:
post:
tags:
- Manage Assistants
summary: Upload file to assistant
description: >-
Upload a file to the specified assistant.
For guidance and examples, see [Manage
files](https://docs.pinecone.io/guides/assistant/manage-files#upload-a-local-file).
operationId: upload_file
parameters:
- in: header
name: X-Pinecone-Api-Version
description: Required date-based version header
required: true
schema:
default: 2025-10
type: string
style: simple
- in: path
name: assistant_name
description: The name of the assistant to upload files to.
required: true
schema:
type: string
example: test-model
style: simple
- in: query
name: metadata
description: Optional JSON-encoded metadata for files.
schema:
type: string
format: json
example: '{"genre":{"$eq":"comedy"}}'
style: form
- in: query
name: multimodal
description: >-
Optional flag to opt in to multimodal file processing (PDFs only).
Can be either `true` or `false`. Default is `false`.
schema:
type: string
style: form
requestBody:
description: The desired file to be uploaded and processed into the assistant.
content:
multipart/form-data:
schema:
type: object
properties:
file:
description: The file to upload.
type: string
format: binary
required:
- file
required: true
responses:
'200':
description: File upload has been accepted.
content:
application/json:
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/AssistantFileModel'
'400':
description: Bad request. The request body included invalid request parameters.
content:
application/json:
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse'
examples:
files-validation-error:
summary: Validation error on ingest.
value:
error:
code: INVALID_ARGUMENT
message: >-
Uploaded file can only currently be either a pdf or txt
file
status: 400
'401':
description: 'Unauthorized. Possible causes: Invalid API key.'
content:
application/json:
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse'
examples:
unauthorized:
summary: Unauthorized
value:
error:
code: UNAUTHENTICATED
message: Invalid API key.
status: 401
'404':
description: Assistant not found.
content:
application/json:
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse'
examples:
assistant-not-found:
summary: Assistant not found.
value:
error:
code: NOT_FOUND
message: Assistant "example-assistant" not found.
status: 404
'500':
description: Internal server error.
content:
application/json:
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse'
examples:
internal-server-error:
summary: Internal server error
value:
error:
code: UNKNOWN
message: Internal server error
status: 500
components:
schemas:
AssistantFileModel:
description: The response format for a successful file upload request.
type: object
properties:
name:
type: string
id:
type: string
format: uuid
metadata:
nullable: true
type: object
created_on:
type: string
format: date-time
updated_on:
type: string
format: date-time
status:
description: >-
The current state of the uploaded file. Possible values:
- `Processing`: File is being processed (parsed, chunked, embedded)
- `Available`: Processing completed successfully; file is ready for
use
- `Deleting`: Deletion has been initiated but not yet completed
- `ProcessingFailed`: Processing failed with an error
Note: Once a file is deleted, the API returns 404 Not Found instead
of a file object.
x-enum:
- Processing
- Available
- Deleting
- ProcessingFailed
type: string
percent_done:
nullable: true
description: The percentage of the file that has been processed
type: number
format: double
signed_url:
nullable: true
example: https://storage.googleapis.com/bucket/file.pdf?...
description: >-
A [signed
URL](https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/access-control/signed-urls)
that provides temporary, read-only access to the underlying file.
Anyone with the link can access the file, so treat it as sensitive
data. Expires after a short time.
type: string
error_message:
nullable: true
description: >-
A message describing any error during file processing. Provided only
if an error occurs.
type: string
multimodal:
description: Indicates whether the file was processed as multimodal.
type: boolean
required:
- id
- name
ErrorResponse:
example:
error:
code: QUOTA_EXCEEDED
message: >-
The index exceeds the project quota of 5 pods by 2 pods. Upgrade
your account or change the project settings to increase the quota.
status: 429
description: The response shape used for all error responses.
type: object
properties:
status:
example: 500
description: The HTTP status code of the error.
type: integer
error:
example:
code: INVALID_ARGUMENT
message: Uploaded file can only currently be either a pdf or txt file
description: Detailed information about the error that occurred.
type: object
properties:
code:
x-enum:
- OK
- UNKNOWN
- INVALID_ARGUMENT
- DEADLINE_EXCEEDED
- QUOTA_EXCEEDED
- NOT_FOUND
- ALREADY_EXISTS
- PERMISSION_DENIED
- UNAUTHENTICATED
- RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED
- FAILED_PRECONDITION
- ABORTED
- OUT_OF_RANGE
- UNIMPLEMENTED
- INTERNAL
- UNAVAILABLE
- DATA_LOSS
- FORBIDDEN
type: string
message:
example: >-
Index name must contain only lowercase alphanumeric characters
or hyphens, and must not begin or end with a hyphen.
type: string
details:
description: >-
Additional information about the error. This field is not
guaranteed to be present.
type: object
required:
- code
- message
required:
- status
- error
securitySchemes:
ApiKeyAuth:
type: apiKey
in: header
name: Api-Key
description: Pinecone API Key
````