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This feature is in public preview.
Most CLI operations happen within the context of a specific organization and project. The target context is the organization and project scope that the CLI uses when running commands. Before setting target context, you must authenticate with the CLI. See CLI authentication for details on authentication methods.

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Why target context matters

By specifying a target organization and/or project, you’re telling the CLI which resources to operate on.
  • Control plane operations (creating indexes, listing indexes): Always happen within a specific project.
  • Admin API operations:
    • Organization operations don’t require target context. They operate on organizations you have access to.
    • Project management operations are scoped to your target organization. For example, running pc project list shows projects in the target org.
    • API key operations are scoped to the target project, unless you specify --id.

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How target context works

How the CLI sets and uses target context depends on your authentication method and how you configure it.

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User login

When you authenticate with pc auth login, the CLI automatically targets:
  • The default organization returned by the server for your user.
  • The first project in the list of that organization’s projects.
However, you can change organization and project as needed: 
pc auth login
pc target -o "my-org" -p "my-project"

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Service account

Configured via CLI command When you configure a service account with pc auth configure --client-id --client-secret, the CLI automatically targets the organization associated with the service account (service accounts belong to a single organization). Then, to target a project:
  • If the selected organization has only one project, the CLI automatically targets it.
  • If that organization has multiple projects, the CLI prompts you to select one (or you can use the --project-id flag).
  • If it doesn’t have any projects, create one and then target it manually.
To change to a specific target project: 
pc target -p "different-project"
Or, to select a project interactively: 
pc target
Configured via environment variables If you set service account credentials via environment variables (PINECONE_CLIENT_ID and PINECONE_CLIENT_SECRET) without running pc auth configure, the CLI does not automatically set any target context. You must explicitly set it with pc target. Service accounts are scoped to a single organization. You can only target the organization associated with your service account credentials. To do this, and also target a specific project within that organization: 
pc target -o "my-org" -p "my-project"
Or, to select a project interactively (the CLI discovers the organization automatically): 
pc target

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API key

When you set a default API key (with pc auth configure --api-key or the PINECONE_API_KEY environment variable), the CLI does not change or clear its stored target context. However, in this scenario, control plane operations do use the API key’s organization and project — not the CLI’s saved target context (regardless of any calls you’ve made to pc target, or the output of pc target --show). This happens because Pinecone API keys are always scoped to a specific organization and project, and they cannot access resources outside of that scope.
Because Pinecone API keys cannot be used to authenticate calls to the Admin API, Admin API operations still authentiate with your user login token or service account credentials (if available).
pc auth login
pc target -o "my-org" -p "my-project"
# Setting an API key doesn't change stored target context
pc auth configure --api-key "YOUR_API_KEY"
pc target --show  # Still shows my-org and my-project, but they're not used for control plane operations

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Viewing and managing target context

To view your current target organization and project: 
# Show current target context
pc target --show

# Clear target context
pc target --clear
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