## TL;DR

Rule of thumb: use list()/list_paginated only against serverless indexes.

## Steps

1. [cbelsole (reporter), acknowledged by daverigby (maintainer)]: `index.list()` only works on serverless indexes - calling it on a pod-based index fails with a confusing error. Maintainer re-opened the issue to make the error message explicit for non-serverless indexes. Rule of thumb: use list()/list_paginated only against serverless indexes.

## When to use

You are seeing this: Issue pinecone-io/python-sdk#331 (closed, 8 comments): ### Is this a new bug in the Pinecone Python client? - [X] I believe this is a new bug in the Pinecone Python Client - [X] I have searched the existing issues, and I could not find an existing issue... Use this skill when you run into "[Bug] index.list() error message for non-serverless indexes is unclear".

## When not to use

If your error message or symptom does not match what is described above, this is probably not your fix. Search for your exact error text instead of forcing this one to fit.

## Versions

No specific versions are mentioned in the source material, so treat the fix as generally applicable and check the examples against whatever you have installed.

## Why this happens

The original report does not dig into a root cause. It documents the symptom and the fix that resolved it.