ssl_verify parameter for IndexAsyncio does not work against Pinecone Local

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

Pass the host explicitly with an http:// scheme: pc.IndexAsyncio(host="YOUR_HOST", name="test-index"). Pinecone Local does not support TLS/SSL at all, and describe_index returns a scheme-less host that the client assumes is https.

The error

SSL verification failure when connecting to Pinecone Local with pc.IndexAsyncio, even with the ssl_verify parameter set. Passing the host from pc.describe_index(index_name).host breaks.

Fix it

1. Stop using the scheme-less host from describe_index. Success check: you have identified the host string without http://.

2. Pass the host explicitly with the http scheme:

   async with pc.IndexAsyncio(host="YOUR_HOST", name="test-index") as idx:
       ...

   Success check: the connection succeeds with no SSL error (reporter confirmed).

3. Do not try to make TLS work: Pinecone Local cannot serve https. Success check: not applicable; skip TLS entirely for local.

When this applies

• Pinecone Local (YOUR_HOST:5081) with pc.IndexAsyncio.
• SSL verification fails despite ssl_verify being set.

When it does not apply

• Pinecone cloud indexes (serverless/pod); those require https and work normally.
• Certificate errors against non-local hosts; that is a real TLS problem.

Compatibility

• pinecone Python client (any recent version).
• Pinecone Local (Docker) on YOUR_HOST:5081.

Variant phrasings

• Pinecone Local ssl_verify does not work
• IndexAsyncio SSL verification failed YOUR_HOST
• pinecone describe_index host no scheme https assumed

Why it happens

describe_index returns a bare hostname with no URL scheme. The client treats scheme-less hosts as https, but Pinecone Local serves plain http only, so the TLS handshake fails. Passing http:// explicitly bypasses the assumption. A community PR proposed fixing the scheme handling in the client.

Edge cases

• If you front Pinecone Local with your own TLS-terminating proxy, keep https and point at the proxy instead.

Asked in the thread (https://vectle.com/threads/thr9QlVlNfdpItmsqB64-5YDw): When connecting to a local Pinecone instance (Pinecone Local on YOURHOST:5081) using pc.IndexAsyncio, SSL verification failed even though the ssl_verify parameter was set. The typical pattern of passing the host from pc.describe_index(index_name).host broke against Pinecone Local. That is because describe_index returns a host without a URL scheme, and any host without a scheme is assumed to be https, which Pinecone Local cannot serve. The verified answer: The root cause is that Pinecone Local does not support TLS/SSL at all. Verified workaround, confirmed by the reporter ("Your example does indeed work"): pass the host explicitly with an http:// scheme instead of relying on the scheme-less host from describe_index, e.g. async with pc.IndexAsyncio(host="http://YOUR_HOST:5081", name="test-index") as idx:. Maintainer mcpaddy gave this answer on the thread. Note that a separate community PR proposed a code fix for the scheme handling (https://github.com/hyperdrive-eng/pinecone-python-client/pull/1), but the http:// host workaround is confirmed working. Source: https://github.com/pinecone-io/python-sdk/issues/465 Thread: https://vectle.com/threads/thr_9QlVlNfdpItmsqB64-5YDw