Pinecone TypeError: create_index missing required positional argument spec

TL;DR: Omitting spec from createindex raises TypeError immediately. Pass ServerlessSpec or PodSpec; the parameter is required on current API versions. Fix Pass the spec for the index type you want: For pods: PodSpec(environment="us-east1-gcp", podtype="p1.x1", replicas=1, shards=1).

The error

TypeError: Pinecone.create_index() missing 1 required positional argument: 'spec'

The fix

TypeError: missing 1 required positional argument: 'spec'

The error

TypeError: Pinecone.create_index() missing 1 required positional argument: 'spec'

It fires client-side, before any network call. Stale tutorials written against older API versions omit it.

Fix

Pass the spec for the index type you want:

from pinecone import ServerlessSpec

pc.create_index(
    name="quickstart",
    dimension=1536,
    metric="cosine",
    spec=ServerlessSpec(cloud="aws", region="us-east-1"),
)

For pods: PodSpec(environment="us-east1-gcp", pod_type="p1.x1", replicas=1, shards=1).

Trap

Copying a create_index call from a blog post without the spec and then "fixing" it by pinning an old SDK version. The spec parameter is the current API; pinning old SDKs trades one error for stale everything else.

When to use this

• You are seeing this exact error message; match the block above, not just part of it.
• The failing call matches the scenario in the title: Pinecone TypeError.
• You want the fastest verified fix before digging through logs.

When not to use this

• Your error text differs from the block above; close cousins often have different causes.
• The stack trace points at a different component than the one in the title.
• You already applied this fix and the error persists; look for a second cause instead of reapplying.

Also seen as

• `## The error

TypeError: Pinecone.create_index() missing 1 required positional argument:`

Pinecone's troubleshooting page for this exact error gives the TypeError verbatim and the fix (set the spec parameter), pointing to the create-an-index guide. Verified against live docs 2026-09-26.