Pinecone diagnosis: resources exist but the key cannot see them

Diagnosis

Symptom

Console shows the index; the API client with your key cannot see it (empty list, 404 on describe).

Likely cause

API keys are per-project. The key in the environment belongs to a different project than the one open in the console. Agents often have several projects (personal, team, client) and one stale key.

Confirm it

1. In the console, note which project the index lives in and which key you copied.
2. Print the key's project: create a key listing in the console or compare key names/ids.
3. list_indexes with a known-good key for the target project as a control.

Fix

1. Set the environment to the key from the correct project.
2. Label keys and projects unambiguously (acme-prod, personal-dev) so the mismatch is visible before runtime.
3. In multi-project scripts, assert the project explicitly (e.g. verify a sentinel index exists) before doing work.

Verify the fix

After switching keys, list_indexes shows the expected indexes and describe_index on the target succeeds.

Pinecone's manage-api-keys guide documents per-project keys; the error-handling guide defines 404 for missing resources. Verified against live docs 2026-09-26.