Describe a file
Get the current status and metadata of a file uploaded to an assistant.
PINECONE_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
ASSISTANT_NAME="example-assistant"
FILE_ID="3c90c3cc-0d44-4b50-8888-8dd25736052a"
# Describe a file.
# To get a signed URL in the response, set `include_url` to `true`.
curl -X GET "https://prod-1-data.ke.pinecone.io/assistant/files/$ASSISTANT_NAME/$FILE_ID?include_url=true" \
-H "Api-Key: $PINECONE_API_KEY" \
-H "X-Pinecone-Api-Version: 2026-04"GET /files/{assistant_name}/{assistant_file_id}
{
"name": "<string>",
"id": "<string>",
"size": 1048576,
"metadata": {
"created_by": "Jane Doe",
"published": "2025-10-01T00:00:00.000Z",
"tags": [
"report",
"Q4",
"analytics"
]
},
"created_on": "2025-10-01T12:30:00.000Z",
"updated_on": "2025-10-01T12:45:00.000Z",
"status": "<string>",
"signed_url": "https://storage.googleapis.com/bucket/file.pdf?...",
"multimodal": true
}{
"error": {
"code": "UNAUTHENTICATED",
"message": "Invalid API key."
},
"status": 401
}{
"error": {
"code": "NOT_FOUND",
"message": "File with id 72490b32-46d9-4db1-b48b-666e9176d9be not found in provided assistant"
},
"status": 404
}{
"error": {
"code": "UNKNOWN",
"message": "Internal server error"
},
"status": 500
}Authorizations
Section titled “Authorizations”Api-KeystringrequiredPinecone API Key
Headers
Section titled “Headers”X-Pinecone-Api-VersionstringrequiredRequired date-based version header
Path Parameters
Section titled “Path Parameters”assistant_namestringrequiredThe name of the assistant that contains the file.
assistant_file_idstringrequiredThe identifier of the file to be described.
Query Parameters
Section titled “Query Parameters”include_url?stringInclude the signed URL of the file in the response.
Response
Section titled “Response”200 — Poll request successful.
The response format for a successful file upload request.
namestringrequiredThe name of the uploaded file.
idstringrequiredThe unique identifier for the uploaded file. This may be a user-provided identifier or a system-generated ID.
size?integerThe size of the uploaded file, in bytes.
Example: 1048576
metadata?object | nullOptional metadata associated with the file. This metadata can be used to filter files when listing them or to restrict search results when querying the assistant.
created_on?stringThe timestamp when the file was uploaded, in ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ).
Example: 2025-10-01T12:30:00.000Z
updated_on?stringThe timestamp of the most recent update to the file, in ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ).
Example: 2025-10-01T12:45:00.000Z
status?stringThe current state of the uploaded file. Possible values: - Processing: File is being processed (parsed, chunked, embedded) - Available: Processing completed successfully; file is ready for use - Deleting: Deletion has been initiated but not yet completed - ProcessingFailed: Processing failed with an error Note: Once a file is deleted, the API returns 404 Not Found instead of a file object.
signed_url?string | nullExample: https://storage.googleapis.com/bucket/file.pdf?...
A signed URL that provides temporary, read-only access to the file. Anyone with the link can access the file, so treat it as sensitive data. Expires after a short time.
multimodal?booleanIndicates whether the file was processed as multimodal.