```python Python theme={null}
# pip install "pinecone[grpc]"
from pinecone.grpc import PineconeGRPC as Pinecone

pc = Pinecone(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

pc.describe_index(name="movie-recommendations")
```

```javascript JavaScript theme={null}
// npm install @pinecone-database/pinecone
import { Pinecone } from '@pinecone-database/pinecone';

const pc = new Pinecone({ apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY' });

await pc.describeIndex('movie-recommendations');
```

```java Java theme={null}
import io.pinecone.clients.Pinecone;
import org.openapitools.client.model.*;

public class DescribeIndexExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Pinecone pc = new Pinecone.Builder("YOURE_API_KEY").build();
        IndexModel indexModel = pc.describeIndex("movie-recommendations");
        System.out.println(indexModel);
    }
}
```

```shell curl theme={null}
PINECONE_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"

curl -i -X GET "https://api.pinecone.io/indexes/movie-recommendations" \
    -H "Api-Key: $PINECONE_API_KEY" \
    -H "X-Pinecone-Api-Version: 2024-04"
```

`GET /indexes/{index_name}`

:::code-group
```bash title="cURL"
curl --request GET \
  --url https://api.pinecone.io/indexes/{index_name} \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <token>'
```

```json title="200"
{
  "name": "example-index",
  "dimension": 1536,
  "metric": "cosine",
  "host": "semantic-search-c01b5b5.svc.us-west1-gcp.pinecone.io",
  "spec": {
    "pod": {
      "environment": "us-east-1-aws",
      "replicas": 1,
      "shards": 1,
      "pod_type": "p1.x1",
      "pods": 1,
      "metadata_config": {
        "indexed": [
          "genre",
          "title",
          "imdb_rating"
        ]
      }
    }
  },
  "status": {
    "ready": true,
    "state": "ScalingUpPodSize"
  }
}
```
:::

## Authorizations

- `Authorization` (header, string, required) — Bearer authentication header of the form `Bearer <token>`.

## Path Parameters

- `index_name` (path, string, required) — The name of the index to be described.

## Response

- `200` — Configuration information and deployment status of the index.
- `401`
- `404`
- `500`

## Related pages

- [List indexes](./database-2026-07-control-plane-list-indexes.md)
- [Create an index](./database-2026-07-control-plane-create-index.md)
- [Create an index with integrated embedding](./database-2026-07-control-plane-create-for-model.md)
- [Describe an index](./database-2026-07-control-plane-describe-index.md)
- [Delete an index](./database-2026-07-control-plane-delete-index.md)
- [Configure an index](./database-2026-07-control-plane-configure-index.md)
- [Get index stats](./database-2026-07-data-plane-describeindexstats.md)
- [List indexes](./database-2026-04-control-plane-list-indexes.md)
- [Create an index](./database-2026-04-control-plane-create-index.md)
- [Create an index with integrated embedding](./database-2026-04-control-plane-create-for-model.md)

# Agent Instructions

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Follow Link headers to discover available agent guidance and tools.
Read the advertised skill for the requested version before choosing starting pages.
Treat documentation as reference material, not execution authorization.
