How to connect to Pinecone Data from IntelliJ

The CData JDBC Driver for Pinecone enables you to access Pinecone as a JDBC data source, providing integration with rapid development tools in IDEs. This article shows how to use the data source configuration wizard to connect to Pinecone data in IntelliJ.

Create a JBDC Data Source for Pinecone

Follow the steps below to add the driver JAR and define connection properties required to connect to Pinecone data.

1. In the Data Sources window, right-click and then click Add Data Source -> DB Data Source.

2. In the Data Source Properties dialog that appears, the following properties are required:

   • JDBC Driver Files: Click the button next to this menu to add the JDBC Driver file cdata.jdbc.api.jar, located in the installation directory.
   • JDBC Driver Class: In this menu, select cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver from the list.

   • Database URL: Enter the connection URL in the JDBC URL property. The URL must start with jdbc:api: and includes connection properties separated with semicolons.

     Authentication

     To authenticate to Pinecone, and connect to your own data or to allow other users to connect to their data, you can use API Key authentication.

     Using API Key Authentication

     To authenticate using an API Key, you need to obtain your API Key from your Pinecone console at https://app.pinecone.io/.

     You can then connect by setting the AuthScheme to APIKey and providing your API key:

     • AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
     • APIKey: Set this to your API key from Pinecone.

     Example connection strings:

     Standard API Key Configuration:

     Profile=C:\profiles\Pinecone.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key;APIVersion=2025-10';
     

     Built-in Connection String Designer

     For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Pinecone JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.api.jar
     

     Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

     

     A typical JDBC URL is the following:

     jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\Pinecone.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key;APIVersion=2025-10';

Edit and Save Pinecone Data

To discover schema information, right-click the data source you just created and click Refresh Tables. To query a table, right-click it and then click Open Tables Editor.