Cohere Install & Auth Skill

Cohere Install & Auth

Overview

Set up the Cohere SDK (v2) and configure authentication for Chat, Embed, Rerank, and Classify endpoints.

Prerequisites

Node.js 18+ or Python 3.10+
Package manager (npm, pnpm, or pip)
Cohere account at dashboard.cohere.com
API key from Cohere dashboard (trial keys are free, production keys require billing)

Instructions

Step 1: Install SDK

# Node.js / TypeScript
npm install cohere-ai

# Python
pip install cohere

Step 2: Configure API Key

# Set environment variable
export CO_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"

# Or create .env file (add .env to .gitignore!)
echo 'CO_API_KEY=your-api-key-here' >> .env

Key types:

Trial key — free, rate-limited (5-20 calls/min per endpoint, 1000/month others)
Production key — metered billing, 1000 calls/min all endpoints, unlimited monthly

Step 3: Verify Connection (TypeScript)

import { CohereClientV2 } from 'cohere-ai';

const cohere = new CohereClientV2({
  token: process.env.CO_API_KEY,
});

async function verify() {
  const response = await cohere.chat({
    model: 'command-a-03-2025',
    messages: [
      { role: 'user', content: 'Say "connection verified" and nothing else.' },
    ],
  });
  console.log('Status:', response.message?.content?.[0]?.text);
}

verify().catch(console.error);

Step 4: Verify Connection (Python)

import cohere
import os

co = cohere.ClientV2(api_key=os.environ.get("CO_API_KEY"))

response = co.chat(
    model="command-a-03-2025",
    messages=[
        {"role": "user", "content": "Say 'connection verified' and nothing else."}
    ],
)
print("Status:", response.message.content[0].text)

Available Models

| Model | ID | Context | Best For | |-------|----|---------|----------| | Command A | command-a-03-2025 | 256K | Latest, most capable | | Command R+ | command-r-plus-08-2024 | 128K | Complex RAG, agents | | Command R | command-r-08-2024 | 128K | RAG, cost-effective | | Command R7B | command-r7b-12-2024 | 128K | Fast, lightweight | | Embed English v4 | embed-v4.0 | 128K | Embeddings (EN) | | Embed Multilingual v3 | embed-multilingual-v3.0 | 512 | Embeddings (100+ langs) | | Rerank v3.5 | rerank-v3.5 | 4K | Search reranking |

Output

Installed cohere-ai (TS) or cohere (Python) package
Environment variable CO_API_KEY configured
Verified API connectivity with a chat completion

Error Handling

| Error | Cause | Solution | |-------|-------|----------| | CohereApiError: invalid api token | Wrong or expired key | Regenerate at dashboard.cohere.com | | CohereConnectionError | Network blocked | Ensure HTTPS to api.cohere.com allowed | | 429 Too Many Requests | Trial rate limit hit | Wait 60s or upgrade to production key | | MODULE_NOT_FOUND cohere-ai | Package not installed | Run npm install cohere-ai |

SDK Auto-Detection

The SDK reads CO_API_KEY automatically if set. You can skip the token param:

// Auto-reads CO_API_KEY from environment
const cohere = new CohereClientV2();

Resources

Next Steps

After successful auth, proceed to cohere-hello-world for your first real API call.

Agent Skills: Cohere Install & Auth

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