cohere

library5.20.4pypypi✓ verified 51d ago

Official Python SDK for Cohere API. Has two coexisting client classes: Client (v1, legacy) and ClientV2 (v2, current). Most LLM-generated code uses v1 patterns. The Generate endpoint is deprecated. model is now required in all v2 calls.

llm-agents ai-ml http-networking

pip install cohere

github ↗package ↗homepage ↗

Install & Compatibility

Where this runs

tested against v7.0.3 · pip install

no network on importno background threads

Install × environment matrix

Each cell = how many times install + import succeeded across repeated harness runs. Partial = flaky.
glibc = Debian/Ubuntu slim · musl = Alpine Linux

musl

glibc

py 3.10

3/5 runs

py 3.11

3/5 runs

py 3.12

3/5 runs

py 3.13

3/5 runs

py 3.9

3/5 runs

Code

Verified usage

Verified import paths — ran on the pinned version, not inferred.

ClientV2

✓ from cohere import ClientV2

✗ import cohere; co = cohere.ClientV2()

Minimal chat completion using v2 client

import cohere co = cohere.ClientV2() # reads CO_API_KEY env var response = co.chat( model='command-a-03-2025', messages=[{'role': 'user', 'content': 'Hello'}] ) print(response.message.content[0].text)

Debug

Known issues

breakingGenerate endpoint (co.generate()) deprecated as of Aug 26, 2025. Calls will fail after sunset.

fix

Migrate to co.chat() with ClientV2. See https://docs.cohere.com/v1/docs/migrating-from-cogenerate-to-cochat

affects: all v1

breakingmodel is a required parameter in all v2 API calls. Omitting it raises an error. v1 had a default model fallback.

fix

Always pass model= explicitly. Current recommended: command-a-03-2025

affects: v2 (ClientV2)

breakingpreamble parameter removed in v2. System instructions must be passed as a system role message.

fix

Replace preamble='...' with messages=[{'role': 'system', 'content': '...'}, ...]

affects: v1 → v2 migration

breakingconversation_id removed in v2. Cohere no longer manages chat history server-side.

fix

Manage conversation history client-side by passing full messages array each turn

affects: v1 → v2 migration

breakingconnectors (built-in RAG) removed in v2. Web search now requires passing a web search tool explicitly.

fix

Implement web search as a tool_use pattern. See v2 migration guide.

affects: v1 → v2 migration

breakingrerank v2 deprecated. Use rerank v3.5.

fix

Update rerank calls to use v3.5 endpoint. Check SDK release notes for exact method changes.

affects: current

gotchaResponse text access changed between v1 and v2. v1: response.text. v2: response.message.content[0].text. Mixing clients and response patterns is the most common error.

fix

Check which client you instantiated (Client vs ClientV2) and use the matching response access pattern.

affects: all

gotchanum_generations, stop_sequences, logit_bias, and truncate parameters from Generate are not supported in Chat. No direct equivalent for num_generations.

fix

For num_generations=n, call co.chat() n times. Trim outputs on your side instead of stop_sequences.

affects: all v2

gotchaCO_API_KEY is the expected environment variable name for ClientV2. Not COHERE_API_KEY. Failing to set CO_API_KEY or using the wrong variable name can lead to explicit instantiation errors or authentication failures.

fix

Set export CO_API_KEY=your_key. ClientV2() reads this automatically.

affects: all

Upgrade

Version history

7.0.3latest on PyPI

Audit

Dependencies

cohere>=5.0.0requiredv5 was a full rewrite. Anything below 5.x is incompatible with current API.

Agent activity

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Resources

githubhttps://github.com/cohere-ai/cohere-python ↗

packagehttps://pypi.org/project/cohere/ ↗

homepagehttps://cohere.com ↗