Set up your API key

Give the provider an API key so pi can talk to Mistral. You need this once, before your first chat.

Prerequisites

• pi installed, with the pi-mistral-native package installed (pi install npm:pi-mistral-native)
• an API key from La Plateforme

1. Pick one method:

   Command

   Run the guided login:

   /login mistral-native

   It prompts for the API key (no echo), then for the API region.

   Environment

   export MISTRAL_API_KEY=your-api-key

   The provider works with zero configuration — no login needed. A stored credential from a previous /login outranks the variable.

2. Verify the key is configured:

   /mistral

   The status card shows Auth: configured with the source — never the key itself.

The key never goes into the config file

mistral-native.json stores behavior settings only. The key lives in pi’s credential storage (/login) or the environment — never in a file you might commit. Credentials are per provider: an existing mistral entry in auth.json belongs to a different provider, so run /login mistral-native — with the provider id — to store a key for this one.

See Credential chain · Keep secrets out of the config file