Mistral AI Install & Auth

Overview

Set up Mistral AI SDK and configure authentication credentials for chat completions, embeddings, and function calling.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ or Python 3.9+
• Package manager (npm, pnpm, yarn, or pip)
• Mistral AI account with API access
• API key from Mistral AI console (https://console.mistral.ai/)

Instructions

Step 1: Install SDK

Node.js (TypeScript/JavaScript)

set -euo pipefail
# npm
npm install @mistralai/mistralai

# pnpm
pnpm add @mistralai/mistralai

# yarn
yarn add @mistralai/mistralai

Python

set -euo pipefail
pip install mistralai

Step 2: Configure Authentication

Environment Variables (Recommended)

# Set environment variable
export MISTRAL_API_KEY="your-api-key"

# Or create .env file
echo 'MISTRAL_API_KEY=your-api-key' >> .env

Using dotenv (Node.js)

set -euo pipefail
npm install dotenv

import 'dotenv/config';

Step 3: Verify Connection

TypeScript

import Mistral from '@mistralai/mistralai';

const client = new Mistral({
  apiKey: process.env.MISTRAL_API_KEY,
});

async function testConnection() {
  try {
    const models = await client.models.list();
    console.log('Connection successful! Available models:');
    models.data?.forEach(model => console.log(`  - ${model.id}`));
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Connection failed:', error);
  }
}

testConnection();

Python

import os
from mistralai import Mistral

client = Mistral(api_key=os.environ.get("MISTRAL_API_KEY"))

def test_connection():
    try:
        models = client.models.list()
        print("Connection successful! Available models:")
        for model in models.data:
            print(f"  - {model.id}")
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Connection failed: {e}")

test_connection()

Output

• Installed SDK package in node_modules or site-packages
• Environment variable or .env file with API key
• Successful connection verification showing available models

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Solution
401 Unauthorized	Invalid or missing API key	Verify key at console.mistral.ai
429 Too Many Requests	Rate limit exceeded	Implement backoff, check quota
Network Error	Firewall or connectivity	Ensure HTTPS to api.mistral.ai allowed
Module Not Found	Installation failed	Run npm install or pip install again

Examples

TypeScript Client Initialization

import Mistral from '@mistralai/mistralai';

const client = new Mistral({
  apiKey: process.env.MISTRAL_API_KEY,
  // Optional: custom timeout
  timeout: 30000,  # 30000: 30 seconds in ms
});

export default client;

Python Client Initialization

import os
from mistralai import Mistral

client = Mistral(
    api_key=os.environ.get("MISTRAL_API_KEY"),
    # Optional: custom timeout
    timeout=30.0,
)

Validate API Key Format

function validateMistralApiKey(key: string): boolean {
  // Mistral API keys are UUIDs or specific format
  return key.length > 20 && !key.includes(' ');
}

Resources

• Mistral AI Documentation
• Mistral AI Console
• Mistral AI API Reference
• GitHub: mistralai-client-js
• GitHub: mistralai-client-python

Next Steps

After successful auth, proceed to mistral-hello-world for your first chat completion.