cohere-common-errors

name	cohere-common-errors
description	Diagnose and fix Cohere API v2 errors and exceptions. Use when encountering Cohere errors, debugging failed requests, or troubleshooting CohereError, CohereTimeoutError, rate limits. Trigger with phrases like "cohere error", "fix cohere", "cohere not working", "debug cohere", "cohere 429", "cohere 400".
allowed-tools	Read, Grep, Bash(curl:*)
version	1.0.0
license	MIT
author	Jeremy Longshore <[e-mail]>
tags	["saas","ai","nlp","cohere"]
compatible-with	claude-code

Cohere Common Errors

Overview

Quick reference for real Cohere API v2 errors with exact messages, causes, and fixes.

Prerequisites

• cohere-ai SDK installed
• CO_API_KEY configured
• Access to error logs

Error Reference

400 — Bad Request: Missing Required Field

CohereError: model is required

Cause: API v2 requires model for all endpoints (Chat, Embed, Rerank, Classify).

Fix:

// Wrong (v1 style)
await cohere.chat({ messages: [...] });

// Correct (v2)
await cohere.chat({ model: 'command-a-03-2025', messages: [...] });

---

400 — Embed: Missing embedding_types

CohereError: embedding_types is required for embed models v3 and higher

Fix:

await cohere.embed({
  model: 'embed-v4.0',
  texts: ['hello'],
  inputType: 'search_document',
  embeddingTypes: ['float'],  // Required for v3+
});

---

400 — Embed: Missing input_type

CohereError: input_type is required for embed models v3 and higher

Fix: Use one of: search_document, search_query, classification, clustering, image.

---

401 — Invalid API Token

CohereError: invalid api token

Cause: CO_API_KEY is missing, wrong, or revoked.