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

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.