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Skills/cohere-api
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cohere-api

Cohere API for enterprise NLP — embeddings, reranking, RAG, and text generation. Use when building RAG pipelines, semantic search, document reranking, or enterprise NLP applications. Command R+ excels at tool use and retrieval-augmented generation; Embed v3 and Rerank 3 are best-in-class for search quality.

#cohere#embeddings#rerank#rag#enterprise-nlp
terminal-skillsv1.0.0
Works with:claude-codeopenai-codexgemini-clicursor
Source

Usage

$
✓ Installed cohere-api v1.0.0

Getting Started

  1. Install the skill using the command above
  2. Open your AI coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, or Cursor)
  3. Reference the skill in your prompt
  4. The AI will use the skill's capabilities automatically

Example Prompts

  • "Analyze the sales data in revenue.csv and identify trends"
  • "Create a visualization comparing Q1 vs Q2 performance metrics"

Information

Version
1.0.0
Author
terminal-skills
Category
Data & AI
License
Apache-2.0

Documentation

Overview

Cohere provides enterprise-grade NLP models purpose-built for production use cases. Their flagship offerings are: Command R+ for RAG and agentic tasks, Embed v3 for state-of-the-art semantic embeddings, and Rerank 3 for dramatically improving search result relevance. All models are available via API with enterprise SLAs and on-premise deployment options.

Setup

bash
# Python
pip install cohere

# TypeScript/Node
npm install cohere-ai
bash
export COHERE_API_KEY=...

Available Models

ModelTypeBest For
command-r-plusGenerationComplex RAG, tool use, long context
command-rGenerationEfficient RAG, cost-effective
commandGenerationSimple text tasks
embed-english-v3.0EmbeddingEnglish semantic search
embed-multilingual-v3.0Embedding100+ language search
rerank-english-v3RerankingEnglish document reranking
rerank-multilingual-v3RerankingMultilingual reranking

Instructions

Chat / Text Generation

python
import cohere

co = cohere.ClientV2(api_key="your_api_key")  # or reads COHERE_API_KEY

response = co.chat(
    model="command-r-plus",
    messages=[
        {"role": "user", "content": "Explain transformer architecture in plain English."},
    ],
)

print(response.message.content[0].text)

Document Embeddings

python
import cohere

co = cohere.ClientV2()

# Embed documents for indexing
docs = [
    "Cohere provides enterprise NLP solutions.",
    "Embeddings convert text into dense vectors.",
    "RAG improves LLM answers with retrieved context.",
]

response = co.embed(
    texts=docs,
    model="embed-english-v3.0",
    input_type="search_document",  # "search_document" for indexing
    embedding_types=["float"],
)

embeddings = response.embeddings.float_
print(f"Embedding shape: {len(embeddings)} x {len(embeddings[0])}")  # 3 x 1024

Query Embeddings for Search

python
import cohere
import numpy as np

co = cohere.ClientV2()

# Query embedding — use "search_query" for queries
query = "How do embeddings work?"

query_response = co.embed(
    texts=[query],
    model="embed-english-v3.0",
    input_type="search_query",  # Different from "search_document"!
    embedding_types=["float"],
)

query_vector = query_response.embeddings.float_[0]

# Find most similar documents using cosine similarity
def cosine_similarity(a, b):
    return np.dot(a, b) / (np.linalg.norm(a) * np.linalg.norm(b))

# (assuming doc_embeddings is a list of previously embedded documents)
similarities = [cosine_similarity(query_vector, doc_emb) for doc_emb in doc_embeddings]
top_idx = np.argsort(similarities)[::-1][:5]

Reranking for RAG Improvement

python
import cohere

co = cohere.ClientV2()

query = "What are the benefits of renewable energy?"

# Initial candidates (from vector search or keyword search)
documents = [
    "Solar panels convert sunlight into electricity efficiently.",
    "Wind energy reduces carbon emissions significantly.",
    "The history of fossil fuels dates back centuries.",
    "Renewable energy creates jobs in local communities.",
    "Nuclear power is debated as a clean energy source.",
    "Oil prices fluctuate based on global demand.",
]

rerank_response = co.rerank(
    model="rerank-english-v3",
    query=query,
    documents=documents,
    top_n=3,  # Return top 3 most relevant
)

for result in rerank_response.results:
    print(f"Rank {result.index}: Score {result.relevance_score:.3f}")
    print(f"  {documents[result.index]}\n")

Command R+ for RAG with Citations

python
import cohere

co = cohere.ClientV2()

# RAG with grounding documents — Command R+ provides cited responses
documents = [
    {"id": "doc1", "data": {"title": "Renewable Energy", "snippet": "Solar energy capacity grew 25% in 2024, reaching 1.5 TW globally."}},
    {"id": "doc2", "data": {"title": "Climate Policy", "snippet": "The EU Green Deal targets 55% emissions reduction by 2030."}},
]

response = co.chat(
    model="command-r-plus",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "What is the current state of renewable energy?"}],
    documents=documents,
)

print(response.message.content[0].text)

# Citations reference specific document sources
if hasattr(response.message, "citations") and response.message.citations:
    for citation in response.message.citations:
        print(f"Citation: {citation}")

Tool Use with Command R+

python
import cohere
import json

co = cohere.ClientV2()

tools = [
    {
        "type": "function",
        "function": {
            "name": "get_stock_price",
            "description": "Get the current stock price for a ticker symbol",
            "parameters": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "ticker": {"type": "string", "description": "Stock ticker (e.g. AAPL)"},
                },
                "required": ["ticker"],
            },
        },
    }
]

messages = [{"role": "user", "content": "What's the current Apple stock price?"}]

response = co.chat(
    model="command-r-plus",
    messages=messages,
    tools=tools,
)

if response.message.tool_calls:
    tool_call = response.message.tool_calls[0]
    args = json.loads(tool_call.function.arguments)
    print(f"Tool: {tool_call.function.name}, Args: {args}")

    # Execute tool and return result
    messages.append({"role": "assistant", "tool_calls": response.message.tool_calls})
    messages.append({
        "role": "tool",
        "tool_call_id": tool_call.id,
        "content": json.dumps({"price": 189.84, "change": "+1.2%"}),
    })

    final = co.chat(model="command-r-plus", messages=messages, tools=tools)
    print(final.message.content[0].text)

Complete RAG Pipeline

python
import cohere
import numpy as np

co = cohere.ClientV2()

def build_rag_pipeline(documents: list[str]):
    """Embed a corpus of documents."""
    response = co.embed(
        texts=documents,
        model="embed-english-v3.0",
        input_type="search_document",
        embedding_types=["float"],
    )
    return response.embeddings.float_

def retrieve_and_rerank(query: str, documents: list[str], doc_embeddings, top_k=10, top_n=3):
    """Vector search + rerank for best results."""
    # Step 1: Embed query
    q_resp = co.embed(
        texts=[query],
        model="embed-english-v3.0",
        input_type="search_query",
        embedding_types=["float"],
    )
    q_vec = q_resp.embeddings.float_[0]

    # Step 2: Cosine similarity search
    sims = [np.dot(q_vec, d) / (np.linalg.norm(q_vec) * np.linalg.norm(d)) for d in doc_embeddings]
    candidates_idx = np.argsort(sims)[::-1][:top_k]
    candidates = [documents[i] for i in candidates_idx]

    # Step 3: Rerank candidates
    reranked = co.rerank(
        model="rerank-english-v3",
        query=query,
        documents=candidates,
        top_n=top_n,
    )

    return [candidates[r.index] for r in reranked.results]

def answer_with_rag(query: str, context_docs: list[str]) -> str:
    """Generate answer grounded in retrieved documents."""
    docs = [{"data": {"snippet": doc}} for doc in context_docs]
    response = co.chat(
        model="command-r-plus",
        messages=[{"role": "user", "content": query}],
        documents=docs,
    )
    return response.message.content[0].text

Guidelines

  • Always use input_type="search_document" when embedding docs and input_type="search_query" for queries — this matters for retrieval quality.
  • Reranking adds ~100ms latency but often improves RAG answer quality by 20–40% vs vector search alone.
  • Command R+ is optimized for RAG with grounding documents; use documents parameter for best citation quality.
  • The embed-multilingual-v3.0 model supports 100+ languages with a single model.
  • Cohere offers on-premise and private cloud deployment for enterprises requiring data isolation.
  • For large corpora, use Cohere's batch embedding endpoint to process thousands of documents efficiently.