chroma

# Chroma - Open-Source Embedding Database The AI-native database for building LLM applications with memory. ## When to use Chroma **Use Chroma when:** - Building RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) applications - Need local/self-hosted vector database - Want open-source solution (Apache 2.0) - Prototyping in notebooks - Semantic search over documents - Storing embeddings with metadata **Metrics**: - **24,300+ GitHub stars** - **1,900+ forks** - **v1.3.3** (stable, weekly releases) - **Apache 2.0 license** **Use alternatives instead**: - **Pinecone**: Managed cloud, auto-scaling - **FAISS**: Pure similarity search, no metadata - **Weaviate**: Production ML-native database - **Qdrant**: High performance, Rust-based ## Quick start ### Installation ```bash # Python pip install chromadb # JavaScript/TypeScript npm install chromadb @chroma-core/default-embed ``` ### Basic usage (Python) ```python import chromadb # Create client client = chromadb.Client() # Create collection collection = client.create_collection(name="my_collection") # Add documents collection.add( documents=["This is document 1", "This is document 2"], metadatas=[{"source": "doc1"}, {"source": "doc2"}], ids=["id1", "id2"] ) # Query results = collection.query( query_texts=["document about topic"], n_results=2 ) print(results) ``` ## Core operations ### 1. Create collection ```python # Simple collection collection = client.create_collection("my_docs") # With custom embedding function from chromadb.utils import embedding_functions openai_ef = embedding_functions.OpenAIEmbeddingFunction( api_key="your-key", model_name="text-embedding-3-small" ) collection = client.create_collection( name="my_docs", embedding_function=openai_ef ) # Get existing collection collection = client.get_collection("my_docs") # Delete collection client.delete_collection("my_docs") ``` ### 2. Add documents ```python # Add with auto-generated IDs collection.add( documents=["Doc 1", "Doc 2", "Doc 3"], metadatas=[ {"source": "web", "category": "tutorial"}, {"source": "pdf", "page": 5}, {"source": "api", "timestamp": "2025-01-01"} ], ids=["id1", "id2", "id3"] ) # Add with custom embeddings collection.add( embeddings=[[0.1, 0.2, ...], [0.3, 0.4, ...]], documents=["Doc 1", "Doc 2"], ids=["id1", "id2"] ) ``` ### 3. Query (similarity search) ```python # Basic query results = collection.query( query_texts=["machine learning tutorial"], n_results=5 ) # Query with filters results = collection.query( query_texts=["Python programming"], n_results=3, where={"source": "web"} ) # Query with metadata filters results = collection.query( query_texts=["advanced topics"], where={ "$and": [ {"category": "tutorial"}, {"difficulty": {"$gte": 3}} ] } ) # Access results print(results["documents"]) # List of matching documents print(results["metadatas"]) # Metadata for each doc print(results["distances"]) # Similarity scores print(results["ids"]) # Document IDs ``` ### 4. Get documents ```python # Get by IDs docs = collection.get( ids=["id1", "id2"] ) # Get with filters docs = collection.get( where={"category": "tutorial"}, limit=10 ) # Get all documents docs = collection.get() ``` ### 5. Update documents ```python # Update document content collection.update( ids=["id1"], documents=["Updated content"], metadatas=[{"source": "updated"}] ) ``` ### 6. Delete documents ```python # Delete by IDs collection.delete(ids=["id1", "id2"]) # Delete with filter collection.delete( where={"source": "outdated"} ) ``` ## Persistent storage ```python # Persist to disk client = chromadb.PersistentClient(path="./chroma_db") collection = client.create_collection("my_docs") collection.add(documents=["Doc 1"], ids=["id1"]) # Data persisted automatically # Reload later with same path client = chromadb.PersistentClient(path="./chroma_db") collection = client.get_collection("my_docs") ``` ## Embedding functions ### Default (Sentence Transformers) ```python # Uses sentence-transformers by default collection = client.create_collection("my_docs") # Default model: all-MiniLM-L6-v2 ``` ### OpenAI ```python from chromadb.utils import embedding_functions openai_ef = embedding_functions.OpenAIEmbeddingFunction( api_key="your-key", model_name="text-embedding-3-small" ) collection = client.create_collection( name="openai_docs", embedding_function=openai_ef ) ``` ### HuggingFace ```python huggingface_ef = embedding_functions.HuggingFaceEmbeddingFunction( api_key="your-key", model_name="sentence-transformers/all-mpnet-base-v2" ) collection = client.create_collection( name="hf_docs", embedding_function=huggingface_ef ) ``` ### Custom embedding function ```python from chromadb import Documents, EmbeddingFunction, Embeddings class MyEmbeddingFunction(EmbeddingFunction): def __call__(self, input: Documents) -> Embeddings: # Your embedding logic return embeddings my_ef = MyEmbeddingFunction() collection = client.create_collection( name="custom_docs", embedding_function=my_ef ) ``` ## Metadata filtering ```python # Exact match results = collection.query( query_texts=["query"], where={"category": "tutorial"} ) # Comparison operators results = collection.query( query_texts=["query"], where={"page": {"$gt": 10}} # $gt, $gte, $lt, $lte, $ne ) # Logical operators results = collection.query( query_texts=["query"], where={ "$and": [ {"category": "tutorial"}, {"difficulty": {"$lte": 3}} ] } # Also: $or ) # Contains results = collection.query( query_texts=["query"], where={"tags": {"$in": ["python", "ml"]}} ) ``` ## LangChain integration ```python from langchain_chroma import Chroma from langchain_openai import OpenAIEmbeddings from langchain.text_splitter import RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter # Split documents text_splitter = RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter(chunk_size=1000) docs = text_splitter.split_documents(documents) # Create Chroma vector store vectorstore = Chroma.from_documents( documents=docs, embedding=OpenAIEmbeddings(), persist_directory="./chroma_db" ) # Query results = vectorstore.similarity_search("machine learning", k=3) # As retriever retriever = vectorstore.as_retriever(search_kwargs={"k": 5}) ``` ## LlamaIndex integration ```python from llama_index.vector_stores.chroma import ChromaVectorStore from llama_index.core import VectorStoreIndex, StorageContext import chromadb # Initialize Chroma db = chromadb.PersistentClient(path="./chroma_db") collection = db.get_or_create_collection("my_collection") # Create vector store vector_store = ChromaVectorStore(chroma_collection=collection) storage_context = StorageContext.from_defaults(vector_store=vector_store) # Create index index = VectorStoreIndex.from_documents( documents, storage_context=storage_context ) # Query query_engine = index.as_query_engine() response = query_engine.query("What is machine learning?") ``` ## Server mode ```python # Run Chroma server # Terminal: chroma run --path ./chroma_db --port 8000 # Connect to server import chromadb from chromadb.config import Settings client = chromadb.HttpClient( host="localhost", port=8000, settings=Settings(anonymized_telemetry=False) ) # Use as normal collection = client.get_or_create_collection("my_docs") ``` ## Best practices 1. **Use persistent client** - Don't lose data on restart 2. **Add metadata** - Enables filtering and tracking 3. **Batch operations** - Add multiple docs at once 4. **Choose right embedding model** - Balance speed/quality 5. **Use filters** - Narrow search space 6. **Unique IDs** - Avoid collisions 7. **Regular backups** - Copy chroma_db directory 8. **Monitor collection size** - Scale up if needed 9. **Test embedding functions** - Ensure quality 10. **Use server mode for production** - Better for multi-user ## Performance | Operation | Latency | Notes | |-----------|---------|-------| | Add 100 docs | ~1-3s | With embedding | | Query (top 10) | ~50-200ms | Depends on collection size | | Metadata filter | ~10-50ms | Fast with proper indexing | ## Resources - **GitHub**: https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma ⭐ 24,300+ - **Docs**: https://docs.trychroma.com - **Discord**: https://discord.gg/MMeYNTmh3x - **Version**: 1.3.3+ - **License**: Apache 2.0 --- > Converted and distributed by [TomeVault](https://tomevault.io) | [Claim this content](https://tomevault.io/claim/davila7/claude-code-templates) <!-- tomevault:2.0:skill_md:2026-04-05 -->