chroma-cloud

name	chroma-cloud
description	Provides expertise on Chroma Cloud integration for semantic search and hybrid search applications. Use when the user is working with Chroma Cloud, CloudClient, managed collections, Schema(), Search(), hybrid search, or Chroma Cloud CLI workflows.

Instructions

Intake

Do not block on a long questionnaire. Ask only for details that are missing and required to choose the right path:

• Dense only or hybrid search
• Whether CHROMA_API_KEY, CHROMA_TENANT, and CHROMA_DATABASE are already configured
• Existing embedding choice, if any

If the user has no embedding preference, default to Chroma Cloud Qwen. If hybrid search is required, use Schema() and Search(). If the task is narrow, such as fixing an existing query, reviewing code, or answering an API question, proceed with the repo context instead of forcing intake.

What to validate

• Correct client import (CloudClient vs Client)
• Environment variables are set for Cloud deployments
• Embedding function package is installed when the selected TypeScript embedding requires one
• Schema() and Search() are only used for Cloud workflows
• Important: get_or_create_collection() accepts either an embedding_function OR a schema, but not both. Use schema when you need multiple indexes, hybrid search, or sparse embeddings; use embedding_function for simple dense-only search.

Quick Start

Use the CLI topic to authenticate and write Cloud credentials:

chroma login
chroma db create <db_name>
chroma db connect <db_name> --env-file

Then create a CloudClient and choose the API based on the search mode:

import { CloudClient } from 'chromadb';

const client = new CloudClient();
const collection = await client.getOrCreateCollection({ name: 'my_collection' });

Use collection.query() for dense-only search. Use Schema() plus Search() only when the user needs hybrid retrieval, multiple indexes, or more expressive ranking/query composition.

Cloud Guidance

Collections are the main isolation boundary in Chroma Cloud, and metadata is the main filtering mechanism inside a collection. Reach for Schema() only when you need explicit dense+sparse or multi-index configuration, and reach for Search() only when query() is not expressive enough.

Learn More

If you need more detailed information about Chroma beyond what's covered in this skill, fetch Chroma's llms.txt for comprehensive documentation: https://docs.trychroma.com/llms.txt

Available Topics

Typescript

• Chroma Regex Filtering - Learn how to use regex filters in Chroma queries
• Query and Get - Query and Get Data from Chroma Collections
• Metadata - Store and query metadata, including filters and array values
• Updating and Deleting - Update existing documents and delete data from collections
• Schema - Schema() configures collections with multiple indexes
• Chroma Cloud Qwen - Chroma's hosted Qwen embedding service
• Error Handling - Handling errors and failures when working with Chroma
• Collection Forking - Instantly duplicate collections using copy-on-write forking in Chroma Cloud
• Search() API - An expressive and flexible API for doing dense and sparse vector search on collections, as well as hybrid search

Python

• Chroma Regex Filtering - Learn how to use regex filters in Chroma queries
• Query and Get - Query and Get Data from Chroma Collections
• Metadata - Store and query metadata, including filters and array values
• Updating and Deleting - Update existing documents and delete data from collections
• Schema - Schema() configures collections with multiple indexes
• Chroma Cloud Qwen - Chroma's hosted Qwen embedding service
• Error Handling - Handling errors and failures when working with Chroma
• Collection Forking - Instantly duplicate collections using copy-on-write forking in Chroma Cloud
• Search() API - An expressive and flexible API for doing dense and sparse vector search on collections, as well as hybrid search

General

• Data Model - An overview of how Chroma stores data
• Integrating Chroma into an existing system - Guidance for adding Chroma search to an existing application
• Chroma CLI - Getting started with the Chroma CLI for Chroma Cloud authentication and database management
• Caching Collection References - Reduce repeated collection lookup requests in high-traffic Chroma Cloud applications
• Quotas and Limits - Chroma Cloud quotas and request limits