Client ↗

Original Documentation

Documentation Index#
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.trychroma.com/llms.txt Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Clients#

EphemeralClient#

Create an in-memory client for local use.

This client stores all data in memory and does not persist to disk. It is intended for testing and development.

Optional settings to override defaults. Tenant name to use for requests. Defaults to the default tenant. Database name to use for requests. Defaults to the default database.

PersistentClient#

Create a persistent client that stores data on disk.

This client is intended for local development and testing. For production, prefer a server-backed Chroma instance.

Directory to store persisted data. Optional settings to override defaults. Tenant name to use for requests. Database name to use for requests.

HttpClient#

Create a client that connects to a Chroma server.

Hostname of the Chroma server. HTTP port of the Chroma server. Whether to enable SSL for the connection. Optional headers to send with each request. Optional settings to override defaults. Tenant name to use for requests. Database name to use for requests.

AsyncHttpClient#

Create an async client that connects to a Chroma HTTP server.

This supports multiple clients connecting to the same server and is the recommended production configuration.

CloudClient#

Create a client for Chroma Cloud.

If not provided, tenant, database, and api_key will be inferred from the environment variables CHROMA_TENANT, CHROMA_DATABASE, and CHROMA_API_KEY.

Tenant name to use, or None to infer from credentials. Database name to use, or None to infer from credentials. API key for Chroma Cloud. Optional settings to override defaults.

AdminClient#

Create an admin client for tenant and database management.

Client Methods#

heartbeat#

Get the current time in nanoseconds since epoch.

Used to check if the server is alive.

Returns: The current time in nanoseconds since epoch

list_collections#

List all collections.

The maximum number of entries to return. Defaults to None. The number of entries to skip before returning. Defaults to None.

Returns: A list of collections

count_collections#

Count the number of collections.

Returns: The number of collections.

create_collection#

Create a new collection with the given name and metadata.

The name of the collection to create. Optional metadata to associate with the collection. Optional function to use to embed documents. Uses the default embedding function if not provided. Optional function to use to load records (documents, images, etc.) If True, return the existing collection if it exists.

Returns: The newly created collection.

Raises:

ValueError: If the collection already exists and get_or_create is False.
ValueError: If the collection name is invalid.

get_collection#

Get a collection with the given name.

The name of the collection to get Optional function to use to embed documents. Uses the default embedding function if not provided. Optional function to use to load records (documents, images, etc.)

Returns: The collection

Raises:

ValueError: If the collection does not exist

get_or_create_collection#

Get or create a collection with the given name and metadata.

Args: name: The name of the collection to get or create metadata: Optional metadata to associate with the collection. If the collection already exists, the metadata provided is ignored. If the collection does not exist, the new collection will be created with the provided metadata. embedding_function: Optional function to use to embed documents data_loader: Optional function to use to load records (documents, images, etc.)

Returns: The collection

Examples:

client.get_or_create_collection("my_collection")
# collection(name="my_collection", metadata={})

delete_collection#

Delete a collection with the given name.

The name of the collection to delete.

Raises:

ValueError: If the collection does not exist.

reset#

Resets the database. This will delete all collections and entries.

Returns: True if the database was reset successfully.

get_version#

Get the version of Chroma.

Returns: The version of Chroma

get_settings#

Get the settings used to initialize.

Returns: The settings used to initialize.

get_max_batch_size#

Return the maximum number of records that can be created or mutated in a single call.

Admin Client Methods#

create_tenant#

Create a new tenant. Raises an error if the tenant already exists.

get_tenant#

Get a tenant. Raises an error if the tenant does not exist.

create_database#

Create a new database. Raises an error if the database already exists.

get_database#

Get a database. Raises an error if the database does not exist.

The tenant of the database to get.

delete_database#

Delete a database. Raises an error if the database does not exist.

The tenant of the database to delete.

list_databases#

List all databases for a tenant. Raises an error if the tenant does not exist.

The tenant to list databases for.

Link last verified June 7, 2026. View original ↗

Source: Chroma Docs

Link last verified: 2026-03-04