ChromaDB Client

Chroma is the open-source data infrastructure for AI. Chroma makes it easy to build LLM apps by making knowledge, facts, and skills pluggable for LLMs.

Note: JS client version 3._ is only compatible with chromadb v1.0.6 and newer or Chroma Cloud. For prior version compatiblity, please use JS client version 2._.

This package provides embedding libraries as peer dependencies, allowing you to manage your own versions of embedding libraries and keep your dependency tree lean by not bundling dependencies you don't use. For a thick client with bundled embedding functions, install chromadb.

Features

✅ Complete TypeScript support
✅ Embedding libraries as peer dependencies for a smaller package size
✅ Works in both Node.js and browser environments
✅ Only install the embedding libraries you need

Installation

bash

# npm
npm install chromadb-client

# pnpm
pnpm add chromadb-client

# yarn
yarn add chromadb-client

You'll need to install any required embedding libraries separately. For example:

bash

# For OpenAI embeddings
npm install chromadb-client openai

# For default embeddings
npm install chromadb-client chromadb-default-embed

# For Cohere embeddings
npm install chromadb-client cohere-ai

Getting Started

Chroma needs to be running in order for this client to talk to it. Please see the Usage Guide to learn how to quickly stand this up.

import { ChromaClient } from "chromadb-client";

// Initialize the client
const chroma = new ChromaClient({ path: "http://localhost:8000" });

// Create a collection
const collection = await chroma.createCollection({ name: "my-collection" });

// Add documents to the collection
await collection.add({
  ids: ["id1", "id2"],
  embeddings: [
    [1.1, 2.3, 3.2],
    [4.5, 6.9, 4.4],
  ],
  metadatas: [{ source: "doc1" }, { source: "doc2" }],
  documents: ["Document 1 content", "Document 2 content"],
});

// Query the collection
const results = await collection.query({
  queryEmbeddings: [1.1, 2.3, 3.2],
  nResults: 2,
});

Using Embedding Functions

Make sure to install the necessary peer dependencies before using embedding functions:

// First install: npm install chromadb-client openai
import { ChromaClient, OpenAIEmbeddingFunction } from "chromadb-client";

const embedder = new OpenAIEmbeddingFunction({
  openai_api_key: "your-api-key",
  model_name: "text-embedding-ada-002",
});

const chroma = new ChromaClient({ path: "http://localhost:8000" });
const collection = await chroma.createCollection({
  name: "my-collection",
  embeddingFunction: embedder,
});

// Now you can add documents without providing embeddings
await collection.add({
  ids: ["id1"],
  documents: ["Document content"],
});

// And query with text
const results = await collection.query({
  queryTexts: ["similar document"],
  nResults: 2,
});

Available Embedding Functions

This package supports multiple embedding providers as peer dependencies:

OpenAI (openai)
Cohere (cohere-ai)
Default embeddings (chromadb-default-embed)
Google Generative AI (@google/generative-ai)
Xenova Transformers (@xenova/transformers)
Voyage AI (voyageai)
Ollama (ollama)

Why choose chromadb-client?

Smaller package size: Only install the dependencies you need
Flexible dependency versions: Manage your own versions of embedding libraries
Less bloat: Ideal for production environments where you only use specific embedding providers
Same functionality: Provides identical features as the main chromadb package

Additional Resources

License

Apache 2.0