docs/mintlify/guides/deploy/observability.mdx
import { Callout } from '/snippets/callout.mdx';
Chroma is instrumented with OpenTelemetry hooks for observability.
<Callout title="Telemetry vs Observability"> "[Telemetry](../../docs/overview/oss#telemetry)" refers to anonymous product usage statistics we collect. "Observability" refers to metrics, logging, and tracing which can be used by anyone operating a Chroma deployment. Observability features listed on this page are **never** sent back to Chroma; they are for end-users to better understand how their Chroma deployment is behaving. </Callout>Chroma currently only exports OpenTelemetry traces. Traces allow a Chroma operator to understand how requests flow through the system and quickly identify bottlenecks.
Tracing is configured with three environment variables:
CHROMA_OPEN_TELEMETRY__ENDPOINT: where to send observability data. Example: api.honeycomb.com.CHROMA_OPEN_TELEMETRY__SERVICE_NAME: Service name for OTel traces. Default: chromadb.OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS: Headers to use when sending observability data. Often used to send API and app keys. For example {"x-honeycomb-team": "abc"}.We also have dedicated observability guides for various deployments:
Several observability platforms offer built-in integrations for Chroma, allowing you to monitor your application's interactions with the Chroma server: