Chroma Configuration

Self-hosted Chroma servers have configurations that can be used to change telemetry destinations, host and port, and other behaviors.

Chroma can be configured through YAML and environment variables.

Current Operator-Facing Env Vars

These are the main environment variables for a current self-hosted Chroma server.

Env var	What it controls	Default or notes
CHROMA_PERSIST_PATH	Directory used for persisted data	Default: ./chroma in the frontend config. Container deployments typically mount /data.
CHROMA_ALLOW_RESET	Enables destructive reset operations	Default: false.
CHROMA_PORT	HTTP port for the frontend server	Default: 8000.
CHROMA_LISTEN_ADDRESS	Bind address for the frontend server	Default: 0.0.0.0.
CHROMA_MAX_PAYLOAD_SIZE_BYTES	Maximum request payload size	Default: 41943040 (40 MiB).
CHROMA_CORS_ALLOW_ORIGINS	Allowed CORS origins	Current config key accepts a list, for example ["*"].
CHROMA_SQLITEDB__MIGRATION_MODE	SQLite migration mode	Allowed values: apply, validate. Default: apply.
CHROMA_SQLITEDB__HASH_TYPE	SQLite migration hash algorithm	Allowed values: md5, sha256. Default: md5.
CHROMA_SQLITE_FILENAME	SQLite file name under the persist path	Default: chroma.sqlite3.

These are specifically for OpenTelemetry:

Env var	What it controls	Default or notes
CHROMA_OPEN_TELEMETRY__ENDPOINT	OpenTelemetry OTLP endpoint	Used for traces in current deploy docs.
CHROMA_OPEN_TELEMETRY__SERVICE_NAME	OpenTelemetry service name	Default: chromadb.
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS	OTLP exporter headers	Commonly used for auth headers when sending traces.

Legacy Auth Settings

Built-in auth changed significantly before the Rust rewrite, and Chroma v1.0.0 no longer ships built-in authentication implementations. You may still see these variables in older examples and migration notes:

• CHROMA_SERVER_AUTHN_PROVIDER
• CHROMA_SERVER_AUTHN_CREDENTIALS
• CHROMA_SERVER_AUTHN_CREDENTIALS_FILE
• CHROMA_SERVER_AUTHZ_PROVIDER
• CHROMA_SERVER_AUTHZ_CONFIG
• CHROMA_SERVER_AUTHZ_CONFIG_FILE
• CHROMA_AUTH_TOKEN_TRANSPORT_HEADER

Treat these as historical unless you are intentionally working with older Python-era server configurations.