Mintplex-Labs/anything-llm · error · Error

ChromaCloud::Invalid ENV settings

Error message

ChromaCloud::Invalid ENV settings

What it means

ChromaCloudVectorDb.connect() guards on process.env.VECTOR_DB !== 'chromacloud' and throws before building the CloudClient. The Chroma Cloud provider is only valid when the app-wide vector-db selection is chromacloud; using the class under any other VECTOR_DB value is a wiring error.

Source

Thrown at server/utils/vectorDbProviders/chromacloud/index.js:31

  get name() {
    return "ChromaCloud";
  }

  /**
   * Basic quota/limitations for Chroma Cloud for accounts. Does not lookup client-specific limits.
   * @see https://docs.trychroma.com/cloud/quotas-limits
   */
  limits = {
    maxEmbeddingDim: 4_096,
    maxDocumentBytes: 16_384,
    maxMetadataBytes: 4_096,
    maxRecordsPerWrite: 300,
  };

  async connect() {
    if (process.env.VECTOR_DB !== "chromacloud")
      throw new Error("ChromaCloud::Invalid ENV settings");

    const client = new CloudClient({
      apiKey: process.env.CHROMACLOUD_API_KEY,
      tenant: process.env.CHROMACLOUD_TENANT,
      database: process.env.CHROMACLOUD_DATABASE,
    });

    const isAlive = await client.heartbeat();
    if (!isAlive)
      throw new Error(
        "ChromaCloud::Invalid Heartbeat received - is the instance online?"
      );
    return { client };
  }

  /**
   * Chroma Cloud has some basic limitations on upserts to protect performance and latency.
   * Local deployments do not have these limitations since they are self-hosted.

View on GitHub (pinned to 3aec848f28)

Solutions

1. Set VECTOR_DB=chromacloud in server/.env along with CHROMACLOUD_API_KEY, CHROMACLOUD_TENANT, CHROMACLOUD_DATABASE.
2. Restart every server/container so all processes agree on the value.
3. In custom code, go through the vector-db factory instead of requiring vectorDbProviders/chromacloud directly.
4. Print process.env.VECTOR_DB at runtime to confirm no stale value.

Example fix

# before (.env)
VECTOR_DB=chroma
# but ChromaCloudVectorDb used directly -> throw

# after (.env)
VECTOR_DB=chromacloud
CHROMACLOUD_API_KEY=<secret>
CHROMACLOUD_TENANT=<tenant>
CHROMACLOUD_DATABASE=<database>

function requireChromaCloud() {
  if (process.env.VECTOR_DB !== 'chromacloud') {
    throw new Error("VECTOR_DB must be 'chromacloud' to use ChromaCloudVectorDb.");
  }
  for (const k of ['CHROMACLOUD_API_KEY','CHROMACLOUD_TENANT','CHROMACLOUD_DATABASE']) {
    if (!process.env[k]) throw new Error(`${k} is required for Chroma Cloud.`);
  }
}

function isChromaCloudConfigured() {
  return process.env.VECTOR_DB === 'chromacloud' && !!process.env.CHROMACLOUD_API_KEY;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Invoking ChromaCloudVectorDb methods while VECTOR_DB is unset or set to another provider ('chroma', 'lance', ...) - typically direct instantiation in custom code, or .env changed to/from chromacloud without a full restart.

Common situations: Migrating a deployment from local Chroma to Chroma Cloud (or back) and restarting only one process; scripts requiring the chromacloud provider without env setup; stale container env after editing docker-compose.

Related errors

• Chroma::Invalid ENV settings
• Type "${type}" is not a valid type to sync.
• No OpenAI API key was set.
• No OpenAI compatible endpoint was set. Please set this to us
• No ElevenLabs API key was set.

AI-assisted analysis of Mintplex-Labs/anything-llm@3aec848f28 (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/277f8257f185ae69. Report an issue: GitHub.