chroma-core/chroma · error · ValueError

At least one of {', '.join(contains_any)} must be provided

Error message

At least one of {', '.join(contains_any)} must be provided

What it means

validate_record_set_contains_any (chromadb/api/types.py:489) enforces that at least one of the named record-set fields is not None. It is part of Chroma's reusable validation surface in chromadb.api.types; the only built-in call site is the add path in CollectionCommon.py:236 with contains_any={'ids'}. Because ids is a required argument of add() and single values are auto-wrapped, public-API callers almost never see it - it fires when every field listed in contains_any is None, which in practice means direct use of the validator helpers or custom code that assembles record sets itself.

Source

Thrown at chromadb/api/types.py:498

    Validates that the Record is ready to be embedded, i.e. that it contains exactly one of the embeddable fields.
    """
    if record_set["embeddings"] is not None:
        raise ValueError("Attempting to embed a record that already has embeddings.")
    if embeddable_fields is None:
        embeddable_fields = get_default_embeddable_record_set_fields()
    validate_record_set_contains_one(record_set, embeddable_fields)


def validate_record_set_contains_any(
    record_set: BaseRecordSet, contains_any: Set[str]
) -> None:
    """
    Validates that at least one of the fields in contains_any is not None.
    """
    _validate_record_set_contains(record_set, contains_any)

    if not any(record_set[field] is not None for field in contains_any):  # type: ignore[literal-required]
        raise ValueError(f"At least one of {', '.join(contains_any)} must be provided")


def validate_record_set_contains_one(
    record_set: BaseRecordSet, contains_one: Set[str]
) -> None:
    """
    Validates that exactly one of the fields in contains_one is not None.
    """
    _validate_record_set_contains(record_set, contains_one)
    if sum(record_set[field] is not None for field in contains_one) != 1:  # type: ignore[literal-required]
        raise ValueError(f"Exactly one of {', '.join(contains_one)} must be provided")


def _validate_record_set_contains(
    record_set: BaseRecordSet, contains: Set[str]
) -> None:
    """
    Validates that all fields in contains are valid fields of the Record.

View on GitHub (pinned to aecdd12c8a)

Solutions

1. Provide at least one of the fields named in the error message
2. Before calling the validator, short-circuit when nothing is present: if all(record_set.get(f) is None for f in contains_any): return / raise your own 'nothing to do' error
3. Derive contains_any from the same constants Chroma uses (e.g. get_default_embeddable_record_set_fields()) so the field list matches your record set

contains_any = {'documents', 'images', 'uris'}
if all(record_set.get(f) is None for f in contains_any):
    raise ValueError(f'nothing to process: provide one of {sorted(contains_any)}')
validate_record_set_contains_any(record_set, contains_any)

def has_any_field(record_set, fields) -> bool:
    return any(record_set.get(f) is not None for f in fields)

try:
    validate_record_set_contains_any(record_set=rs, contains_any=fields)
except ValueError as e:
    if 'At least one of' in str(e):  # distinct from 'Exactly one of'
        return  # nothing to do
    raise

When it happens

Trigger: Calling validate_record_set_contains_any(record_set, {'documents','uris'}) on a record set where both fields are None; a custom ingestion pipeline that builds a record set without ids and reuses Chroma's add-path validation; omitting all named inputs when invoking the helper directly.

Common situations: Framework or tool authors reusing chromadb.api.types validators; test code exercising record-set validation; refactors that set fields to None before validation runs.

Related errors

• Attempting to embed a record that already has embeddings.
• Invalid field in contains: {', '.join(contains)}, available
• Unequal lengths for fields: {error_str}
• Exactly one of {', '.join(contains_one)} must be provided
• Expected IDs to be a list, got {type(ids).__name__} as IDs

AI-assisted analysis of chroma-core/chroma@aecdd12c8a (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7377ddf0e8b6f1c6. Report an issue: GitHub.