chroma-core/chroma · error · Error

Cannot disable all index types for key '${key}'. Please spec

Error message

Cannot disable all index types for key '${key}'. Please specify a specific index configuration.

What it means

Thrown by Schema.deleteIndex() when you supply only a key (config undefined/null) — i.e. you asked to disable ALL index types for that key at once. The schema API currently requires you to name the specific index configuration you want to turn off, so blanket 'delete everything on this key' is rejected (a TODO in the source notes this may be relaxed later).

Source

Thrown at clients/new-js/packages/chromadb/src/schema.ts:641

    // Temporarily disallow deleting sparse vector index (both globally and per-key)
    if (config instanceof SparseVectorIndexConfig) {
      throw new Error(
        "Deleting sparse vector index is not currently supported.",
      );
    }

    // FTS deletion is only allowed on #document key
    if (
      config instanceof FtsIndexConfig &&
      (!keyProvided || key !== DOCUMENT_KEY)
    ) {
      throw new Error("Deleting FTS index is only supported on #document key.");
    }

    // TODO: Consider removing this check in the future to allow disabling all indexes for a key
    // Disallow disabling all index types for a key (config=undefined, key="some_key")
    if (keyProvided && !configProvided && key) {
      throw new Error(
        `Cannot disable all index types for key '${key}'. Please specify a specific index configuration.`,
      );
    }

    if (keyProvided && configProvided && key) {
      this.setIndexForKey(key, config as IndexConfig, false);
    } else if (!keyProvided && configProvided) {
      this.setIndexInDefaults(config as IndexConfig, false);
    }

    return this;
  }

  serializeToJSON(): InternalSchema {
    const defaults = this.serializeValueTypes(this.defaults);

    const keys: Record<string, ValueTypesJson> = {};
    for (const [keyName, valueTypes] of Object.entries(this.keys)) {

View on GitHub (pinned to aecdd12c8a)

Solutions

Pass the specific config you want to disable, e.g. schema.deleteIndex(new StringInvertedIndexConfig(), 'my_key')
To disable several index types on one key, chain multiple deleteIndex calls, one per config class
To remove the key's overrides entirely, rebuild the schema without that key rather than blanket-disabling

Example fix

// before
schema.deleteIndex(undefined, "title");
// after
schema.deleteIndex(new StringInvertedIndexConfig(), "title");
schema.deleteIndex(new FtsIndexConfig(), "#document");

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

function assertDeleteIndexArgs(config, key) {
  if ((config === undefined || config === null) && key) {
    throw new TypeError(`deleteIndex needs a config for key '${key}'`);
  }
}

Type guard

const hasIndexConfig = (c) => c !== undefined && c !== null;

Try / catch

try { schema.deleteIndex(cfg, key); } catch (e) { if (e instanceof Error && /disable all index types/.test(e.message)) console.warn('Pass a specific IndexConfig to deleteIndex'); else throw e; }

Prevention

Never call deleteIndex with key only — always pair key with a config instance
Encapsulate schema mutations behind typed wrapper functions
Review the schema.ts guard list when upgrading the client, since the TODOs hint these restrictions may loosen

When it happens

Trigger: schema.deleteIndex(undefined, 'my_key') or schema.deleteIndex(null, 'title'). Fires when keyProvided && !configProvided && key (schema.ts:640).

Common situations: Coming from an ORM-style API where delete(key) removes all indexes on a column; trying to 'reset' a key to unindexed state in cleanup scripts between tests; iterating keys from schema serialization and calling deleteIndex for each without a config.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of chroma-core/chroma@aecdd12c8a (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/06778f59f05d1cc3. Report an issue: GitHub.