chroma-core/chroma · error · ChromaValueError

Cannot specify both HNSW and SPANN configurations

Error message

Cannot specify both HNSW and SPANN configurations

What it means

Error "Cannot specify both HNSW and SPANN configurations" thrown in chroma-core/chroma.

Source

Thrown at clients/new-js/packages/chromadb/src/collection-configuration.ts:74

 * CollectionConfiguration to be used in collection creation.
 */
export const processCreateCollectionConfig = async ({
  configuration,
  embeddingFunction,
  metadata,
  schema,
}: {
  configuration?: CreateCollectionConfiguration;
  embeddingFunction?: EmbeddingFunction | null;
  metadata?: CollectionMetadata;
  schema?: Schema;
}) => {
  let schemaEmbeddingFunction: EmbeddingFunction | null | undefined = undefined;
  if (schema) {
    schemaEmbeddingFunction = schema.resolveEmbeddingFunction();
  }
  if (configuration?.hnsw && configuration?.spann) {
    throw new ChromaValueError(
      "Cannot specify both HNSW and SPANN configurations",
    );
  }

  let embeddingFunctionConfiguration = serializeEmbeddingFunction({
    embeddingFunction: embeddingFunction ?? undefined,
    configEmbeddingFunction: configuration?.embeddingFunction,
  });

  if (
    !embeddingFunctionConfiguration &&
    embeddingFunction !== null &&
    schemaEmbeddingFunction === undefined
  ) {
    embeddingFunctionConfiguration = await getDefaultEFConfig();
  }

  const overallEf = embeddingFunction || configuration?.embeddingFunction;

View on GitHub (pinned to aecdd12c8a)

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at clients/new-js/packages/chromadb/src/collection-configuration.ts:74 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of chroma-core/chroma@aecdd12c8a (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0e239e82f19ee061. Report an issue: GitHub.