chroma-core/chroma · error · Error

HTTP ${response.status} ${response.statusText}: ${errorText}

Error message

HTTP ${response.status} ${response.statusText}: ${errorText}

What it means

Thrown by ChromaCloudSpladeEmbeddingFunction when the Chroma Embedding API answers with a non-2xx status. Unlike the Qwen package, this one checks response.ok, reads the body as text, and includes HTTP status, statusText, and the raw body in the message — so the API's own error detail (auth failure, bad model, rate limit) is preserved and readable.

Source

Thrown at clients/new-js/packages/ai-embeddings/chroma-cloud-splade/src/index.ts:132

      return [];
    }

    const body: ChromaCloudSparseEmbeddingRequest = {
      texts,
      task: "",
      target: "",
    };

    try {
      const response = await fetch(this.url, {
        method: "POST",
        headers: this.headers,
        body: JSON.stringify(snakeCase(body)),
      });

      if (!response.ok) {
        const errorText = await response.text();
        throw new Error(
          `HTTP ${response.status} ${response.statusText}: ${errorText}`,
        );
      }

      const data =
        (await response.json()) as ChromaCloudSparseEmbeddingsResponse;

      // Validate response structure
      if (!data || typeof data !== "object") {
        throw new Error("Invalid response format: expected object");
      }

      if (!Array.isArray(data.embeddings)) {
        throw new Error(
          "Invalid response format: missing or invalid embeddings array",
        );
      }

View on GitHub (pinned to aecdd12c8a)

Solutions

1. Read the status code and body in the message: 401/403 -> fix CHROMA_API_KEY; 429 -> slow down/backoff; 404 -> check URL override; 5xx -> retry later.
2. Verify export CHROMA_API_KEY=<valid-key> in every environment using SPLADE.
3. Add retry with exponential backoff and jitter for 429/5xx, and reduce batch size.
4. Reproduce with curl including the x-chroma-token and x-chroma-embedding-model headers to confirm the API's response.

if (!process.env.CHROMA_API_KEY) {
  throw new Error("CHROMA_API_KEY must be set for SPLADE embeddings");
}

async function spladeWithRetry(gen: () => Promise<SparseVector[]>, tries = 3) {
  for (let i = 1; i <= tries; i++) {
    try {
      return await gen();
    } catch (e) {
      const msg = (e as Error).message;
      const retryable = /HTTP 4(29|01)|HTTP 5\d\d/.test(msg) && !msg.includes("HTTP 401");
      if (i === tries || !retryable) throw e;
      await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 2 ** i * 500));
    }
  }
  throw new Error("unreachable");
}

When it happens

Trigger: 401/403 with a missing or invalid CHROMA_API_KEY (constructor sends x-chroma-token from that env var); 404 from a wrong embed URL override; 429 when rate-limited; 5xx during API incidents; request bodies with invalid task/target values.

Common situations: Unset API key in CI/containers (constructor only warns); key revoked; heavy batch embedding hitting rate limits; environment-specific embed URL overrides pointing at the wrong endpoint.

Related errors

• Invalid response format: expected object
• resp.detail || "Unknown error"
• Failed to generate embeddings.
• Error calling Chroma Embedding API: ${error.message}
• Error calling Chroma Embedding API: ${error}

AI-assisted analysis of chroma-core/chroma@aecdd12c8a (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d6fe7bbbf89911ff. Report an issue: GitHub.