chroma-core/chroma · error · ValueError

The httpx python package is not installed. Please install it

Error message

The httpx python package is not installed. Please install it with `pip install httpx`

What it means

Error "The httpx python package is not installed. Please install it with `pip install httpx`" thrown in chroma-core/chroma.

Source

Thrown at chromadb/utils/embedding_functions/huggingface_embedding_function.py:33

    def __init__(
        self,
        api_key: Optional[str] = None,
        model_name: str = "sentence-transformers/all-MiniLM-L6-v2",
        api_key_env_var: str = "CHROMA_HUGGINGFACE_API_KEY",
    ):
        """
        Initialize the HuggingFaceEmbeddingFunction.

        Args:
            api_key_env_var (str, optional): Environment variable name that contains your API key for the HuggingFace API.
                Defaults to "CHROMA_HUGGINGFACE_API_KEY".
            model_name (str, optional): The name of the model to use for text embeddings.
                Defaults to "sentence-transformers/all-MiniLM-L6-v2".
        """
        try:
            import httpx
        except ImportError:
            raise ValueError(
                "The httpx python package is not installed. Please install it with `pip install httpx`"
            )

        if api_key is not None:
            warnings.warn(
                "Direct api_key configuration will not be persisted. "
                "Please use environment variables via api_key_env_var for persistent storage.",
                DeprecationWarning,
            )
        if os.getenv("HUGGINGFACE_API_KEY") is not None:
            self.api_key_env_var = "HUGGINGFACE_API_KEY"
        else:
            self.api_key_env_var = api_key_env_var

        self.api_key = api_key or os.getenv(self.api_key_env_var)
        if not self.api_key:
            raise ValueError(
                f"The {self.api_key_env_var} environment variable is not set."

View on GitHub (pinned to aecdd12c8a)

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at chromadb/utils/embedding_functions/huggingface_embedding_function.py:33 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/02c3cfe26499602d. Report an issue: GitHub.