chroma-core/chroma · error · ValueError

The vertexai python package is not installed. Please install

Error message

The vertexai python package is not installed. Please install it with `pip install google-cloud-aiplatform`

What it means

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

Source

Thrown at chromadb/utils/embedding_functions/google_embedding_function.py:519

    ):
        """
        Initialize the GoogleVertexEmbeddingFunction.

        Args:
            api_key_env_var (str, optional): Environment variable name that contains your API key for the Google Vertex AI API.
                Defaults to "CHROMA_GOOGLE_VERTEX_API_KEY".
            model_name (str, optional): The name of the model to use for text embeddings.
                Defaults to "textembedding-gecko".
            project_id (str, optional): The Google Cloud project ID.
                Defaults to "cloud-large-language-models".
            region (str, optional): The Google Cloud region.
                Defaults to "us-central1".
        """
        try:
            import vertexai
            from vertexai.language_models import TextEmbeddingModel
        except ImportError:
            raise ValueError(
                "The vertexai python package is not installed. Please install it with `pip install google-cloud-aiplatform`"
            )

        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("GOOGLE_API_KEY") is not None:
            self.api_key_env_var = "GOOGLE_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/google_embedding_function.py:519 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/650932d3849e4f79. Report an issue: GitHub.