chroma-core/chroma · error · ValueError

You must provide either ids, where, or wher

Error message

                You must provide either ids, where, or where_document to delete. If
                you want to delete all data in a collection you can delete the
                collection itself using the delete_collection method. Or alternatively,
                you can get() all the relevant ids and then delete them.
                

What it means

SegmentAPI._delete refuses to run a delete with no criteria: when ids, where and where_document are all None or empty, it raises a ValueError explaining you must pass one of them, delete the collection itself, or get() all ids and delete those. The guard is deliberate — an unfiltered delete would silently wipe every record in the collection.

Source

Thrown at chromadb/api/segment.py:776

        )

        # TODO: Replace with unified validation
        if where is not None:
            validate_where(where)

        if where_document is not None:
            validate_where_document(where_document)

        # You must have at least one of non-empty ids, where, or where_document.
        if (
            (ids is None or (ids is not None and len(ids) == 0))
            and (where is None or (where is not None and len(where) == 0))
            and (
                where_document is None
                or (where_document is not None and len(where_document) == 0)
            )
        ):
            raise ValueError(
                """
                You must provide either ids, where, or where_document to delete. If
                you want to delete all data in a collection you can delete the
                collection itself using the delete_collection method. Or alternatively,
                you can get() all the relevant ids and then delete them.
                """
            )

        scan = self._scan(collection_id)

        self._quota_enforcer.enforce(
            action=Action.DELETE,
            tenant=tenant,
            ids=ids,
            where=where,
            where_document=where_document,
        )

View on GitHub (pinned to aecdd12c8a)

Solutions

1. If all records should go, delete and recreate: client.delete_collection(name) then get_or_create_collection
2. To empty the collection but keep it: ids = coll.get()['ids']; coll.delete(ids=ids)
3. Guard the call site: refuse to call delete() unless at least one of ids/where/where_document is non-empty

Example fix

// before
coll.delete()  # ValueError: provide ids, where, or where_document

// after
coll.delete(ids=coll.get()['ids'])  # explicit delete-all-records

def safe_delete(coll, ids=None, where=None, where_document=None):
    if not ids and not where and not where_document:
        raise ValueError('Refusing to delete without ids/where/where_document')
    return coll.delete(ids=ids, where=where, where_document=where_document)

def delete_all_records(coll):
    ids = coll.get()['ids']
    if ids:
        coll.delete(ids=ids)

When it happens

Trigger: collection.delete() with no arguments, or with every filter empty: ids=None/[], where=None/{}, where_document=None/{}.

Common situations: Expecting SQL-style 'DELETE FROM table' semantics; dynamically built filters that end up empty (e.g. an empty ids list returned by a previous get()); refactors away from explicit id lists.

Related errors

• MinK keys cannot be empty
• MaxK keys cannot be empty
• GroupBy keys cannot be empty
• GroupBy requires 'keys' array
• GroupBy requires 'aggregate'

AI-assisted analysis of chroma-core/chroma@aecdd12c8a (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/16a12175b6b4eb2f. Report an issue: GitHub.