microsoft/semantic-kernel · error · ServiceInitializationError

Could not import chromadb python package. Please install it

Error message

Could not import chromadb python package. Please install it with `pip install chromadb`.

What it means

Raised as a ServiceInitializationError when ChromaMemoryStore.__init__ cannot import the chromadb package. The store lazily imports chromadb inside a try/except; any ImportError (package not installed, broken install, or incompatible version) is wrapped into this error with an install hint.

Source

Thrown at python/semantic_kernel/connectors/memory_stores/chroma/chroma_memory_store.py:78

        Example:
            # Create a ChromaMemoryStore with a local specified directory for data persistence
            chroma_local_data_store = ChromaMemoryStore(persist_directory='/path/to/persist/directory')
            # Create a ChromaMemoryStore with a custom Settings instance
            chroma_remote_data_store = ChromaMemoryStore(
                client_settings=Settings(
                    chroma_api_impl="rest",
                    chroma_server_host="xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx",
                    chroma_server_http_port="8000"
                )
            )
        """
        try:
            import chromadb
            import chromadb.config

        except ImportError as exc:
            raise ServiceInitializationError(
                "Could not import chromadb python package. Please install it with `pip install chromadb`."
            ) from exc

        if client_settings:
            self._client_settings = client_settings
        else:
            self._client_settings = chromadb.config.Settings()
            if persist_directory is not None:
                self._client_settings = chromadb.config.Settings(
                    is_persistent=True, persist_directory=persist_directory
                )
        self._client = chromadb.Client(self._client_settings)
        self._persist_directory = persist_directory
        self._default_query_includes = ["embeddings", "metadatas", "documents"]

    async def create_collection(self, collection_name: str) -> None:
        """Creates a new collection in Chroma if it does not exist.

View on GitHub (pinned to c028a0c7dc)

Solutions

1. Install chromadb: pip install chromadb (or pip install semantic-kernel[chroma] to get the pinned extra).
2. Verify the import works in isolation: python -c 'import chromadb; print(chromadb.__version__)'.
3. If the import still fails after install, recreate the virtualenv to clear partial installs.
4. Pin a compatible chromadb version known to work with your Python interpreter.

Example fix

// before (no chromadb installed)
store = ChromaMemoryStore()  # ServiceInitializationError
// after
# pip install chromadb
store = ChromaMemoryStore(persist_directory='./chroma_data')

def chromadb_available() -> bool:
    try:
        import chromadb  # noqa: F401
        import chromadb.config  # noqa: F401
        return True
    except ImportError:
        return False

if not chromadb_available():
    raise SystemExit('Install chromadb: pip install chromadb')

def chromadb_available() -> bool:
    import importlib.util
    return importlib.util.find_spec('chromadb') is not None

from semantic_kernel.exceptions import ServiceInitializationError

try:
    store = ChromaMemoryStore()
except ServiceInitializationError as e:
    if 'chromadb' in str(e):
        logging.error('chromadb not installed: %s', e)
    raise

When it happens

Trigger: Instantiating ChromaMemoryStore() in an environment where chromadb is not installed. Also triggered if chromadb is installed but a transitive dependency (e.g. onnxruntime, pulsar-client, duckdb) is missing or the Python version is incompatible, causing the import line itself to raise ImportError.

Common situations: Installing semantic-kernel without the chroma extra (pip install semantic-kernel vs pip install semantic-kernel[chroma]). Using a slim Docker image that omits chromadb. A corrupted venv or a pip install that failed partway. Python version mismatch with chromadb's requirements.

Related errors

• onnxruntime-genai is not installed.
• The OpenAI text model ID is required.
• The OpenAI embedding model ID is required.
• The OpenAI text to audio model ID is required.
• The OpenAI text to image model ID is required.

AI-assisted analysis of microsoft/semantic-kernel@c028a0c7dc (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d8fdee7072582b79. Report an issue: GitHub.