spring-projects/spring-ai · error · RuntimeException

Collection {collectionName} with the tenant: {tenantName} an

Error message

Collection {collectionName} with the tenant: {tenantName} and the database: {databaseName} doesn't exist and won't be created as the initializeSchema is set to false.

What it means

In ChromaVectorStore.afterPropertiesSet, when the configured collection does not exist on the Chroma server and initializeSchema is false, the store refuses to silently proceed and throws this RuntimeException. It guards against a misconfigured store pointing at a collection that will never exist.

Source

Thrown at vector-stores/spring-ai-chroma-store/src/main/java/org/springframework/ai/chroma/vectorstore/ChromaVectorStore.java:135

		if (!this.initialized) {
			var collection = this.chromaApi.getCollection(this.tenantName, this.databaseName, this.collectionName);
			if (collection == null) {
				if (this.initializeSchema) {
					var tenant = this.chromaApi.getTenant(this.tenantName);
					if (tenant == null) {
						this.chromaApi.createTenant(this.tenantName);
					}

					var database = this.chromaApi.getDatabase(this.tenantName, this.databaseName);
					if (database == null) {
						this.chromaApi.createDatabase(this.tenantName, this.databaseName);
					}

					collection = this.chromaApi.createCollection(this.tenantName, this.databaseName,
							new ChromaApi.CreateCollectionRequest(this.collectionName));
				}
				else {
					throw new RuntimeException("Collection " + this.collectionName + " with the tenant: "
							+ this.tenantName + " and the database: " + this.databaseName
							+ " doesn't exist and won't be created as the initializeSchema is set to false.");
				}
			}
			Assert.state(collection != null, "collection should pre-exist or have been initialized.");
			this.collectionId = collection.id();
			this.initialized = true;
		}
	}

	@Override
	public void doAdd(List<Document> documents) {
		Assert.notNull(documents, "Documents must not be null");
		if (CollectionUtils.isEmpty(documents)) {
			return;
		}

		List<String> ids = new ArrayList<>();

View on GitHub (pinned to 98a7beda4f)

Solutions

1. Set initializeSchema(true) on the builder so the store creates the missing collection.
2. Create the collection manually (e.g. via the Chroma client or HTTP API) before starting the app.
3. Verify collectionName, tenantName and databaseName match what exists on the Chroma server (check with a client listCollections call).
4. Fix typos introduced by environment-specific configuration.

Example fix

// before
ChromaVectorStore.builder(chromaApi, embeddingModel).collectionName("my_coll").initializeSchema(false).build();
// after
ChromaVectorStore.builder(chromaApi, embeddingModel).collectionName("my_coll").initializeSchema(true).build();

boolean exists = chromaApi.listCollections(tenantName, databaseName).stream()
    .anyMatch(c -> c.name().equals(collectionName));
if (!exists && !initializeSchema) {
  throw new IllegalStateException("Collection " + collectionName + " missing; set initializeSchema=true or create it");
}

null

try {
  vectorStore.afterPropertiesSet();
} catch (RuntimeException e) {
  if (e.getMessage().contains("doesn't exist")) {
    chromaApi.createCollection(tenantName, databaseName, new CreateCollectionRequest(collectionName));
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Initializing ChromaVectorStore with initializeSchema=false while the collection name (with the given tenant/database) is absent from the Chroma server.

Common situations: Reusing a config file across environments (dev had the collection, prod doesn't); typo in collection name; tenant/database name mismatch; forgetting that initializeSchema defaults to false in some builder paths.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Not found" and "does not exist" errors: why "Task not found", "No such folder", and "Can't find" fire when a lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 14 libraries.

Related errors

• Failed to initialize ChromaVectorStore
• Index %s does not exist in table %s
• Failed to delete documents by filter
• Collection loading failed!
• Failed to create collection

AI-assisted analysis of spring-projects/spring-ai@98a7beda4f (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9552356c4c75628c. Report an issue: GitHub.