Chroma Collections API

openapi: 3.0.3
info:
  title: Chroma Server API (v2) Collections API
  description: 'Chroma is an open-source, AI-native vector (embedding) database for LLM, RAG, and semantic-search applications. This OpenAPI describes Chroma''s HTTP/REST v2 API, which is the same interface used by the Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Rust, and other client libraries. The API is organized around a multi-tenancy hierarchy: tenants contain databases, databases contain collections, and collections contain records (embeddings with documents, metadata, and URIs). The core write and read operations are add, upsert, update, get, query (nearest-neighbor similarity search), and delete.

    ENDPOINTS MODELED: Path structure and the query-collection contract are grounded in the official Chroma reference docs (docs.trychroma.com) and the chroma-core sources. The exact request/response JSON SCHEMAS in this document are MODELED by API Evangelist from the documented client behavior and may differ in field-level detail from Chroma''s own generated openapi.json served at `/openapi.json` on a running server. Treat schemas as representative, not authoritative; verify against your server''s `/openapi.json`.'
  version: '2.0'
  contact:
    name: Chroma
    url: https://www.trychroma.com
  license:
    name: Apache 2.0
    url: https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/blob/main/LICENSE
servers:
- url: https://api.trychroma.com
  description: Chroma Cloud (managed, serverless)
- url: http://localhost:8000
  description: Local development / self-hosted Chroma server (default port 8000)
security:
- chromaToken: []
tags:
- name: Collections
  description: Named vector stores holding embeddings and metadata.
paths:
  /api/v2/tenants/{tenant}/databases/{database}/collections:
    parameters:
    - $ref: '#/components/parameters/Tenant'
    - $ref: '#/components/parameters/Database'
    get:
      operationId: listCollections
      tags:
      - Collections
      summary: List collections
      description: Lists collections in a database, with optional pagination.
      parameters:
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/Limit'
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/Offset'
      responses:
        '200':
          description: A list of collections.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                type: array
                items:
                  $ref: '#/components/schemas/Collection'
        '401':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized'
    post:
      operationId: createCollection
      tags:
      - Collections
      summary: Create a collection
      description: Creates a new collection in a database. A collection has a name, optional metadata, an index configuration, and a distance metric.
      requestBody:
        required: true
        content:
          application/json:
            schema:
              $ref: '#/components/schemas/CreateCollection'
      responses:
        '200':
          description: The created collection.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/Collection'
        '401':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized'
  /api/v2/tenants/{tenant}/databases/{database}/collections_count:
    parameters:
    - $ref: '#/components/parameters/Tenant'
    - $ref: '#/components/parameters/Database'
    get:
      operationId: countCollections
      tags:
      - Collections
      summary: Count collections
      description: Returns the number of collections in a database.
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Collection count.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                type: integer
        '401':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized'
  /api/v2/tenants/{tenant}/databases/{database}/collections/{collection_id}:
    parameters:
    - $ref: '#/components/parameters/Tenant'
    - $ref: '#/components/parameters/Database'
    - $ref: '#/components/parameters/CollectionId'
    get:
      operationId: getCollection
      tags:
      - Collections
      summary: Get a collection
      description: Retrieves a collection by its ID.
      responses:
        '200':
          description: The requested collection.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/Collection'
        '401':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized'
        '404':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/NotFound'
    put:
      operationId: updateCollection
      tags:
      - Collections
      summary: Update a collection
      description: Updates a collection's name, metadata, or index configuration.
      requestBody:
        required: true
        content:
          application/json:
            schema:
              $ref: '#/components/schemas/UpdateCollection'
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Update result.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                type: object
                additionalProperties: true
        '401':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized'
        '404':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/NotFound'
    delete:
      operationId: deleteCollection
      tags:
      - Collections
      summary: Delete a collection
      description: Deletes a collection and all of its records.
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Deletion result.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                type: object
                additionalProperties: true
        '401':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized'
        '404':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/NotFound'
components:
  parameters:
    Limit:
      name: limit
      in: query
      required: false
      description: Maximum number of items to return.
      schema:
        type: integer
        minimum: 1
    Offset:
      name: offset
      in: query
      required: false
      description: Number of items to skip for pagination.
      schema:
        type: integer
        minimum: 0
    CollectionId:
      name: collection_id
      in: path
      required: true
      description: The collection UUID.
      schema:
        type: string
    Database:
      name: database
      in: path
      required: true
      description: The database name.
      schema:
        type: string
    Tenant:
      name: tenant
      in: path
      required: true
      description: The tenant name or UUID.
      schema:
        type: string
  responses:
    Unauthorized:
      description: Missing or invalid API token.
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error'
    NotFound:
      description: The requested resource was not found.
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error'
  schemas:
    Collection:
      type: object
      properties:
        id:
          type: string
          format: uuid
        name:
          type: string
        metadata:
          type: object
          additionalProperties: true
        dimension:
          type: integer
          nullable: true
        tenant:
          type: string
        database:
          type: string
        configuration_json:
          type: object
          additionalProperties: true
    UpdateCollection:
      type: object
      properties:
        new_name:
          type: string
        new_metadata:
          type: object
          additionalProperties: true
        new_configuration:
          type: object
          additionalProperties: true
    CreateCollection:
      type: object
      required:
      - name
      properties:
        name:
          type: string
          description: Collection name (S3-bucket-style naming rules apply).
        metadata:
          type: object
          additionalProperties: true
        configuration:
          type: object
          description: Index configuration, including the distance metric (e.g. hnsw space cosine, l2, or ip).
          additionalProperties: true
        get_or_create:
          type: boolean
          description: If true, returns the existing collection when one with the same name exists.
    Error:
      type: object
      properties:
        error:
          type: string
        message:
          type: string
  securitySchemes:
    chromaToken:
      type: apiKey
      in: header
      name: x-chroma-token
      description: Chroma Cloud API key passed in the `x-chroma-token` header. Self-hosted servers can be run open (no auth) or configured with static-token or basic authentication; Chroma Cloud always requires a token.