Chroma System API

openapi: 3.0.3
info:
  title: Chroma Server API (v2) Collections System 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: System
  description: Server health, version, and pre-flight operational endpoints.
paths:
  /api/v2/heartbeat:
    get:
      operationId: heartbeat
      tags:
      - System
      summary: Heartbeat
      description: Returns the current server time in nanoseconds; used as a liveness check.
      security: []
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Server heartbeat.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                type: object
                properties:
                  nanosecond heartbeat:
                    type: integer
                    format: int64
  /api/v2/healthcheck:
    get:
      operationId: healthcheck
      tags:
      - System
      summary: Health check
      description: Returns the health status of the server.
      security: []
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Health status.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                type: object
                additionalProperties: true
  /api/v2/version:
    get:
      operationId: version
      tags:
      - System
      summary: Get server version
      description: Returns the Chroma server version string.
      security: []
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Version string.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                type: string
  /api/v2/pre-flight-checks:
    get:
      operationId: preFlightChecks
      tags:
      - System
      summary: Pre-flight checks
      description: Returns server limits and configuration used by clients before issuing requests, such as the maximum batch size.
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Pre-flight configuration.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                type: object
                properties:
                  max_batch_size:
                    type: integer
                additionalProperties: true
  /api/v2/reset:
    post:
      operationId: reset
      tags:
      - System
      summary: Reset the database
      description: Deletes all data in the server. Only available on self-hosted deployments when ALLOW_RESET is explicitly enabled; not available on Chroma Cloud.
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Reset result.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                type: boolean
        '401':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized'
components:
  responses:
    Unauthorized:
      description: Missing or invalid API token.
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error'
  schemas:
    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.