Backend Observability#
Chroma is instrumented with OpenTelemetry hooks for observability.
Telemetry vs Observability
"Telemetry" refers to anonymous product usage statistics we collect. "Observability" refers to metrics, logging, and tracing which can be used by anyone operating a Chroma deployment. Observability features listed on this page are never sent back to Chroma; they are for end-users to better understand how their Chroma deployment is behaving.
Available Observability#
Chroma currently only exports OpenTelemetry traces. Traces allow a Chroma operator to understand how requests flow through the system and quickly identify bottlenecks.
Configuration#
Tracing is configured with four environment variables:
CHROMA_OTEL_COLLECTION_ENDPOINT: where to send observability data. Example:api.honeycomb.com.CHROMA_OTEL_SERVICE_NAME: Service name for OTel traces. Default:chromadb.CHROMA_OTEL_COLLECTION_HEADERS: Headers to use when sending observability data. Often used to send API and app keys. For example{"x-honeycomb-team": "abc"}.CHROMA_OTEL_GRANULARITY: A value from the OpenTelemetryGranularity enum. Specifies how detailed tracing should be.
We also have dedicated observability guides for various deployments:
Client (SDK) Observability#
Several observability platforms offer built-in integrations for Chroma, allowing you to monitor your application's interactions with the Chroma server: