Chroma Configuration

Self-hosted Chroma servers have configurations that can be used to change telemetry destinations, host and port, and other behaviors. Chroma can be configured through YAML and environment variables.

Current Operator-Facing Env Vars

These are the main environment variables for a current self-hosted Chroma server.

Env var	What it controls	Default or notes
`CHROMA_PERSIST_PATH`	Directory used for persisted data	Default: `./chroma` in the frontend config. Container deployments typically mount `/data`.
`CHROMA_ALLOW_RESET`	Enables destructive reset operations	Default: `false`.
`CHROMA_PORT`	HTTP port for the frontend server	Default: `8000`.
`CHROMA_LISTEN_ADDRESS`	Bind address for the frontend server	Default: `0.0.0.0`.
`CHROMA_MAX_PAYLOAD_SIZE_BYTES`	Maximum request payload size	Default: `41943040` (40 MiB).
`CHROMA_CORS_ALLOW_ORIGINS`	Allowed CORS origins	Current config key accepts a list, for example `["*"]`.
`CHROMA_SQLITEDB__MIGRATION_MODE`	SQLite migration mode	Allowed values: `apply`, `validate`. Default: `apply`.
`CHROMA_SQLITEDB__HASH_TYPE`	SQLite migration hash algorithm	Allowed values: `md5`, `sha256`. Default: `md5`.
`CHROMA_SQLITE_FILENAME`	SQLite file name under the persist path	Default: `chroma.sqlite3`.

These are specifically for OpenTelemetry:

Env var	What it controls	Default or notes
`CHROMA_OPEN_TELEMETRY__ENDPOINT`	OpenTelemetry OTLP endpoint	Used for traces in current deploy docs.
`CHROMA_OPEN_TELEMETRY__SERVICE_NAME`	OpenTelemetry service name	Default: `chromadb`.
`OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS`	OTLP exporter headers	Commonly used for auth headers when sending traces.

Legacy Auth Settings

Built-in auth changed significantly before the Rust rewrite, and Chroma v1.0.0 no longer ships built-in authentication implementations. You may still see these variables in older examples and migration notes:

CHROMA_SERVER_AUTHN_PROVIDER
CHROMA_SERVER_AUTHN_CREDENTIALS
CHROMA_SERVER_AUTHN_CREDENTIALS_FILE
CHROMA_SERVER_AUTHZ_PROVIDER
CHROMA_SERVER_AUTHZ_CONFIG
CHROMA_SERVER_AUTHZ_CONFIG_FILE
CHROMA_AUTH_TOKEN_TRANSPORT_HEADER

Treat these as historical unless you are intentionally working with older Python-era server configurations.

Self-Hosted Chroma

SDKs

Beta SDKs

APIs

Dictionary Syntax

Architecture

Current Operator-Facing Env Vars

Legacy Auth Settings

​Current Operator-Facing Env Vars

​Legacy Auth Settings

Current Operator-Facing Env Vars

Legacy Auth Settings