Chroma
Chroma (Chroma DB) is an open-source AI-native embedding database designed to make it easy to build LLM applications by providing storage, retrieval, and management for vector embeddings, full-text search, regex search, and multi-modal retrieval (text, image, audio). Distributed under the Apache 2.0 license, Chroma can be self-hosted (single-node Python or distributed Rust-based deployment) or consumed via Chroma Cloud, a managed serverless vector database service offering usage-based pricing. Chroma is the open-source data infrastructure for AI agents and RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) applications, with first-party SDKs for Python and JavaScript/TypeScript and integrations with leading embedding providers (OpenAI, Cohere, Hugging Face, sentence-transformers).
Solid contracts, transparent operations, and an easy start — typically complete on four or five facets with one clear soft spot.
API Evangelist profiles Chroma the way a machine reads it — 41 machine-readable artifacts across 8 APIs, pulled from the provider's own public surface and indexed so a developer, an analyst, or an AI agent can evaluate it against every other provider on the network.
Every provider in the network is reduced to the same set of machine-readable artifacts — OpenAPI contracts, event specifications, GraphQL schemas, runnable collections, pricing and rate-limit signals, security posture, OAuth scopes, and the agent surfaces (MCP servers and skills) that let software drive the API on its own. We profile them because the interface is the part of a company you can actually inspect: it is a truer signal of what a provider does than any marketing page. From those artifacts we compute the Kin Score — Chroma scores 61.4/100 (strong), with a separate agent-readiness read of 48/100 (agent ready). The full breakdown is below, followed by every artifact we hold — each card links through to its machine-readable definition on apis.io.
Kin Score
This is the API Evangelist rating — a single, repeatable read computed from the artifacts on this page. Green fill is points earned; the red track is points possible, so every bar shows earned-versus-possible at a glance.
Kin Score
How this is scored →scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5
How we profile Chroma
Each block below is one kind of artifact we hold for Chroma. For each we say what it is and why it earns a place in the profile, then list every one we've indexed — capped at two rows, scroll within the panel for the rest.
APIs 8
Each API is captured as its own OpenAPI definition — every operation, parameter, and response. This is the single most useful machine-readable description of what an API does, and it's what lets us score, lint, mock, and generate against it without asking the provider for anything.
Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.
Chroma Python Client
The Chroma Python Client is a first-party SDK for interacting with both self-hosted Chroma servers and Chroma Cloud. It provides a simple, developer-friendly interface with a co...
Chroma JavaScript Client
The Chroma JavaScript and TypeScript Client is a first-party SDK for interacting with Chroma from JavaScript or TypeScript applications. The v3 rewrite focused on reducing bundl...
Chroma Collections API
Collection management endpoints for creating, listing, retrieving, updating, and deleting collections within a database.
Chroma Databases API
Database management endpoints for creating, listing, retrieving, and deleting databases within a tenant.
Chroma Records API
Record management endpoints for adding, getting, updating, upserting, deleting, and querying records within a collection.
Chroma Search API
Advanced search endpoints available exclusively in Chroma Cloud. Provides a unified interface for hybrid search operations combining vector similarity search with metadata filte...
Chroma System API
System-level endpoints for health checks, version information, and server diagnostics.
Chroma Tenants API
Tenant management endpoints for creating and retrieving tenants.
Scroll within the panel for all 8 ·
Open Collections 2
Open, tool-agnostic collections carry the same runnable value as Postman without locking you to one client — the portable, forkable form of the same exercise.
Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).
Chroma Cloud API
OPEN COLLECTIONChroma Server API
OPEN COLLECTIONGraphQL 1
Where a provider ships GraphQL, the schema is the contract. We profile it alongside the REST surface so the whole interface is legible in one place.
GraphQL schemas published by this provider.
Chroma GraphQL API
Chroma is an open-source embedding database for AI. The API covers collection management, document and embedding upsert, querying by embedding or text, metadata filtering, and m...
GRAPHQLPricing Plans 1
Pricing is part of the interface. Machine-readable plans tell you what a tier costs and includes before you commit — one of the six things the Kin Score reads for commercial clarity.
Published pricing tiers and plan structures.
Chroma Plans Pricing
PLANSRate Limits 1
Rate limits are the difference between a demo that works and a production integration that doesn't fall over. Publishing them is an operational-transparency signal — and a hard requirement for any agent that plans its own throughput.
Documented rate limits and quota policies.
Chroma Rate Limits
RATE LIMITSFinOps 1
Cost, billing, and metering signals let a buyer model the financial operations of an API before it's live. We profile them for the same reason we profile pricing: the money is part of the contract.
Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.
Chroma Finops
FINOPSFeatures 10
The notable capabilities this provider advertises, captured as structured features so they can be searched and compared instead of read one landing page at a time.
Notable capabilities this provider offers.
Document and Metadata Storage
Vector Similarity Search (Dense, Sparse, Hybrid)
Full-Text and Regex Search
Metadata Filtering
Multi-Modal Retrieval (Text, Image, Audio)
Automatic Tokenization and Embedding
Collection Management
Embedding Function Plugins
Self-Hosted and Cloud Deployments
Apache 2.0 Open Source License
Scroll within the panel for all 10 ·
Semantic Vocabularies 1
JSON-LD contexts give the data shared meaning across APIs. We profile them because semantics are what let a machine reconcile 'customer' here with 'customer' somewhere else.
JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.
Chroma Context
JSON-LDSpectral Rules 1
Governance rulesets we run against this provider's specs — the automated checks behind parts of the score. Profiling them makes the quality bar explicit and re-runnable, not a matter of opinion.
Chroma API Rules
SPECTRALJSON Schema 2
Standalone JSON Schema definitions describe the data models behind the API. We profile them so the shapes are validatable on their own — useful long after a single request is forgotten.
Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.
Chroma Collection
JSON SCHEMAChroma Record
JSON SCHEMASecurity Posture 4
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals — the evidence that a provider takes security seriously enough to document it. We profile it because you can't govern what you can't see.
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.
Agentic Access 1
An x-agentic-access contract marks which operations are safe for an agent to run on its own and which need a human in the loop. It is the difference between an API an agent can use and one it can use safely.
Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.
Use Cases 8
What developers actually build with this provider — captured so the catalogue answers 'what is this for', not just 'what does this expose'.
What developers build with this provider.
RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation)
Semantic Search
AI Agent Memory
Code Search (AST-Aware Chunking)
Recommendation Systems
Multi-Modal Search (Text + Images)
Question Answering Systems
Knowledge Base Querying
Scroll within the panel for all 8 ·
Resources
Every other property we hold for Chroma — documentation, portals, status pages, policies, and corporate surface — grouped by the job it does, following the integrator's arc from getting started to running in production.
Get Started 2
Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call
Documentation 3
Reference material describing how the API behaves
Agent Surfaces 2
MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs
Design & Contract 2
Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events
Build 2
SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with
Access & Security 4
Authentication, authorization, and security posture
Operate 1
Status, limits, changes, and where to get help
Commercial 4
Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use
Company 4
The organization behind the API
Other 2
Properties that don't map to a standard resource type
← All providers · Data indexed from github.com/api-evangelist/chroma · machine-readable index on apis.io