ChromaDB Primer

What is ChromaDB?

ChromaDB is an open-source embedding database that runs in-process. It stores documents as high-dimensional vectors and retrieves them by semantic similarity rather than keyword match. Think of it as a search engine that understands meaning.

Why use it?

• Zero-dependency Python install — pip install chromadb
• Built-in embedding models via Sentence Transformers
• Persists to disk with SQLite backend, no server required
• Metadata filtering alongside vector search

Quick Start

import chromadb

client = chromadb.PersistentClient(path="./my_db")
collection = client.get_or_create_collection("docs")

collection.add(
    documents=["ChromaDB is great for RAG"],
    ids=["doc_1"]
)

results = collection.query(
    query_texts=["vector databases"],
    n_results=3
)

Key Concepts