chromadb
A vector store used for embedding indices in dev cells and small-
collection production cases. Larger production cells use
milvus instead — ChromaDB stays in the topology
so the local-dev compose stack and per-cell base manifests keep
parity.
Identity
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Service id | chromadb |
| Role | vector-store |
| Image | chromadb/chroma:1.0.16 |
| Port | 8000 (in-cluster) / 8001 (host bind in compose to avoid clashing with alphaswarm-core) |
| Storage | ephemeral by default; PVC-backed in cluster |
Deployment surfaces
| Surface | Where |
|---|---|
| Compose | service chromadb in alphaswarm_platform/compose/docker-compose.yml |
| Kustomize | deployments/kubernetes/base-services/chromadb/ |
| Companion | base-services/milvus/ — production-grade alternative |
Dependencies
Upstream: none.
Downstream:
alphaswarm-corefor RAG retrieval (when feature flagALPHASWARM_VECTOR_STORE=chromadb).alphaswarm-workerfor embedding ingest tasks.
Operations
- Collection lifecycle: managed by the
HierarchicalRAGpackage; never created directly by agents. - Vector dimensions: must match the active embedding model
(default
BAAI/bge-m3at 1024-dim). Mismatch is a hard error. - Backup: the in-cell PVC is snapshotted nightly; production cells with significant collections should swap to Milvus.
See also
alphaswarm/data/rag/— HierarchicalRAG package.base-services/milvus/— production alternative.