[Bug]: KeyError: '_type' when using Docker with versions >1.0.0 (including latest)

[aryanranderiya]

What happened?

I'm using ChromaDB in a Dockerized FastAPI app and encountered the following error when calling await client.create_collection():

f"Trying to instantiate configuration of type {cls.__name__} from JSON with type {json_map['_type']}"
KeyError: '_type'

• This is running inside a Docker container (Python 3.12).
• Downgrading to 1.0.0 temporarily resolves the issue.
• When pinging localhost:8080/api/v2/heartbeat it works fine — so the server is reachable and responsive.

Versions

Docker image: chromadb/chroma:latest
Python 3.12.10
Ubuntu 24 LTS

✅ Works fine with version 1.0.0
❌ Fails with version 1.0.6
❌ Fails with the latest version (as of now)

Relevant log output

File "/app/app/db/chromadb.py", line 221, in init_chroma
await client.create_collection(
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.12/site-packages/chromadb/api/async_client.py", line 181, in create_collection
model = await self._server.create_collection(
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.12/site-packages/chromadb/telemetry/opentelemetry/__init__.py", line 134, in async_wrapper
return await f(*args, **kwargs)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.12/site-packages/chromadb/api/async_fastapi.py", line 291, in create_collection
model = CollectionModel.from_json(resp_json)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.12/site-packages/chromadb/types.py", line 156, in from_json
configuration = CollectionConfigurationInternal.from_json(
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.12/site-packages/chromadb/api/configuration.py", line 209, in from_json
f"Trying to instantiate configuration of type {cls.__name__} from JSON with type {json_map['_type']}"
~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^
KeyError: '_type'

[osamaoam]

'_type' can be resolved by upgrading the dependencies for the package. Occurs when a package is updated but dependencies are not.

[jairad26]

Hi, as part of 1.0.7, the dockerfile has been updated to run against the upgraded Rust implementation of chromadb, which requires an upgrade to the python client. What version of the python client are you running? could you try upgrading to latest, 1.0.7?

[CoderDinosaur]

Hi, I meet the same problem, even if I pull the newest docker image (chromadb/chroma:1.0.8.dev14).

Please tell me what dependency I show update them?

[tazarov]

hey @CoderDinosaur, when you use Chroma in a client/server mode. Your server is the docker image but when accessing you will use either the core lib chromadb or the thin client chromadb-client. You need to make sure that either chromadb or chromadb-client are with the same version 1.0.7:

pip install --upgrade chromadb