Chroma error: 'RuntimeError: Your system has an unsupported version of sqlite3. Chroma requires sqlite3 >= 3.35.0' (Streamlit Cloud, Docker, AWS Lambda, old Linux)

Cause: Chroma's local and persistent clients store data in SQLite through Python's built-in sqlite3 module, which needs SQLite 3.35.0 or newer. Python links against the system's SQLite library, and older Linux distributions, older Debian-based Docker images and some hosted platforms (Streamlit Community Cloud, AWS Lambda, Glue, older PythonAnywhere images) ship an older one, so chromadb fails on import. How to check: python -c "import sqlite3; print(sqlite3.sqlite_version)" shows the SQLite version Python actually uses. Anything below 3.35.0 triggers this error. Fix (pick one): 1. Use a newer base image or OS: for Docker, use a Debian bookworm (or newer) based python image, or a recent Ubuntu; a newer Python build from python.org or your distro often brings a newer SQLite too. 2. On Linux, where you can't change the system library, install pysqlite3-binary (pip install pysqlite3-binary, and add it to requirements.txt) and swap it in before chromadb is imported, at the very top of your entry file: __import__('pysqlite3'); import sys; sys.modules['sqlite3'] = sys.modules.pop('pysqlite3'). This is Chroma's documented workaround. pysqlite3-binary only ships Linux wheels. 3. Run Chroma as a server (Docker image or Chroma Cloud) and connect with the HTTP client (chromadb.HttpClient), so the app itself doesn't need a new SQLite. After: re-run the version check inside the deployed environment (not just locally), then open the collection and query it to confirm persistence works. Sources: https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/blob/main/docs/docs.trychroma.com/pages/troubleshooting.md https://discuss.streamlit.io/t/chromadb-sqlite3-your-system-has-an-unsupported-version-of-sqlite3/90975 https://www.sqlite.org/releaselog/3_35_0.html