Data Persistence

Issue

ChromaDB collections are lost when containers restart or when running docker system prune.

Solution

Current Setup

The Docker configuration uses named volumes for persistence: - Development: chroma_data_dev - Production: chroma_data

Prevent Data Loss

Option 1: Selective Pruning (Recommended) ```bash

Safe cleanup - preserves volumes

docker system prune --volumes=false

Or clean individually

docker container prune docker image prune docker network prune ```

Option 2: Volume Backups ```bash

Check volume status

docker volume ls | grep chroma

Backup before cleanup

docker run --rm -v health-rec_chroma_data_dev:/source -v \((pwd)/backups:/backup alpine tar czf /backup/chroma_backup_\)(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz -C /source . ```

Restore Data

```bash

Restore from backup

docker run --rm -v health-rec_chroma_data_dev:/target -v $(pwd)/backups:/backup alpine tar xzf /backup/chroma_backup_YYYYMMDD.tar.gz -C /target ```

Alternative: Bind Mounts for Development

For guaranteed persistence during development, uncomment the bind mount in docker-compose.dev.yml:

yaml chromadb-dev: volumes: # - chroma_data_dev:/chroma/chroma # Named volume - ./data/chroma_dev:/chroma/chroma # Bind mount (uncomment this)

Quick Commands

```bash

Safe restart with data preservation

docker compose --env-file .env.development -f docker-compose.dev.yml down docker compose --env-file .env.development --profile frontend -f docker-compose.dev.yml up

Check if data exists

docker exec $(docker compose --env-file .env.development -f docker-compose.dev.yml ps -q chromadb-dev) ls -la /chroma/chroma ```

Best Practice

Never use docker system prune without the --volumes=false flag to preserve your data.