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fix: disable ChromaDB telemetry to suppress posthog spam#782

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OmkarKirpan:fix/disable-chromadb-telemetry
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fix: disable ChromaDB telemetry to suppress posthog spam#782
OmkarKirpan wants to merge 1 commit intoMemPalace:developfrom
OmkarKirpan:fix/disable-chromadb-telemetry

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@OmkarKirpan OmkarKirpan commented Apr 13, 2026 •
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Summary

Closes #458

Every ChromaDB operation in mempalace 3.1.0+ floods stderr with posthog telemetry errors:

Failed to send telemetry event ClientStartEvent: capture() takes 1 positional argument but 3 were given

This PR:

  • Adds a shared CHROMA_SETTINGS = Settings(anonymized_telemetry=False) constant in backends/chroma.py
  • Updates all 11 PersistentClient construction sites across 6 files to use it
  • Updates test helpers to use the same settings (avoids ChromaDB's SharedSystemClient singleton conflict)

Files changed

  • mempalace/backends/chroma.py — defines the shared constant, uses it
  • mempalace/mcp_server.py — imports and uses CHROMA_SETTINGS
  • mempalace/cli.py — uses CHROMA_SETTINGS in cmd_repair and cmd_compress
  • mempalace/dedup.py — uses CHROMA_SETTINGS in both client creation sites
  • mempalace/repair.py — uses CHROMA_SETTINGS in all 3 client creation sites
  • mempalace/migrate.py — uses CHROMA_SETTINGS in both client creation sites
  • tests/test_backends.py — verification client uses CHROMA_SETTINGS
  • tests/test_mcp_server.py — test helper uses CHROMA_SETTINGS

Test plan

  • All existing tests pass (pytest tests/test_backends.py tests/test_mcp_server.py::TestCacheInvalidation tests/test_cli.py — 53 passed)
  • ruff check and ruff format clean
  • Manual: mempalace mine / mempalace status no longer prints telemetry errors to stderr

@OmkarKirpan OmkarKirpan force-pushed the fix/disable-chromadb-telemetry branch from 377db98 to bb661b4 Compare April 13, 2026 10:33
@Kesshite Kesshite mentioned this pull request Apr 13, 2026
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@igorls igorls added area/cli CLI commands area/mcp MCP server and tools area/search Search and retrieval bug Something isn't working security Security related storage labels Apr 14, 2026
@bensig bensig mentioned this pull request Apr 14, 2026
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bensig commented Apr 15, 2026

hey @OmkarKirpan — this conflicts with develop now. pls rebase and we can merge it. thanks!

@OmkarKirpan OmkarKirpan force-pushed the fix/disable-chromadb-telemetry branch from bb661b4 to 6994133 Compare April 15, 2026 09:33
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OmkarKirpan commented Apr 15, 2026

hey @OmkarKirpan — this conflicts with develop now. pls rebase and we can merge it. thanks!

Hi @bensig
Rebased onto develop and force-pushed - conflicts resolved, all 918 tests passing. Ready to merge.

rosschurchill added a commit to rosschurchill/mempalace that referenced this pull request Apr 18, 2026
@rosschurchill @claude
fix(security): disable ChromaDB telemetry + ensure_ascii=False in MCP…
9b5b1c8 
… output

Closes two remaining Phase 0 security gaps (issue MemPalace#782, MemPalace#783):

1. ChromaDB telemetry (backends/chroma.py):
   - Add `Settings(anonymized_telemetry=False)` to both PersistentClient
     call sites (_client() and make_client()), ensuring no PostHog traffic
     regardless of which code path creates the client.
   - Set ANONYMIZED_TELEMETRY=False env var at import time as belt-and-
     suspenders (covers C-level telemetry before Python sees it).
   - Violates local-first guarantee without this fix — every query was
     being reported to posthog.com.

2. ensure_ascii=False in MCP output (mcp_server.py):
   - Tool result serialization (line 1653) and the main response writer
     (line 1700) both now pass ensure_ascii=False.
   - Without this, non-ASCII content (Chinese, Russian, accented chars)
     gets mangled into \uXXXX escapes before the LLM sees it.

Previously fixed by PR MemPalace#812 (shell injection, path traversal) and
PR MemPalace#811 (entity registry SSRF) — those are confirmed in place.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <[email protected]>
@OmkarKirpan
fix: disable ChromaDB telemetry to suppress posthog spam (MemPalace#458)
b22ad82 
ChromaDB 0.6.3 with recent posthog versions floods stderr with
"Failed to send telemetry event" on every operation. This adds
Settings(anonymized_telemetry=False) via a shared CHROMA_SETTINGS
constant in backends/chroma.py, used by all PersistentClient
construction sites across the codebase.

Closes MemPalace#458
@OmkarKirpan OmkarKirpan force-pushed the fix/disable-chromadb-telemetry branch from 6994133 to b22ad82 Compare April 20, 2026 10:35
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OmkarKirpan commented Apr 20, 2026

Rebased onto latest develop (32ec74d). Conflicts in mempalace/backends/chroma.py (new inode/mtime freshness tracking in _client) and tests/test_backends.py (additional imports + new test_chroma_cache_picks_up_db_created_after_first_open) resolved by preserving all develop logic and threading settings=CHROMA_SETTINGS through the new PersistentClient call sites. Full tests pass locally (test_backends.py, test_mcp_server.py, test_miner.py, test_convo_miner.py: 116 passed). Ready to merge.

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OmkarKirpan commented Apr 20, 2026

@bensig — rebased onto latest develop, conflicts resolved, tests green. Ready when you are.

@OmkarKirpan OmkarKirpan requested a review from bensig April 20, 2026 10:42
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OmkarKirpan commented Apr 20, 2026

cc @milla-jovovich — rebased on develop, approved by @bensig, tests green. Could you take a look when you have a minute?

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ChromaDB 0.6.3 telemetry spam on every operation in mempalace 3.1.0

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