Building search for AI systems with Chroma CTO Hammad Bashir

Hammad Bashir, CTO of Chroma, joins the show to break down how modern vector search systems are actually built from local, embedded databases to massively distributed, object-storage-backed architectures. We dig into Chroma’s shared local-to-cloud API, log-structured storage on object stores, hybrid search, and why retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) isn’t going anywhere.Follow Hammad:Twitter/X:  https://twitter.com/HammadTimeLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hbashirChroma: https://trychroma.comFollow Aaron:Twitter/X:  https://twitter.com/aarondfrancis Database School: https://databaseschool.comDatabase School YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@UCT3XN4RtcFhmrWl8tf_o49g  (Subscribe today)LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: https://aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 – Introduction From high-school ASICs to CTO of Chroma01:04 – Hammad’s background and why vector search stuck03:01 – Why Chroma has one API for local and distributed systems05:37 – Local experimentation vs production AI workflows08:03 – What “unprincipled data” means in machine learning10:31 – From computer vision to retrieval for LLMs13:00 – Exploratory data analysis and why looking at data still matters16:38 – Promoting data from local to Chroma Cloud19:26 – Why Chroma is built on object storage20:27 – Write-ahead logs, batching, and durability26:56 – Compaction, inverted indexes, and storage layout29:26 – Strong consistency and reading from the log34:12 – How queries are routed and executed37:00 – Hybrid search: vectors, full-text, and metadata41:03 – Chunking, embeddings, and retrieval boundaries43:22 – Agentic search and letting models drive retrieval45:01 – Is RAG dead? A grounded explanation48:24 – Why context windows don’t replace search56:20 – Context rot and why retrieval reduces confusion01:00:19 – Faster models and the future of search stacks01:02:25 – Who Chroma is for and when it’s a great fit01:04:25 – Hiring, team culture, and where to follow Chroma