In-memory caching in the Apollo Router

The Apollo Router uses an in-memory LRU cache to store the following data:

• Generated query plans
• Automatic persisted queries (APQ)
• Introspection responses

You can configure certain caching behaviors for generated query plans and APQ (but not introspection responses).

Caching query plans

Whenever your router receives an incoming GraphQL operation, it generates a query plan to determine which subgraphs it needs to query to resolve that operation.

By caching previously generated query plans, your router can skip generating them again if a client later sends the exact same operation. This improves your router's responsiveness.

The Apollo Router enables query plan caching by default. In your router's YAML config file, you can configure the maximum number of query plan entries in the cache like so:

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supergraph:
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  query_planning:
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    experimental_cache:
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      in_memory:
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        limit: 512 # This is the default value.

Caching automatic persisted queries (APQ)

Automatic Persisted Queries (APQ) enable GraphQL clients to send a server the hash of their query string, instead of sending the query string itself. When query strings are very large, this can significantly reduce network usage.

The Apollo Router supports using APQ in its communications with both clients and subgraphs:

• In its communications with clients, the router acts as a GraphQL server, because it receives queries from clients.
• In its communications with subgraphs, the router acts as a GraphQL client, because it sends queries to subgraphs.

Because the router's role differs between these two interactions, you configure these APQ settings separately.

APQ with clients

The Apollo Router enables APQ caching for client operations by default. In your router's YAML config file, you can configure the maximum number of APQ entries in the cache like so:

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apq:
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  router:
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    cache:
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      in_memory:
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        limit: 512 # This is the default value.

You can also disable client APQ support entirely like so:

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apq:
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  enabled: false

APQ with subgraphs

By default, the Apollo Router does not use APQ when sending queries to its subgraphs.

In your router's YAML config file, you can configure this APQ support with a combination of global and per-subgraph settings:

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apq:
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  subgraph:
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    # Disables subgraph APQ globally except where overridden per-subgraph
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    all:
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      enabled: false
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    # Override global APQ setting for individual subgraphs
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    subgraphs:
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      products:
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        enabled: true

In the example above, subgraph APQ is disabled except for the products subgraph.