Apollo Router quickstart

Run the Apollo Router with Apollo-hosted subgraphs

Hello! This tutorial walks you through installing the Apollo Router and running it in front of some Apollo-hosted example subgraphs.

This quickstart helps you run a self-hosted instance of the Apollo Router. If you create a cloud supergraph with Apollo GraphOS, Apollo provisions and hosts your supergraph's router for you.

Cloud supergraphs are recommended for organizations that don't need to host their router in their own infrastructure.

1. Download and extract the Apollo Router binary

ⓘ NOTE

The Apollo Router source code and all its distributions are made available under the Elastic License v2.0 (ELv2) license.

Download options

Automatic download (Linux, OSX, WSL)

If you have a bash-compatible terminal, you can download the latest version of the Apollo Router directly to your current directory with the following command:

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curl -sSL https://router.apollo.dev/download/nix/latest | sh

Manual download

Go to the Apollo Router's GitHub Releases page and download the latest .tar.gz file that matches your system. Currently, tarballs are available for the following:

Linux (x86_64)
Linux (aarch64)
macOS (Apple Silicon)
Windows (x86_64)

If a tarball for your system or architecture isn't available, you can build and run Apollo Router from source. You can also open an issue on GitHub to request the addition of new architectures.

After downloading, extract the file by running the following from a new project directory, substituting the path to the tarball:

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tar -xf path/to/file.tar.gz --strip-components=1

If you omit the --strip-components=1 option, the router executable is installed in a dist subdirectory.

Running the binary

You can now run the Apollo Router from your project's root directory with the following command:

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./router

If you do, you'll get output similar to the following:

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Apollo Router <version> // (c) Apollo Graph, Inc. // Licensed as ELv2 (https://go.apollo.dev/elv2)
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⚠️  The Apollo Router requires a composed supergraph schema at startup. ⚠️
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👉 DO ONE:
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  * Pass a local schema file with the '--supergraph' option:
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      $ ./router --supergraph <file_path>
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  * Fetch a registered schema from GraphOS by setting
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    these environment variables:
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      $ APOLLO_KEY="..." APOLLO_GRAPH_REF="..." ./router
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      For details, see the Apollo docs:
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      https://www.apollographql.com/docs/federation/managed-federation/setup
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🔬 TESTING THINGS OUT?
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  1. Download an example supergraph schema with Apollo-hosted subgraphs:
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    $ curl -L https://supergraph.demo.starstuff.dev/ > starstuff.graphql
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  2. Run the Apollo Router in development mode with the supergraph schema:
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    $ ./router --dev --supergraph starstuff.graphql

This is because Apollo Router requires a supergraph schema and we aren't providing it one! Let's fix that.

2. Download the example supergraph schema

For this quickstart, we're using example Apollo-hosted subgraphs, along with an example supergraph schema that's composed from those subgraph schemas.

From your project's root directory, run the following:

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curl -sSL https://supergraph.demo.starstuff.dev/ > supergraph-schema.graphql

This saves a supergraph-schema.graphql file with the following contents:

supergraph-schema.graphql

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schema
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  @core(feature: "https://specs.apollo.dev/core/v0.1"),
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  @core(feature: "https://specs.apollo.dev/join/v0.1")
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{
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  query: Query
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  mutation: Mutation
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}
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directive @core(feature: String!) repeatable on SCHEMA
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directive @join__field(graph: join__Graph, requires: join__FieldSet, provides: join__FieldSet) on FIELD_DEFINITION
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directive @join__type(graph: join__Graph!, key: join__FieldSet) repeatable on OBJECT | INTERFACE
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directive @join__owner(graph: join__Graph!) on OBJECT | INTERFACE
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directive @join__graph(name: String!, url: String!) on ENUM_VALUE
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scalar join__FieldSet
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enum join__Graph {
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  ACCOUNTS @join__graph(name: "accounts" url: "https://accounts.demo.starstuff.dev")
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  INVENTORY @join__graph(name: "inventory" url: "https://inventory.demo.starstuff.dev")
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  PRODUCTS @join__graph(name: "products" url: "https://products.demo.starstuff.dev")
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  REVIEWS @join__graph(name: "reviews" url: "https://reviews.demo.starstuff.dev")
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}
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type Mutation {
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  createProduct(name: String, upc: ID!): Product @join__field(graph: PRODUCTS)
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  createReview(body: String, id: ID!, upc: ID!): Review @join__field(graph: REVIEWS)
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}
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type Product
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  @join__owner(graph: PRODUCTS)
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  @join__type(graph: PRODUCTS, key: "upc")
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  @join__type(graph: INVENTORY, key: "upc")
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  @join__type(graph: REVIEWS, key: "upc")
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{
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  inStock: Boolean @join__field(graph: INVENTORY)
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  name: String @join__field(graph: PRODUCTS)
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  price: Int @join__field(graph: PRODUCTS)
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  reviews: [Review] @join__field(graph: REVIEWS)
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  reviewsForAuthor(authorID: ID!): [Review] @join__field(graph: REVIEWS)
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  shippingEstimate: Int @join__field(graph: INVENTORY, requires: "price weight")
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  upc: String! @join__field(graph: PRODUCTS)
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  weight: Int @join__field(graph: PRODUCTS)
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}
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type Query {
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  me: User @join__field(graph: ACCOUNTS)
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  topProducts(first: Int = 5): [Product] @join__field(graph: PRODUCTS)
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}
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type Review
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  @join__owner(graph: REVIEWS)
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  @join__type(graph: REVIEWS, key: "id")
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{
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  author: User @join__field(graph: REVIEWS, provides: "username")
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  body: String @join__field(graph: REVIEWS)
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  id: ID! @join__field(graph: REVIEWS)
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  product: Product @join__field(graph: REVIEWS)
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}
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type User
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  @join__owner(graph: ACCOUNTS)
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  @join__type(graph: ACCOUNTS, key: "id")
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  @join__type(graph: REVIEWS, key: "id")
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{
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  id: ID! @join__field(graph: ACCOUNTS)
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  name: String @join__field(graph: ACCOUNTS)
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  reviews: [Review] @join__field(graph: REVIEWS)
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  username: String @join__field(graph: ACCOUNTS)
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}

This file is all that the router needs to communicate with our subgraphs!

3. Run the router in development mode with the default configuration

Now from your project root, run the following:

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./router --dev --supergraph supergraph-schema.graphql

The console output should look like the following:

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2022-06-29T22:23:24.266542Z  INFO apollo_router::executable: Apollo Router v0.9.5 // (c) Apollo Graph, Inc. // Licensed as ELv2 (https://go.apollo.dev/elv2)
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2022-06-29T22:23:24.488286Z  INFO apollo_router::router: starting Apollo Router
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2022-06-29T22:23:25.774334Z  INFO apollo_router::axum_http_server_factory: GraphQL endpoint exposed at http://127.0.0.1:4000/ 🚀

That's it! Running the Router with the --dev flag enables a development mode that exposes Apollo Sandbox so you can run queries against the Apollo Router.

⚠️ CAUTION

Do not use the --dev flag in a non-development environment. It relaxes certain default configuration options to provide an improved local development experience (e.g., it exposes subgraph error messages to clients).

Learn more about dev mode defaults.

Visit http://127.0.0.1:4000 to open Apollo Sandbox, inspect your entire supergraph, and run your first queries!

Next steps

Now that you know how to run the Apollo Router with a supergraph schema, you can:

Set up managed federation
Learn about additional configuration options
Estimate the system resources needed to deploy the router.

Introduction

Moving from @apollo/gateway