Get started with Apollo Studio
Hello! This article gets you up and running with Apollo Studio. None of this setup requires a paid plan.
You can use Studio with any GraphQL server. Certain features (such as metrics reporting) are currently best supported by Apollo Server.
1. Create your account
Go to studio.apollographql.com and click Create an account.
You can sign up with either your GitHub identity or a username and password.
Complete the signup flow, which includes:
Creating an organization that you can invite teammates to
Selecting a plan for your organization (the Free plan is always free, and the Team plan provides a free trial of paid features)
2. Create your first graph
In Studio, each graph corresponds to a data graph and its associated GraphQL schema. Your first graph will use your GraphQL server's schema.
Visit studio.apollographql.com again. Now that you have an account, this opens Studio.
The list of organizations you belong to appears in the left column:
Select the organization that you want to add your graph to. Then, click New Graph in the upper right.
Specify a name for your graph and click Next.
- A graph's name must be globally unique across all of Studio. We recommend using a consistent prefix across all of your organization's graphs.
Studio displays instructions for registering your schema, which is also described in the next step.
3. Register your schema
The Apollo schema registry powers nearly every feature of Apollo Studio, along with helpful developer tools like our VS Code extension.
To register your server's schema, first obtain a graph API key for your graph:
Once you have your API key, select the registration method that corresponds to your graph's architecture:
After you register your schema, select your graph in Apollo Studio and open its Fields tab. You'll see a list of all of your schema's types and fields.
4. Explore your schema
Now that your schema's registered, you're ready to try out one of Studio's most powerful features: the Explorer tab. This view provides visibility into your entire schema and helps you build and run queries against it.
From Apollo Studio, select your graph and open its Explorer tab. Complete its Getting Started steps to see what it can do!
5. Connect to Slack
Studio can connect to your Slack workspace to send a notification whenever your registered schema is updated. If you configure metrics reporting, Studio can also send you a daily metrics report.
6. Configure metrics reporting
Your GraphQL server can push operation metrics to Apollo Studio, enabling you to visualize and improve performance.
To set up metrics reporting, read Pushing metrics to Apollo Studio.
7. Set up continuous delivery
Your schema is now registered with Studio, and your server is pushing operation metrics!
However, to get the most out of Studio, you need to re-register your server's schema every time it changes. The easiest way to do this is to make schema registration part of every deployment in your application's continuous delivery flow.
If you set up schema reporting in Step 3 (the first schema registration option), Apollo Server automatically registers your schema every time it starts up, and no additional setup is required.
If you registered your schema with the Apollo CLI, see Registering with continuous delivery for an example.
Next steps
The best way to fully familiarize yourself with Studio is to use it! Visit studio.apollographql.com and check out the all the various views and what they provide.
The docs also have plenty of information on the features available with Team and Enterprise plans, such as:
If you'd like to have a conversation about Apollo Studio and how it can help your organization, please contact us.