1. Workshop setup
2m

⚠️ Important note

This workshop companion was designed to be used alongside an instructor for GraphQL Summit 2025. If you would like to learn on your own time at your own pace, check out the course instead: GraphQL meets REST, with Apollo Connectors.

This workshop companion is still available for reference purposes.

Overview

Orchestrating data from multiple REST APIs into a unified layer doesn't have to mean rewriting everything. Let's use to skip the boilerplate and get straight to building. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to declaratively connect your REST endpoints to your graph using just configuration in the schema. We’ll walk through how to fetch and combine data, pass , troubleshoot your work, and more—all using tools built right into Apollo.

What you'll do

  • Connect REST API endpoints to a using Connector s
  • Debug Connector mappings using Sandbox Explorer and the Connectors Mapping Playground

Who this workshop is for

  • Anyone looking to get started with -based orchestration. You don't need to know any particular programming language!

Pre-requisites

  • Basic experience with APIs.
  • (Recommended) Some familiarity with .

Let's get set up!

1) Install Rover

You need at least version v0.35.0 to complete this course.

Task!

2) Clone the project repo

git clone https://github.com/apollographql/summit-2025-connectors-workshop.git
Task!

3) Set up your code environment

When working on a project, it's helpful to have features such as autocompletion, schema information, and syntax highlighting.

Check out the documentation for IDE Support for more information.

Note: You can still follow along with the course with any code editor, you just won't see tips and in-development errors while you code.

Task!

4) Run rover dev

In your terminal, run the following command at the root of the project:

rover dev --supergraph-config supergraph.yaml

You'll see a few lines of output and a message that the has started up at port 4000.

Head over to http://localhost:4000 in the browser, where we've got another handy tool ready for us: Apollo Sandbox, a local playground that lets us explore our API.

With its Explorer, we can build easily, send requests and debug our Connector calls.

In the Explorer, paste the following in the Operation section:

query GetProducts {
   products {
      id
   }
}

Click ► GetProducts to run the request. You'll get a response back with data for the product IDs.

Task!

Helpful links

Workshop goals

By the end of our time together, you'll be able to:

  • Use connectors in a
  • Learn how to debug connector mappings
  • Understand and apply the developer workflow for using connectors
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