GraphQL Stitching for Ruby

GraphQL stitching composes a single schema from multiple underlying GraphQL resources, then smartly proxies portions of incoming requests to their respective locations in dependency order and returns the merged results. This allows an entire location graph to be queried through one combined GraphQL surface area.

Supports:

• Merged object and abstract types.
• Multiple keys per merged type.
• Shared objects, fields, enums, and inputs across locations.
• Combining local and remote schemas.
• File uploads via multipart form spec.
• Tested with all minor versions of graphql-ruby.

NOT Supported:

• Computed fields (ie: federation-style @requires).
• Subscriptions, defer/stream.

This Ruby implementation is a sibling to GraphQL Tools (JS) and Bramble (Go), and its capabilities fall somewhere in between them. GraphQL stitching is similar in concept to Apollo Federation, though more generic. The opportunity here is for a Ruby application to stitch its local schemas together or onto remote sources without requiring an additional proxy service running in another language. If your goal is to build a purely high-throughput federated reverse proxy, consider not using Ruby.

Getting started

Add to your Gemfile:

gem "graphql-stitching"

Run bundle install, then require unless running an autoloading framework (Rails, etc):

require "graphql/stitching"

Usage

The quickest way to start is to use the provided Client component that wraps a stitched graph in an executable workflow (with optional query plan caching hooks):

movies_schema = <<~GRAPHQL
  type Movie { id: ID! name: String! }
  type Query { movie(id: ID!): Movie }
GRAPHQL

showtimes_schema = <<~GRAPHQL
  type Showtime { id: ID! time: String! }
  type Query { showtime(id: ID!): Showtime }
GRAPHQL

client = GraphQL::Stitching::Client.new(locations: {
  movies: {
    schema: GraphQL::Schema.from_definition(movies_schema),
    executable: GraphQL::Stitching::HttpExecutable.new(url: "http://localhost:3000"),
  },
  showtimes: {
    schema: GraphQL::Schema.from_definition(showtimes_schema),
    executable: GraphQL::Stitching::HttpExecutable.new(url: "http://localhost:3001"),
  },
  my_local: {
    schema: MyLocal::GraphQL::Schema,
  },
})

result = client.execute(
  query: "query FetchFromAll($movieId:ID!, $showtimeId:ID!){
    movie(id:$movieId) { name }
    showtime(id:$showtimeId): { time }
    myLocalField
  }",
  variables: { "movieId" => "1", "showtimeId" => "2" },
  operation_name: "FetchFromAll"
)

Schemas provided in location settings may be class-based schemas with local resolvers (locally-executable schemas), or schemas built from SDL strings (schema definition language parsed using GraphQL::Schema.from_definition) and mapped to remote locations via executables.

While the Client constructor is an easy quick start, the library also has several discrete components that can be assembled into custom workflows:

• Composer - merges and validates many schemas into one supergraph.
• Supergraph - manages the combined schema, location routing maps, and executable resources. Can be exported, cached, and rehydrated.
• Request - manages the lifecycle of a stitched GraphQL request.
• HttpExecutable - proxies requests to remotes with multipart file upload support.

Merged types

Object and Interface types may exist with different fields in different graph locations, and will get merged together in the combined schema.

To facilitate this merging of types, stitching must know how to cross-reference and fetch each variant of a type from its source location using resolver queries. For those in an Apollo ecosystem, there's also limited support for merging types though a federation _entities protocol.

Merged type resolver queries

Types merge through resolver queries identified by a @stitch directive:

directive @stitch(key: String!) repeatable on FIELD_DEFINITION

This directive (or static configuration) is applied to root queries where a merged type may be accessed in each location, and a key argument specifies a field needed from other locations to be used as a query argument.

products_schema = <<~GRAPHQL
  directive @stitch(key: String!) repeatable on FIELD_DEFINITION

  type Product {
    id: ID!
    name: String!
  }

  type Query {
    product(id: ID!): Product @stitch(key: "id")
  }
GRAPHQL

catalog_schema = <<~GRAPHQL
  directive @stitch(key: String!) repeatable on FIELD_DEFINITION

  type Product {
    id: ID!
    price: Float!
  }

  type Query {
    products(ids: [ID!]!): [Product]! @stitch(key: "id")
  }
GRAPHQL

client = GraphQL::Stitching::Client.new(locations: {
  products: {
    schema: GraphQL::Schema.from_definition(products_schema),
    executable:  GraphQL::Stitching::HttpExecutable.new(url: "http://localhost:3001"),
  },
  catalog: {
    schema: GraphQL::Schema.from_definition(catalog_schema),
    executable:  GraphQL::Stitching::HttpExecutable.new(url: "http://localhost:3002"),
  },
})

Focusing on the @stitch directive usage:

type Product {
  id: ID!
  name: String!
}
type Query {
  product(id: ID!): Product @stitch(key: "id")
}

• The @stitch directive is applied to a root query where the merged type may be accessed. The merged type identity is inferred from the field return.
• The key: "id" parameter indicates that an { id } must be selected from prior locations so it may be submitted as an argument to this query. The query argument used to send the key is inferred when possible (more on arguments later).

Each location that provides a unique variant of a type must provide at least one resolver query for the type. The exception to this requirement are foreign key types that contain only a single key field:

type Product {
  id: ID!
}

The above representation of a Product type provides no unique data beyond a key that is available in other locations. Thus, this representation will never require an inbound request to fetch it, and its resolver query may be omitted.

List queries

It's okay (even preferable in most circumstances) to provide a list accessor as a resolver query. The only requirement is that both the field argument and return type must be lists, and the query results are expected to be a mapped set with null holding the position of missing results.

type Query {
  products(ids: [ID!]!): [Product]! @stitch(key: "id")
}

# input:  ["1", "2", "3"]
# result: [{ id: "1" }, null, { id: "3" }]

See error handling tips for list queries.

Abstract queries

It's okay for resolver queries to be implemented through abstract types. An abstract query will provide access to all of its possible types by default, each of which must implement the key.

interface Node {
  id: ID!
}
type Product implements Node {
  id: ID!
  name: String!
}
type Query {
  nodes(ids: [ID!]!): [Node]! @stitch(key: "id")
}

To customize which types an abstract query provides and their respective keys, you may extend the @stitch directive with a typeName constraint. This can be repeated to select multiple types.

directive @stitch(key: String!, typeName: String) repeatable on FIELD_DEFINITION

type Product { sku: ID! }
type Order { id: ID! }
type Customer { id: ID! } # << not stitched
union Entity = Product | Order | Customer

type Query {
  entity(key: ID!): Entity
    @stitch(key: "sku", typeName: "Product")
    @stitch(key: "id", typeName: "Order")
}

Multiple query arguments

Stitching infers which argument to use for queries with a single argument, or when the key name matches its intended argument. For queries that accept multiple arguments with unmatched names, the key should provide an argument alias specified as "<arg>:<key>".

type Product {
  id: ID!
}
type Query {
  product(byId: ID, bySku: ID): Product @stitch(key: "byId:id")
}

Multiple type keys

A type may exist in multiple locations across the graph using different keys, for example:

type Product { id:ID! }          # storefronts location
type Product { id:ID! sku:ID! }  # products location
type Product { sku:ID! }         # catelog location

In the above graph, the storefronts and catelog locations have different keys that join through an intermediary. This pattern is perfectly valid and resolvable as long as the intermediary provides resolver queries for each possible key:

type Product {
  id: ID!
  sku: ID!
}
type Query {
  productById(id: ID!): Product @stitch(key: "id")
  productBySku(sku: ID!): Product @stitch(key: "sku")
}

The @stitch directive is also repeatable, allowing a single query to associate with multiple keys:

type Product {
  id: ID!
  sku: ID!
}
type Query {
  product(id: ID, sku: ID): Product @stitch(key: "id") @stitch(key: "sku")
}

Class-based schemas

The @stitch directive can be added to class-based schemas with a directive class:

class StitchField < GraphQL::Schema::Directive
  graphql_name "stitch"
  locations FIELD_DEFINITION
  repeatable true
  argument :key, String, required: true
end

class Query < GraphQL::Schema::Object
  field :product, Product, null: false do
    directive StitchField, key: "id"
    argument :id, ID, required: true
  end
end

The @stitch directive can be exported from a class-based schema to an SDL string by calling schema.to_definition.

SDL-based schemas

A clean SDL string may also have stitching directives applied via static configuration by passing a stitch array in location settings:

sdl_string = <<~GRAPHQL
  type Product {
    id: ID!
    sku: ID!
  }
  type Query {
    productById(id: ID!): Product
    productBySku(sku: ID!): Product
  }
GRAPHQL

supergraph = GraphQL::Stitching::Composer.new.perform({
  products:  {
    schema: GraphQL::Schema.from_definition(sdl_string),
    executable: ->() { ... },
    stitch: [
      { field_name: "productById", key: "id" },
      { field_name: "productBySku", key: "sku" },
    ]
  },
  # ...
})

Custom directive names

The library is configured to use a @stitch directive by default. You may customize this by setting a new name during initialization:

GraphQL::Stitching.stitch_directive = "merge"

Executables

An executable resource performs location-specific GraphQL requests. Executables may be GraphQL::Schema classes, or any object that responds to .call(request, source, variables) and returns a raw GraphQL response:

class MyExecutable
  def call(request, source, variables)
    # process a GraphQL request...
    return {
      "data" => { ... },
      "errors" => [ ... ],
    }
  end
end

A Supergraph is composed with executable resources provided for each location. Any location that omits the executable option will use the provided schema as its default executable:

supergraph = GraphQL::Stitching::Composer.new.perform({
  first: {
    schema: FirstSchema,
    # executable:^^^^^^ delegates to FirstSchema,
  },
  second: {
    schema: SecondSchema,
    executable: GraphQL::Stitching::HttpExecutable.new(url: "http://localhost:3001", headers: { ... }),
  },
  third: {
    schema: ThirdSchema,
    executable: MyExecutable.new,
  },
  fourth: {
    schema: FourthSchema,
    executable: ->(req, query, vars) { ... },
  },
})

The GraphQL::Stitching::HttpExecutable class is provided as a simple executable wrapper around Net::HTTP.post with file upload support. You should build your own executables to leverage your existing libraries and to add instrumentation. Note that you must manually assign all executables to a Supergraph when rehydrating it from cache (see docs).

Batching

The stitching executor automatically batches subgraph requests so that only one request is made per location per generation of data. This is done using batched queries that combine all data access for a given a location. For example:

query MyOperation_2 {
  _0_result: widgets(ids:["a","b","c"]) { ... } # << 3 Widget
  _1_0_result: sprocket(id:"x") { ... } # << 1 Sprocket
  _1_1_result: sprocket(id:"y") { ... } # << 1 Sprocket
  _1_2_result: sprocket(id:"z") { ... } # << 1 Sprocket
}

Tips:

• List queries (like the widgets selection above) are more compact for accessing multiple records, and are therefore preferable as stitching accessors.
• Assure that root field resolvers across your subgraph implement batching to anticipate cases like the three sprocket selections above.

Otherwise, there's no developer intervention necessary (or generally possible) to improve upon data access. Note that multiple generations of data may still force the executor to return to a previous location for more data.

Concurrency

The Executor component builds atop the Ruby fiber-based implementation of GraphQL::Dataloader. Non-blocking concurrency requires setting a fiber scheduler via Fiber.set_scheduler, see graphql-ruby docs. You may also need to build your own remote clients using corresponding HTTP libraries.

Additional topics

• Modeling foreign keys for stitching
• Deploying a stitched schema
• Schema composition merge patterns
• Field selection routing
• Root selection routing
• Stitched errors
• Null results

Examples

This repo includes working examples of stitched schemas running across small Rack servers. Clone the repo, cd into each example and try running it following its README instructions.

• Merged types
• File uploads

Tests

bundle install
bundle exec rake test [TEST=path/to/test.rb]