graphql-request

📡 Minimal GraphQL client supporting Node and browsers for scripts or simple apps

Features

• Most simple and lightweight GraphQL client
• Promise-based API (works with async / await)
• Typescript support (Flow coming soon)

Install

npm install graphql-request

Quickstart

Send a GraphQL query with a single line of code. ▶️ Try it out.

import { request } from 'graphql-request'

const query = `{
  Movie(title: "Inception") {
    releaseDate
    actors {
      name
    }
  }
}`

request('https://api.graph.cool/simple/v1/movies', query).then(data => console.log(data))

Usage

import { request, GraphQLClient } from 'graphql-request'

// Run GraphQL queries/mutations using a static function
request(endpoint, query, variables).then(data => console.log(data))

// ... or create a GraphQL client instance to send requests
const client = new GraphQLClient(endpoint, { headers: {} })
client.request(query, variables).then(data => console.log(data))

Examples

Authentication via HTTP header

import { GraphQLClient } from 'graphql-request'

const client = new GraphQLClient('my-endpoint', {
  headers: {
    Authorization: 'Bearer my-jwt-token',
  },
})

const query = `{
  Movie(title: "Inception") {
    releaseDate
    actors {
      name
    }
  }
}`

client.request(query).then(data => console.log(data))

Passing more options to fetch

import { GraphQLClient } from 'graphql-request'

const client = new GraphQLClient('my-endpoint', {
 credentials: 'include',
 mode: 'cors'
})

const query = `{
  Movie(title: "Inception") {
    releaseDate
    actors {
      name
    }
  }
}`

client.request(query).then(data => console.log(data))

Using variables

import { request } from 'graphql-request'

const query = `query getMovie($title: String!) {
  Movie(title: $title) {
    releaseDate
    actors {
      name
    }
  }
}`

const variables = {
  title: 'Inception',
}

request('my-endpoint', query, variables).then(data => console.log(data))

Error handling

import { request } from 'graphql-request'

const wrongQuery = `{
  some random stuff
}`

request('my-endpoint', query)
  .then(data => console.log(data))
  .catch(err => {
    console.log(err.response.errors) // GraphQL response errors
    console.log(err.response.data) // Response data if available
  })

Using require instead of import

const { request } = require('graphql-request')

const query = `{
  Movie(title: "Inception") {
    releaseDate
    actors {
      name
    }
  }
}`

request('my-endpoint', query).then(data => console.log(data))

Cookie support for node

npm install fetch-cookie/node-fetch

import { GraphQLClient } from 'graphql-request'

// use this instead for cookie support
global['fetch'] = require('fetch-cookie/node-fetch')(require('node-fetch'))

const client = new GraphQLClient('my-endpoint')

const query = `{
  Movie(title: "Inception") {
    releaseDate
    actors {
      name
    }
  }
}`

client.request(query).then(data => console.log(data))

Receiving a raw response

The request method will return the data or errors key from the response. If you need to access the extensions key you can use the rawRequest method:

import { rawRequest } from 'graphql-request'

const query = `{
  Movie(title: "Inception") {
    releaseDate
    actors {
      name
    }
  }
}`

rawRequest('my-endpoint', query).then(({data, extensions}) => console.log(data, extensions))

More examples coming soon...

• Fragments
• Using graphql-tag
• Typed Typescript return values

FAQ

What's the difference between graphql-request, Apollo and Relay?

graphql-request is the most minimal and simplest to use GraphQL client. It's perfect for small scripts or simple apps.

Compared to GraphQL clients like Apollo or Relay, graphql-request doesn't have a built-in cache and has no integrations for frontend frameworks. The goal is to keep the package and API as minimal as possible.

So what about Lokka?

Lokka is great but it still requires a lot of setup code to be able to send a simple GraphQL query. graphql-request does less work compared to Lokka but is a lot simpler to use.

Help & Community

Join our Slack community if you run into issues or have questions. We love talking to you!