Get Started with Apollo Server

This tutorial helps you:

  • Obtain a basic understanding of GraphQL principles

  • Define a GraphQL schema that represents the structure of your data set

  • Run an instance of Apollo Server that lets you execute queries against your schema

This tutorial assumes that you are familiar with the command line and JavaScript and have installed a recent Node.js (v14.16.0+) version. Additionally, for those interested, this tutorial includes an optional section describing how to set up Apollo Server with TypeScript.

Step 1: Create a new project

  1. From your preferred development directory, create a directory for a new project and cd into it:

Bash
1mkdir graphql-server-example
2cd graphql-server-example

  1. Initialize a new Node.js project with npm (or another package manager you prefer, such as Yarn):

Bash
1  npm init --yes && npm pkg set type="module"

This getting started guide sets up a project using ES Modules, which simplifies our examples and allows us to use top-level await.

Your project directory now contains a package.json file.

Step 2: Install dependencies

Applications that run Apollo Server require two top-level dependencies:

  • graphql (also known as graphql-js) is the library that implements the core GraphQL parsing and execution algorithms.

  • @apollo/server is the main library for Apollo Server itself. Apollo Server knows how to turn HTTP requests and responses into GraphQL operations and run them in an extensible context with support for plugins and other features.

Run the following command to install both of these packages and save them in your project's node_modules directory:

Bash
1  npm install @apollo/server graphql

Follow the instructions below to set up with either TypeScript or JavaScript:

Set up with TypeScript (**Recommended**)

Set up with TypeScript

  1. Create a src directory with an empty index.ts file to contain all of the code for our example application:
Bash
1mkdir src
2touch src/index.ts
  1. Run the following command to install the typescript and @types/node packages into your project's dev dependencies:
Bash
1npm install --save-dev typescript @types/node
  1. Next, create a tsconfig.json file in your project:
Bash
1touch tsconfig.json
  1. The tsconfig.json file enables you to configure how TypeScript will compile your code. Add the following configuration to your tsconfig.json file:
JSON
tsconfig.json
1{
2  "compilerOptions": {
3    "rootDirs": ["src"],
4    "outDir": "dist",
5    "lib": ["es2020"],
6    "target": "es2020",
7    "module": "esnext",
8    "moduleResolution": "node",
9    "esModuleInterop": true,
10    "types": ["node"]
11  }
12}
For more information on the compiler options above, see the TypeScript Compiler docs.
  1. Finally, replace the default scripts entry in your package.json file with the following type and scripts entries:
JSON
package.json
1{
2  // ...etc.
3  "type": "module",
4  "scripts": {
5    "compile": "tsc",
6    "start": "npm run compile && node ./dist/index.js"
7  }
8  // other dependencies
9}
The above start script tells TypeScript to compile your code into JavaScript before using node to run that compiled code. Setting your project's type to module loads your JavaScript files as ES modules, enabling you to use top-level await calls.
  1. You can now run npm start, which should successfully compile and run your empty index.ts file, printing something like this:
Text
1> graphql-server-example@1.0.0 start
2> npm run compile && node ./dist/index.js
Set up with JavaScript

Set up with JavaScript

All code examples in this getting started guide are in TypeScript. You must transpile them to JavaScript.
If you are using JavaScript, create a index.js file that will contain all of the code for our example application:
Bash
1  touch index.js
Now replace the default scripts entry in your package.json file with these type and scripts entries:
JSON
package.json
1{
2  // ...etc.
3  "type": "module",
4  "scripts": {
5    "start": "node index.js"
6  }
7  // other dependencies
8}
Setting your project's type to module loads your JavaScript files as ES modules, enabling you to use top-level await calls.

Step 3: Define your GraphQL schema

note
The code blocks below use TypeScript. If your project uses JavaScript, you need to transpile the code.

Every GraphQL server (including Apollo Server) uses a schema to define the structure of data that clients can query. In this example, we'll create a server for querying a collection of books by title and author.

Open index.ts in your preferred code editor and paste the following into it:

TypeScript
index.ts
1import { ApolloServer } from '@apollo/server';
2import { startStandaloneServer } from '@apollo/server/standalone';
3
4// A schema is a collection of type definitions (hence "typeDefs")
5// that together define the "shape" of queries that are executed against
6// your data.
7const typeDefs = `#graphql
8  # Comments in GraphQL strings (such as this one) start with the hash (#) symbol.
9
10  # This "Book" type defines the queryable fields for every book in our data source.
11  type Book {
12    title: String
13    author: String
14  }
15
16  # The "Query" type is special: it lists all of the available queries that
17  # clients can execute, along with the return type for each. In this
18  # case, the "books" query returns an array of zero or more Books (defined above).
19  type Query {
20    books: [Book]
21  }
22`;

Adding #graphql to the beginning of a template literal provides GraphQL syntax highlighting in supporting IDEs.

This snippet defines a simple, valid GraphQL schema. Clients will be able to execute a query named books, and our server will return an array of zero or more Books.

Step 4: Define your data set

Now that we've defined the structure of our data, we can define the data itself.

Apollo Server can fetch data from any source you connect to (including a database, a REST API, a static object storage service, or even another GraphQL server). For the purposes of this tutorial, we'll hardcode our example data.

Add the following to the bottom of your index.ts file:

TypeScript
index.ts
1const books = [
2  {
3    title: 'The Awakening',
4    author: 'Kate Chopin',
5  },
6  {
7    title: 'City of Glass',
8    author: 'Paul Auster',
9  },
10];

This snippet defines a simple data set that clients can query. Notice that the two objects in the array each match the structure of the Book type we defined in our schema.

Step 5: Define a resolver

We've defined our data set, but Apollo Server doesn't know that it should use that data set when it's executing a query. To fix this, we create a resolver.

Resolvers tell Apollo Server how to fetch the data associated with a particular type. Because our Book array is hardcoded, the corresponding resolver is straightforward.

Add the following to the bottom of your index.ts file:

TypeScript
index.ts
1// Resolvers define how to fetch the types defined in your schema.
2// This resolver retrieves books from the "books" array above.
3const resolvers = {
4  Query: {
5    books: () => books,
6  },
7};

Step 6: Create an instance of ApolloServer

We've defined our schema, data set, and resolver. Now we need to provide this information to Apollo Server when we initialize it.

Add the following to the bottom of your index.ts file:

TypeScript
index.ts
1// The ApolloServer constructor requires two parameters: your schema
2// definition and your set of resolvers.
3const server = new ApolloServer({
4  typeDefs,
5  resolvers,
6});
7
8// Passing an ApolloServer instance to the `startStandaloneServer` function:
9//  1. creates an Express app
10//  2. installs your ApolloServer instance as middleware
11//  3. prepares your app to handle incoming requests
12const { url } = await startStandaloneServer(server, {
13  listen: { port: 4000 },
14});
15
16console.log(`🚀  Server ready at: ${url}`);

This tutorial uses Apollo Server's standalone web server. If you'd like to integrate Apollo Server with your favorite web framework such as Express, see our web framework integrations.

Step 7: Start the server

We're ready to start our server! Run the following from your project's root directory:

Bash
1npm start

You should now see the following output at the bottom of your terminal:

Text
1🚀  Server ready at: http://localhost:4000/

We're up and running!

Step 8: Execute your first query

We can now execute GraphQL queries on our server. To execute our first query, we can use Apollo Sandbox.

Visit http://localhost:4000 in your browser, which will open the Apollo Sandbox:

Default Apollo Sandbox

The Sandbox UI includes:

  • An Operations panel for writing and executing queries (in the middle)

  • A Response panel for viewing query results (on the right)

  • Tabs for schema exploration, search, and settings (on the left)

  • A URL bar for connecting to other GraphQL servers (in the upper left)

Our server supports a single query named books. Let's execute it!

Here's a GraphQL query string for executing the books query:

GraphQL
1query GetBooks {
2  books {
3    title
4    author
5  }
6}

Paste this string into the Operations panel and click the blue button in the upper right. The results (from our hardcoded data set) appear in the Response panel:

Sandbox response panel

Note: If Apollo Sandbox can't find your schema, ensure you have introspection enabled by passing introspection: true to the ApolloServer constructor. We recommend disabling introspection when using Apollo Server in a production environment.

One of the most important concepts of GraphQL is that clients can choose to query only for the fields they need. Delete author from the query string and execute it again. The response updates to include only the title field for each book!

Complete example

You can view and fork the complete example on CodeSandbox:

Edit in CodeSandbox

Next steps

This example application is a great starting point for working with Apollo Server. Check out the following resources to learn more about the basics of schemas, resolvers, and generating types:

If you want to use Apollo Server with a specific web framework, see our list of integrations. If we don't have an Apollo Server integration for your favorite framework, you can help our community by building one!

Additional resources

If you learn best by doing, Apollo's learning platform offers the following courses:
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