Sudograph

Sudograph is a GraphQL database for the Internet Computer (IC).

Its goal is to become the simplest way to develop applications for the IC. Developers start by defining a GraphQL schema using the GraphQL SDL. Once the schema is defined, it can be included within a canister and deployed to the IC. An entire relational database is generated from the schema, with GraphQL queries and mutations enabling a variety of CRUD operations, including advanced querying over relational data.

Sudograph should be considered somewhere between alpha and beta software.

Documentation

For full documentation, see The Sudograph Book, which is hosted entirely on the IC by the way.

Super quick start

mkdir my-new-project
cd my-new-project
npx sudograph
dfx start --background
dfx deploy

Once deployed, you can visit the following canisters from a Chromium browser:

• playground: http://r7inp-6aaaa-aaaaa-aaabq-cai.localhost:8000
• frontend: http://rrkah-fqaaa-aaaaa-aaaaq-cai.localhost:8000

If the above didn't work, try The Sudograph Book.

Major limitations

• No custom scalars, only Blob, Boolean, Date, Float, ID, Int, JSON, and String are available
• No custom input objects, only custom input scalars allowed in custom resolvers
• Each schema is limited to a single canister with ~4 GB of storage
• Very inneficient querying
• No automatic migrations, once you deploy the schema is final unless you implement your own migrations
• No authorization at the schema level, deal with it through your own custom authorization at the canister function level
• No automated tests
• No subscriptions
• No transactions

Concrete roadmap

The following are very likely to be implemented by Sudograph in the short to medium term future:

• Robust automated tests
• Efficient querying i.e. indexes
• Automatic migrations
• Single canister transactions
• Custom scalars
• Schema authorization directives e.g. something like @auth(role: OWNER) for individual fields

Tentative roadmap

The following may or may not be implemented by Sudograph, but they seem like good ideas:

• Unbounded scaling through a multi-canister architecture
• upsert
• create, update, delete many
• create, update, delete, update/upsert within mutation inputs
• order by multiple fields
• Statistics within relation results (for example total counts, averages, sums, etc)
• subscriptions
• unique constraints and capabilities

Projects using Sudograph

• Ethereum Archival Canister

Inspiration

Sudograph was inspired by many previous projects:

• Prisma
• Graphback
• Hasura
• PostGraphile
• SQL Builder