References https://spec.graphql.org specifically October 2021 Edition.

This is the second part (the first part covered the overview and language of GraphQL) to a collection of notes and details, think of this as the cliff notes of the GraphQL Spec. Onward to section 3 of the spec…

The GraphQL type system is described in section 3 of the specification. Per the specification itself,

The GraphQl Type system describes the capabilities of a GraphQL service and is used to determine if a requested operation is valid, to guarantee the type of response results, and describes the input types of variables to determine if values provided at request time are valid.

This feature of the specification for the GraphQL language uses Interface Definition Language (IDL) to describe the type system. This can be used by tools to provide utility function as client code genration or boot-strapping. In a lot of the services and products around GraphQL like AppSync, Hasura, and others you’ll see this specifically in action. Tools that only execute requests can only allow TypeSystemDocument and disallow ExecuteDefintion or TypeSystemExtension to prevent extensions of the type system. If you do this be sure to provide a descriptive error for consumers of your data!

Continue reading “The Best Collected Details on the GraphQL Specification, Section 3” →