GraphQL Federation has matured into the standard approach for building large-scale GraphQL APIs. Federation 2.0 brings improved composition, better error handling, and enhanced developer experience.
The Problem Federation Solves
Large organizations can't have one team own the entire GraphQL schema. Federation allows different teams to own parts of the schema while presenting a unified API to clients.
Federation Architecture
# Products Subgraph
type Product @key(fields: "id") {
id: ID!
name: String!
price: Float!
}
# Reviews Subgraph
type Product @key(fields: "id") {
id: ID!
reviews: [Review!]!
}
type Review {
id: ID!
rating: Int!
comment: String
}Key Concepts
- Subgraphs: Independent GraphQL services owned by different teams
- Router: Composes subgraphs into a unified supergraph
- Entities: Types that span multiple subgraphs
- @key directive: Defines how entities are resolved across subgraphs
Federation 2.0 Improvements
- @shareable: Multiple subgraphs can define the same field
- @override: Migrate fields between subgraphs
- @inaccessible: Hide internal fields from the supergraph
- Better Errors: Clear composition error messages
Router Options
Apollo Router (Rust-based, high performance) and open-source alternatives like GraphQL Mesh provide flexible options for running your federated gateway.
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