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Quick Start Guide

Get up and running with Excalibase GraphQL in minutes! This guide will walk you through the essential steps to set up your GraphQL API.

What You'll Learn

📦 Installation

Set up Excalibase GraphQL using Docker or local development environment.

⚙️ Configuration

Configure your PostgreSQL database connection and schema settings.

🚀 First Query

Run your first GraphQL query and explore the auto-generated schema.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

  • Java 21+ installed
  • PostgreSQL 15+ database running
  • Docker (for containerized setup)
  • Maven 3.8+ (for local development)

Quick Overview

Excalibase GraphQL automatically generates a complete GraphQL API from your PostgreSQL database schema. Simply point it at your database and get:

  • ✅ Auto-generated GraphQL types from your tables
  • ✅ CRUD operations for all your data
  • ✅ Advanced filtering with 15+ operators
  • ✅ Relationship resolution via foreign keys
  • ✅ Pagination with cursor-based connections
  • ✅ Performance optimization with N+1 query prevention

🔗 Important: Relationship Queries

When querying relationships, always include the foreign key field(s) in your selection:

{
  orders {
    order_id
    customer_id        # ← Required for relationship
    customer {
      first_name
      last_name
    }
  }
}

Why? The relationship resolver needs the foreign key values to fetch related data. Without them, relationships will return null.

Next Steps

  1. API Reference → - Explore the GraphQL API capabilities
  2. Advanced Filtering → - Learn about powerful filtering options
  3. Testing → - Understand the comprehensive test coverage

Need Help?

Docker Recommended

We recommend using Docker for the quickest setup experience. It eliminates dependency management and provides a consistent environment across different systems.