In a previous blog, our code used Google Identity for authentication. While such a solution is possible, taking care of details, such as supporting multiple social providers or password-less authentication, verifying emails, and refreshing/revoking tokens, can get tedious. This is where external authentication providers such as Clerk make life easier.

Exograph now supports Clerk as an authentication provider! Our integration goes beyond supporting JWKS authentication; it also makes it easy and fun to explore APIs by integrating Clerk's UI in Exograph's playground.

This blog will transform a todo app without authentication into a multi-user todo app by adding just four lines and modifying a single line of code! The accompanying source code includes a web frontend written in Next.js, Tailwind, Apollo GraphQL Client, and TypeScript.

Mercury going retrograde is a serious affair, at least according to Reddit discussions. Mercury being the God of communication, supposedly, its (apparent) retrograde movement causes communication breakdowns leading to network outages, server crashes, data loss, and so on. Some take it quite seriously. There is even a Zapier integration to notify you in Slack when Mercury is about to retrograde. Well, it is about to happen tomorrow! So let me hurry up and publish this post before it is too late 😄.

Applications, like ideas, begin small and grow over time. Initially, an app might be a single-user demo for your next unicorn startup. If it resonates with your user base, the natural progression involves scaling it to accommodate multiple users. At this point, you need authentication, access control, and administrative functionality.

Adapting your domain model to new requirements is essential and Exograph provides robust support for this process. As your domain evolves, you can easily update the Exograph model to match it. As the model changes, the GraphQL API is automatically synchronized with the model. Exograph also helps manage database migrations. As changes in access control demands arise, you can easily represent them in your model. Additionally, Exograph enables declarative testing, minimizing the risk of regressions as adaptations unfold.

In this blog, we will focus on how Exograph streamlines the evolution of access control rules. We will develop a todo app from scratch starting with a single-user application with no authentication. We will then migrate it into a multi-user platform—complete with authentication and access control. We will see how Exograph makes this transition seamless.

We are thrilled to announce the launch of Exograph: a new approach to building GraphQL backends. Exograph introduces a declarative language that lets you focus on your domain model and access control rules – you can have a backend up and running in minutes. Powered by a Rust-based runtime, Exograph ensures quick startup, efficient query execution, and minimal memory consumption. Additionally, Exograph provides a range of tools to help you get started quickly and keep pace with your application's evolving needs. Currently in preview, Exograph is available for download on our website as well as from our GitHub repository.

GraphQL has gained popularity as an API building choice due to its ability to allow clients to specify the required data, avoiding both over-fetching and under-fetching. Nevertheless, developing a GraphQL backend can be challenging and time-consuming, demanding substantial expertise in backend development to ensure security and efficiency. This is where Exograph comes in: it simplifies the process of building GraphQL backends by enabling developers to define their domain model and access control rules, without much additional complexity. The result is a highly productive approach to backend development, allowing you to focus on the unique aspects of your application. With Exograph, you can build your backend during a lunch break!