Announcing Postman’s new GraphQL client

Sterling Chin

February 23, 2023

We’re excited to announce that Postman’s new GraphQL client is in open beta! Applying our learnings from building support for WebSockets, Socket.IO, and gRPC, we revisited the GraphQL client and built a development environment that is both simple and powerful. With the new GraphQL client, we’re ready to help GraphQL grow and are committed to its ongoing success.

Download the Postman GraphQL Client

Growth of GraphQL

GraphQL is experiencing incredible growth. Its popularity has been gaining year over year, with it being the fourth most popular API technology in our 2022 State of the API Report. However, GraphQL can often be a maze of data; as companies grow, their data becomes more challenging to explore.

We set out to simplify the schema explorer and lower the learning curve, making testing and debugging your queries, mutations, and subscriptions easier. Our goal was to create a client that felt welcoming to all the new GraphQL users while supporting GraphQL power users’ workflows.

Schema explorer

There are consumers and producers in the API lifecycle. As a consumer, the power of introspection in the new GraphQL client allows you to explore your schema easily and quickly. Enter your GraphQL API URL, and the client automatically introspects your schema. You can quickly build a query, mutation, or subscription to get the data you need without additional overhead.

Additionally, as a producer you can load your GraphQL schema from an API definition or a local file, write test scripts (before query and after response), and collaborate with your team to ensure your GraphQL API is powerful and provides the necessary data.

Query Builder

As I mentioned above, a goal we set out to accomplish was to make it easier to learn GraphQL. The query builder correctly writes code-ready queries, mutations, and subscriptions as you select fields in the schema explorer. If you manually write your queries, the new client provides readable errors to help you keep your queries clean.

Here’s a pro tip: you can use the “split pane” view to see the schema explorer, query builder, and response side by side.

Getting started

To get started, update the Postman app to the latest version (10.10 as of this writing). If you use the browser, update your Postman desktop agent. Our GraphQL Echo Service is an excellent introduction to the new GraphQL client, and our handy “Getting Started Guide” includes a list of public GraphQL APIs to explore along with updated documentation. We also have a thriving community around GraphQL and the GraphQL specification.

What’s next for GraphQL?

As with any beta, we want to hear from you! The new GraphQL client is only as good as the feedback we receive from the fantastic GraphQL community. Last year we joined the GraphQL Foundation to support the community’s growth efforts, and we will continue to bring the latest innovations to the Postman GraphQL client, such as the Oct. 2021 GraphQL Spec, closer to our users.

You can submit feedback and feature requests in our GitHub issues.

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