Apollo Federation
Apollo Federation is an architecture and platform for building a unified supergraph that composes multiple GraphQL APIs (subgraphs) into a single distributed GraphQL endpoint, enabling teams to work independently on different parts of the graph while delivering a unified API to consumers. Federation 2 is the current stable version, supported by the Apollo Router written in Rust and the Rover CLI for schema management.
APIs
Apollo Federation
Apollo Federation enables declarative composition of multiple subgraph APIs into a single federated supergraph. The Apollo Router orchestrates requests across subgraphs, combini...
Features
Compose multiple subgraph schemas into a single unified supergraph schema.
Declarative federation directives (@key, @external, @requires, @provides, @shareable, @link) for schema coordination.
High-performance Rust-based router that orchestrates queries across subgraphs.
Declarative integration of REST APIs into federated graphs without writing a separate GraphQL server.
Apollo GraphOS schema registry for publishing, checking, and managing supergraph schemas.
Command-line tool for publishing subgraph schemas, running checks, and managing the supergraph.
Intelligent query planning that decomposes client queries into efficient subgraph requests.
Federation-compatible subgraphs can be built in any language or framework.
Progressive schema rollout with incremental migration from monolith to federated graph.
Use Cases
Enable independent teams to own and develop separate subgraphs while delivering a unified API.
Gradually expose existing REST APIs as GraphQL via Apollo Connectors without full rewrites.
Consolidate multiple disparate APIs into a single unified supergraph for consumers.
Add a federated GraphQL layer over existing microservice architectures.
Enforce schema design standards across all subgraphs via composition checks.
Integrations
Apollo Connector for integrating Anthropic AI APIs into the supergraph.
Apollo Connector for integrating OpenAI APIs into the supergraph.
Apollo Connector for AWS DynamoDB via REST API integration.
Apollo Connector for AWS Lambda function invocation.
Apollo Connector for Stripe payment API integration.
Apollo Connector for OData REST API integration.
Apollo Connector for Strapi CMS API integration.
Deploy Apollo Router as a Kubernetes service via Helm charts and operator patterns.
Official Terraform provider for Apollo GraphOS management.