GraphQL in 2023 - Still Relevant?

React Summit

React Summit 2023

Jerel Miller

How to Use Suspense and GraphQL with Apollo to Build Great User Experiences

React Advanced

React Advanced 2023

React Summit US

React Summit US 2023

GraphQL in the World of React Server Components

React Advanced 2024

React Advanced 2026

You know how to build client apps—but where do client developers fit in the new world of ChatGPT and MCP? If you’ve used GraphQL before, it turns out your knowledge translates directly. This talk demonstrates how to build MCP apps using Apollo Client’s new open source AI apps integration along with the open source Apollo MCP server with patterns you already use:<ol><li>Fragment colocation → Tool design: Structure MCP tools as component data requirements</li><li>Query optimization → Tool call patterns: Minimize LLM roundtrips with the same performance thinking</li><li>Type safety → Tool schemas: Apply GraphQL’s type discipline to MCP definitions</li></ol>A live demo builds an MCP app querying a GraphQL API, showing how best practices from GraphQL client development apply to MCP apps.

Building MCP Apps With React and GraphQL Patterns You Already Know

In this talk, we'll examine how GraphQL fits into the React Server Component paradigm and how to use Apollo Client, a client-side data store, in a world of streaming SSR. Starting with a demo built with only Server Components with GraphQL, and juxtaposing it with an app using only Client Components, we'll show why a framework with a client-side data store that can also interact with RSC is the best of both worlds alongside good practices when combining it with GraphQL.

For many app developers, GraphQL is instrumental in building great user experiences. With the introduction of React Suspense, developers have an ergonomic way to orchestrate loading states to improve upon the status quo.  In this talk, the Apollo Client team will show you how we built a non-trivial application using Apollo Client’s new Suspense features, GraphQL features like the @defer directive, and how to combine them to build great user experiences in your own apps.

For many app developers, GraphQL is instrumental in building great user experiences. With the introduction of React Suspense, developers have an ergonomic way to orchestrate loading states to improve upon the status quo. In this talk, the Apollo Client team will show you how we built a non-trivial application using Apollo Client’s new Suspense features, GraphQL features like the @defer directive, and how to combine them to build great user experiences in your own apps.

With fetching libraries like TanStack Query, swr, or RTK Query becoming more widespread, some of the immediate “selling points” of GraphQL clients seem to be less unique - so it might be a good idea to take a step back and ask the question “is this even still relevant?”. And to already take the answer away - it is “yes”. The unique selling points of GraphQL go far beyond having a smooth data fetching experience by solving many inter-team and architectural problems. While it might not always be immediately evident as a benefit for us as Frontend Developers,  GraphQL gives us a lot of freedom and makes us less dependent on backend teams implementing a Backend-for-the-frontend for us. Also, while data-fetching libraries have made it a lot easier to work with REST nowadays, GraphQL still has properties that are just not present in traditional REST APIs, and on top of that GraphQL has kept evolving. New directives like @live or @defer enable developers to create a fantastic user experience with very little work - especially when combined with React’s new suspense features.