graphql-web-lite

graphql-web-lite

The small sibling of the graphql package, slimmed down for client-side libraries

The graphql package serves two purposes in being the reference implementation of the GraphQL specification and being used as the shared toolkit for implementing GraphQL in client-side and server-side JavaScript applications. This can cause bloat for client-side apps, where we'd rather choose lower bundlesize impact over fidelity.

graphql-web-lite provides an alias package that can be swapped in for the standard graphql package in client-side applications. It aims to reduce the size of imports that are in common use by GraphQL clients and users, while still providing most graphql exports that are used in other contexts.

It replaces the default language exports with @0no-co/graphql.web for a leaner parser, printer, and visitor, which only support the GraphQL query language and are tested to 100% coverage and built to match GraphQL.js’ performance.

Installation

graphql-web-lite mirrors the folder structure of the regular graphql package and includes mostly the same files and imports as the graphql package, minus a couple that aren't commonly used for client-side GraphQL. This offers us several installation options, depending on how the package is aliased to the regular "graphql" import.

Installation with package.json aliases

When your dependencies and node_modules folder isn't used by a GraphQL server and only used by a GraphQL clients, you can use a quick and easy npm installation alias. In your package.json file you can define your graphql installation to use graphql-web-lite instead, which is supported by both Yarn and npm:

{
  "dependencies": {
-    "graphql": "^16.6.0"
+    "graphql": "npm:graphql-web-lite@^16.6.0-3"
  }
}

Alternatively, you can run an installation command to alias the package:

npm install --save graphql@npm:graphql-web-lite
# or
yarn add graphql@npm:graphql-web-lite

When this isn't suitable — for instance, because the same dependencies are shared with an API or server-side GraphQL consumer, or you're working inside a monorepo — you can try one of the other aliasing techniques below.

Installation with Webpack aliases

First, we'll need to install graphql-web-lite alongside the regular graphql package.

npm install --save graphql-web-lite
# or
yarn add graphql-web-lite

To alias a package in Webpack, an entry must be added to your Webpack configuration's resolve.alias section. Depending on your implementation, the configuration may already contain some keys inside resolve.alias, and you'd want to add another entry for "graphql".

const webpackConfig = {
  // ...
  resolve: {
    alias: {
      graphql: 'graphql-web-lite',
    },
  },
};

Installation with Next.js

First, we'll need to install graphql-web-lite alongside the regular graphql package.

npm install --save graphql-web-lite
# or
yarn add graphql-web-lite

In your Next.js configuration file, under next.config.js, you can add an additional webpack() function that is able to modify Next's Webpack configuration to add an alias for graphql.

module.exports = {
  webpack(config, { isServer }) {
    if (!isServer) {
      config.resolve.alias = {
        ...config.resolve.alias,
        graphql: 'graphql-web-lite',
      };
    }
    return config;
  },
};

Here we're also ensuring that the alias isn't applied on the server-side, in case an API route is using graphql for a server-side GraphQL schema.

Installation with Rollup's alias plugin

First, we'll need to install graphql-web-lite alongside the regular graphql package.

npm install --save graphql-web-lite
# or
yarn add graphql-web-lite

In Rollup, the easiest way to add a new alias is to use @rollup/plugin-alias. We'll have to install this plugin and ensure that every import and deep import to graphql is aliased to graphql-web-lite.

Any Rollup-based build will fail when the import name of the package does not match the name field in the module's package.json file, so this step is necessary.

import alias from '@rollup/plugin-alias';

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    alias({
      entries: [{ find: 'graphql', replacement: 'graphql-web-lite' }],
    }),
  ],
};

Installation with Vite

First, we'll need to install graphql-web-lite alongside the regular graphql package.

npm install --save graphql-web-lite
# or
yarn add graphql-web-lite

In your Vite configuration file you may add a new entry for its resolve.alias entries. This entry works the same as Rollup's alias plugin.

import { defineConfig } from 'vite';

export default defineConfig({
  resolve: {
    alias: {
      graphql: 'graphql-web-lite',
    },
  },
});

Here we're also ensuring that the alias isn't applied on the server-side, in case an API route is using graphql for a server-side GraphQL schema.

Installation with Parcel

First, we'll need to install graphql-web-lite alongside the regular graphql package.

npm install --save graphql-web-lite
# or
yarn add graphql-web-lite

In Parcel, we can add an entry in our package.json file for an alias. Specifically, the alias property may contain an object that maps packages to their aliases.

{
  "alias": {
+    "graphql": "graphql-web-lite"
  }
}

Installation with Jest's module mapping

First, we'll need to install graphql-web-lite alongside the regular graphql package.

npm install --save graphql-web-lite
# or
yarn add graphql-web-lite

Jest allows any module names to be remapped using regular expression-based mappings. In your Jest config you'll need to add an entry for graphql that remaps all imports and deep imports to graphql-web-lite.

{
  "moduleNameMapper": {
    "graphql(.*)": "graphql-web-lite$1"
  }
}

Impact & Changes

In short, most utilities, functions, and classes exported by the graphql package are only used for server-side GraphQL. Some of them have been removed in graphql-web-lite to discourage its server-side usage, and help bundlers exlude them if tree-shaking were to fail.

Most GraphQL clients rely on importing the parser, printer, visitor, and the GraphQLError class. These have all been modified to reduce their bundlesize impact and to remove any support for GraphQL's schema language and type system.

Any debugging calls, development-time warnings, and other non-production code is also being transpiled away, and process.env.NODE_ENV has been compiled away.

Full List of Changes

Export	Changes	Notes
visit	modified	works recursively and does not detect invalid AST nodes
print	modified	won't output any schema nodes and does not detect invalid AST nodes
printLocation	modified	won't output source snippets
printSourceLocation	modified	won't output source snippets
parse	modified	won't parse schema nodes or throw precise syntax errors
parseType	modified	won't throw precise syntax errors
parseValue	modified	won't throw precise syntax errors
GraphQLError	modified	doesn't handle locations and Error stacks

Bundlesize Impact

Most GraphQL client-side libraries use the following common set of imports from the graphql library. Assuming a transformation like babel-plugin-modular-graphql or granular imports in general this creates a short list of utilities.

export { valueFromASTUntyped } from 'graphql/utilities/valueFromASTUntyped.mjs';
export { GraphQLError } from 'graphql/error/GraphQLError.mjs';
export { Kind } from 'graphql/language/kinds.mjs';
export { parse } from 'graphql/language/parser.mjs';
export { print } from 'graphql/language/printer.mjs';
export { visit } from 'graphql/language/visitor.mjs';

The minzipped size of the imports is about 11.2kB in a given output bundle, which assumes all the above imports are in use. When the GraphQL language parser is dropped from the bundle, for instance by precompiling queries and excluding it in a compilation step, the resulting minzipped size drops to 5.55kB.

When graphql-web-lite replaces the graphql package the minzipped size drops from the 11.2kB figure down to 5.44kB, and 3.19kB without the parser.