EdgeDB Has a Free API — The Post-Relational Database

#edgedb #database #api #postgres

EdgeDB is a next-generation database that fixes SQL frustrations. It provides a modern query language (EdgeQL), built-in migrations, and a type-safe schema.

What Is EdgeDB?

EdgeDB is built on top of PostgreSQL but replaces SQL with EdgeQL — a more intuitive, composable query language. It handles relations, constraints, and computed properties natively.

Free tier (EdgeDB Cloud):

1 instance
1GB storage
Generous compute

Quick Start

curl --proto "=https" -sSf https://sh.edgedb.com | sh
edgedb project init

Schema (SDL)

type User {
  required name: str;
  required email: str { constraint exclusive; };
  multi posts: Post;
}

type Post {
  required title: str;
  required body: str;
  required author: User;
  created_at: datetime { default := datetime_current(); };
}

EdgeQL

# Insert
INSERT User { name := "Alice", email := "alice@example.com" };

# Query with nested data (no JOINs!)
SELECT User {
  name, email,
  posts: { title, created_at }
}
FILTER .email = "alice@example.com";

# Aggregation
SELECT User {
  name,
  post_count := count(.posts)
}
ORDER BY .post_count DESC;

HTTP API

curl -X POST http://localhost:5656/branch/main/edgeql \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query":"SELECT User { name, email } LIMIT 10"}'

Use Cases

Modern apps — type-safe schema + queries
Graph-like data — relations without JOINs
APIs — built-in HTTP API
Migrations — automatic schema migrations
PostgreSQL upgrade — keep PostgreSQL, better DX

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