EdgeDB Has a Free Graph-Relational API That Replaces SQL Joins

EdgeDB combines the power of SQL with graph database traversals. Write queries that follow relationships naturally — no JOINs, no ORMs, no N+1 problems.

Schema (Declarative, Not SQL DDL)

# dbschema/default.esdl
module default {
  type User {
    required name: str;
    required email: str { constraint exclusive; };
    multi posts: Post;
    created_at: datetime { default := datetime_current(); };
  }

  type Post {
    required title: str;
    required content: str;
    required author: User;
    multi tags: Tag;
    published: bool { default := false; };
  }

  type Tag {
    required name: str { constraint exclusive; };
  }
}

EdgeQL (The Query Language)

# Get users with their posts — NO JOINS needed
select User {
  name,
  email,
  posts: {
    title,
    published,
    tags: { name }
  } filter .published = true
} filter .name ilike '%alice%';

# Insert with nested creation
insert Post {
  title := 'EdgeDB Guide',
  content := 'Learn EdgeDB...',
  author := (select User filter .email = '[e-mail]'),
  tags := {
    (insert Tag { name := 'database' } unless conflict on .name else (select Tag)),
    (insert Tag { name := 'tutorial' } unless conflict on .name else (select Tag))
  }
};

TypeScript Client

import { createClient } from 'edgedb';

const client = createClient();

// Fully typed queries
const users = await client.query(`
  select User {
    name,
    post_count := count(.posts)
  } order by .post_count desc
  limit 10
`);

// With parameters
const user = await client.querySingle(`
  select User { name, email, posts: { title } }
  filter .id = <uuid>$id
`, { id: userId });

HTTP API

# EdgeDB exposes an HTTP endpoint
curl -X POST http://localhost:5656/branch/main/edgeql \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "select User { name, email } limit 5"}'

Migrations

edgedb migration create   # Auto-generates migration from schema changes
edgedb migrate            # Apply migrations
edgedb ui                 # Visual schema browser

Why This Matters

• No JOINs: Traverse relationships with dot notation
• No ORMs: Query language is expressive enough
• No N+1: Nested data in a single query
• Type-safe: Generate TypeScript types from schema

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