Developer onboarding

How The Graph Works.

We’ve learned that developers can use The Graph to index and query data that is stored on a blockchain such as Ethereum. But how does it all work?

Developers-intro

Subgraph manifest.

Subgraph descriptions are teaching The Graph what data to index and how to do so. These descriptions are known as the subgraph manifest. Within the subgraph manifest, the following is defined:

Data flow.

Once a developer has created a subgraph manifest, they can use The Graph CLI to store it in IPFS. This tells the hosted service to start indexing data for the subgraph.

graph-dataflow

Each step of the data flow.

Summary

The central piece to indexing data from a blockchain through The Graph is the subgraph manifest. It defines which subgraphs and which events therein to monitor and how to map the data. 

Transactions on the blockchain trigger the process of creating data entities that are stored by The Graph Node. The data is then queried by dApps and displayed through their UI. 

Go Back

Developer Knowledge Hub