What is graphql-php?

webonyx/graphql-php — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-06-26

★ 4,712PHPAudience · developerComplexity · 3/5Setup · moderate

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((graphql-php))
    What it does
      Parse GraphQL queries
      Validate requests
      Execute queries
    Tech stack
      PHP
      Composer
    Use cases
      Build GraphQL API
      Replace REST endpoints
      Type-safe schemas
    Setup
      Composer install
      Define types
      Handle requests

mindmap root((graphql-php)) What it does Parse GraphQL queries Validate requests Execute queries Tech stack PHP Composer Use cases Build GraphQL API Replace REST endpoints Type-safe schemas Setup Composer install Define types Handle requests

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Add a GraphQL API to your PHP application so clients can fetch exactly the data they need in one request.

USE CASE 2

Replace multiple REST endpoints with a single GraphQL endpoint in a PHP backend.

USE CASE 3

Define typed data schemas in PHP and let the library handle query parsing and validation automatically.

What is it built with?

PHPComposer

How does it compare?

	webonyx/graphql-php	librenms/librenms	mpdf/mpdf
Stars	4,712	4,709	4,676
Language	PHP	PHP	PHP
Setup difficulty	moderate	hard	easy
Complexity	3/5	4/5	2/5
Audience	developer	ops devops	developer

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Requires Composer and a PHP backend, full documentation lives on an external site, not in the README.

So what is it?

GraphQL is a way for a frontend (like a website or mobile app) to request exactly the data it needs from a backend server, rather than getting a fixed set of fields the way traditional REST APIs provide. Instead of calling many separate endpoints, clients send a single query describing the shape of data they want, and the server responds with exactly that structure. This library brings GraphQL to PHP backends. graphql-php is a PHP implementation of the official GraphQL specification, built to match the behavior of the original JavaScript reference implementation. If you have a PHP application and want to expose a GraphQL API, this library handles the parsing, validation, and execution of GraphQL queries for you. Your job as a developer is to define what types your data has and how to fetch it, the library takes care of processing the incoming requests against those definitions. The README is short and practical. Installation is done through Composer, the standard PHP dependency manager, with a single command. Full documentation lives on a separate website linked from the README, and the repository includes example projects in an examples folder with their own guides. The project follows semantic versioning, meaning major version changes may break compatibility but minor and patch releases should not affect anything marked as part of the public API. The README also notes that the repository is planned to move to a new home, with a linked announcement where users can follow the migration details and share feedback. The project accepts sponsorship through GitHub Sponsors and OpenCollective for those who rely on it commercially.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

I have a PHP app using graphql-php. Write me a simple GraphQL type and resolver for a User with id, name, and email fields.

Prompt 2

How do I add authentication to a graphql-php API so only logged-in users can access certain fields?

Prompt 3

Show me how to set up cursor-based pagination in a graphql-php list query.

Prompt 4

Write a graphql-php mutation for creating a new blog post and returning the created post's data.

Frequently asked questions