Quickstart

If you just want to get going with cynic and don't care too much about how it works, this is the chapter for you.

Pre-requisites

There's a few things you'll need before you get started:

An existing rust project (though you can just run cargo new if you don't have one).
A GraphQL API that you'd like to query, and a copy of it's schema.
A GraphQL query that you'd like to run against the API. If you don't have one of these, you should probably use graphiql or graphql playground to get started, or you can use the one I provide below. For this quickstart I'll be assuming you're using a query without any arguments.

First things first: you need to add cynic to your dependencies. We'll also need an HTTP client library. For the purposes of this quickstart we'll be using surf but you can use any library you want. Open up your Cargo.toml and add the following under the [dependencies] section:

cynic = { version = "2", features = ["http-surf"] }
surf = "2"

Note that we've added the http-surf feature flag of cynic - this pulls in some surf integration code, which we'll be using. If you're using a different HTTP client, you'll need a different feature flag or you may need to see the documentation for making an HTTP request manually.

You may also optionally want to install insta - a snapshot testing library that can be useful for double checking your GraphQL queries are as expected. Add this under [dev-dependencies] so it's available under test but not at runtime:

[dev-dependencies]
insta = "1"

Run a cargo check to make sure this builds and you're good to go.

Adding your schema to the build.

You'll want to make sure the GraphQL schema for your build is available to your builds. For example, you could put it at src/schema.graphql - the rest of this tutorial will assume that's where you put the schema.

Building your query structs.

Cynic allows you to build queries from Rust structs - so you'll need to take the query you're wanting to run and convert it into some rust structs. This can be quite laborious and error prone for larger queries so cynic provides a generator to help you get started.

Go to https://generator.cynic-rs.dev and select how you'd like to input your schema. If the GraphQL API you wish to use is accessible on the internet you can just link directly to it (although it will need to have CORS headers enabled). Otherwise you can upload your schema to the generator.

Once you've provided the schema, you should be dropped into a GraphiQL interface but with an extra panel that contains Rust generated from your query & schema.

Checking your query (optional)

Since cynic generates queries for you based on Rust structs, it's not always obvious what the GraphQL queries look like. Sometimes you might want to run a query manually via Graphiql, or you might just want to see what effects changing the rust structs have on the query itself.

I find writing snapshot tests using insta useful for this purpose. Assuming your query is called AllFilmsQuery like mine is, you can add the following to the same file you put the struct output into:


#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
#[cfg(test)]
mod tests {
    use super::*;

    #[test]
    fn all_films_query_gql_output() {
        use cynic::QueryBuilder;

        let operation = AllFilmsQuery::build(());

        insta::assert_snapshot!(operation.query);
    }
}
}

You can now run this test with cargo test. It should fail the first time, as you've not yet saved a snapshot. Run cargo insta review (you may need to cargo install insta first) to approve the snapshot, and the test should succeed.

You can use this snapshot test to double check the query whenever you make changes to the rust code, or just when you need some actual GraphQL to make a query outside of cynic.

Making your query

Now, you're ready to make a query against a server. Cynic provides integrations for the surf & reqwest HTTP clients. We'll use surf here, but it should be similar for reqwest (or if you're using another HTTP library see here for how to use cynic with it).

First, you'll want to build an Operation similar to how we did it in the snapshot test above (again, swapping AllFilmsQuery for the name of your root query struct):


#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
use cynic::{QueryBuilder, http::SurfExt};

let operation = AllFilmsQuery::build(());
}

This builds an Operation struct with is serializable using serde::Serialize. You should pass it in as the HTTP body using your HTTP client and then make a request. For example, to use surf to talk to the StarWars API (see the docs for cynic::http if you're using another client):


#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
let response = surf::post("https://swapi-graphql.netlify.app/.netlify/functions/index")
    .run_graphql(&operation)
    .await
    .unwrap();
}

Now, assuming everything went well, you should have the response to your query which you can do whatever you want with. And that's the end of the quickstart.

Cynic - A GraphQL Client For Rust