The Graph Builders Newsletter - 13
🏗️ to The Graph Builders Newsletter 🏗️
gm web3 builders,
Welcome to The Graph Builders Newsletter #13 for January 2024, where we share important builder-focused news coming from The Graph ecosystem from the past month.
Let’s dive in!
The Graph Builders Community
Consider joining these three builders communities and get to know other builders in The Graph ecosystem!
Build with Hackathoners in The Graph Builders Telegram
currently has 180 members and has a #general channel for questions and collaboration, as well as specific channels for hackathon support. Most of the members joined during various hackathons, so just know that there are plenty of dedicated and curious web3 devs here!
Build with Redditors with r/GraphBuilders
was just launched and aims to focus on sharing resources, tips, and discussions about building on The Graph. Find posts, blogs, workshops, and videos about subgraphs, substreams, GraphQL, and protocol insights.
Build with the Pros from The Graph BuildersDAO
Ready to step up your subgraph and Substreams skills? Check out where experienced professionals work together to build production-ready subgraphs and Substreams for protocols and teams. Not ready to join the DAO just yet and just want to say hi? Join and get to know the team!
Ecosystem Updates
TODO: Upgrade from Hosted Service to Network Endpoints
More and more subgraphs are upgraded to The Graph Network and their hosted service equivalents stop receiving maintenance by their developers. We can already update our endpoints to use The Graph Network subgraphs:
If any builders are using the , the endpoint will eventually deprecate in favor of .
This means builders will soon have to change the endpoints used in their dapp from hosted service subgraph endpoints to The Graph Network subgraph endpoints.
If no The Graph Network version of a hosted subgraph is in existence, please reach out to the team that owns the hosted service version of the subgraph and point them to these to upgrade their subgraph to The Graph Network.
This announcement will go out in every Builders Newsletter to ensure clarity during the sunsetting of the Hosted Service. If any builders see X’s (Tweets) of these reminders, please retweet, as it helps all builders in The Graph ecosystem!
The Graph Horizon Explained
Reading about and want to know more details about Horizon?
Check out The Graph Forum post written by Edge & Node Smart Contract Engineer and Researcher Pablo Carranza Velez titled “”.
TL;DR?
“In simple terms, Graph Horizon is about iterating upon the existing protocol to address things we’ve learned since the protocol launched and implement improvements we’ve heard suggested in conversations with many users and contributors, to ensure The Graph fulfills its mission and remains core and reliable infrastructure for web3.” -
New Releases
Graph-Node 0.34.0
Four key improvements are of note in .
Improved Query Performance with indexerHints and Automated Pruning
This new feature is generally considered a new best practice in subgraph development!
Why is this feature so important?
is an optimization technique Indexers regularly use to remove unnecessary data from subgraphs, thereby improving query performance. With indexerHints, pruning can now be configured to happen automatically.
To add this feature to our subgraphs, we can add indexerHints to our subgraph manifest as seen in this .
...indexerHints:prune: auto...
Please note that conflict with the use of indexerHints. Do not use these two features together as it will cause breaking changes.
Reach out to if there are any questions surrounding indexerHints.
Improved Substreams-powered Subgraphs with Substreams as Subgraph Triggers - Beta
In this Beta feature release, builders can now directly run subgraph mappings on the data output from Substreams.
One use-case for this feature is to solve an issue where many eth_calls are required during indexing. While a subgraph must slow down to handle indexing eth_calls, a Substream does not slow down. Therefore, by using a Substream to ingest eth_calls and then transforming the data in a subgraph’s mappings, we have a subgraph that can index large quantities of eth_calls without issue.
Please reach out to with any feedback concerning this feature.
Improved Indexing Accuracy with endBlock
If we know we only need to index a specific set of blocks, we can now define a subgraph’s endBlock in the manifest.
...startBlock: 4000000endBlock: 5000000...
Check out the to see what else was released in graph-node 0.34.0!
Subgraph Radio
Building in web3 relies on rock-solid communication between distributed networks of individuals. Lucky for us, the team just released , a brand new tool that aims to directly improve the communication between subgraph developers and Indexers.
Two key features for subgraph developers:
- Subgraph Upgrade Pre-sync: Allows subgraph developers to announce subgraph upgrades, enabling Indexers to synchronize new versions ahead of time, reducing friction and enhancing network responsiveness.
- Integrated Notifications & Monitoring: Compatibility with platforms like Slack, Discord, and Telegram for real-time alerts, coupled with comprehensive monitoring through detailed logs and metrics accessible via Prometheus and visualizable through Grafana dashboards.
One key feature for Indexers:
- Proof of Indexing (POI) Cross-Checking: A robust mechanism for Indexers to ensure data integrity, detect discrepancies rapidly, and mitigate potential conflicts within the network.
Hackathon Highlights
Blast Big Bang Competition is LIVE
Now that Subgraph Studio supports Blast-Testnet, builders in The Graph ecosystem have a huge advantage in getting their projects noticed. Build or show off your subgraph + dapp skills and get your project in front of over 100k users and $1.3B in TVL, as well as connect with investors.
There’s just under a month left in the competition so there’s still time to enter and compete 🥇
Learning Corner
File Data Sources Tutorial: Using Subgraphs to Index Off-Chain Data
Dive into a written by Edge & Node Developer Relations Engineer !
This blog was written to assist beginners and intermediate subgraph developers who want to jump into using a few advanced techniques such as usinFile Data Sources to index off-chain data from both Arweave and IPFS data simultaneously as well as passing between handlers.
Read more about in the docs and get building some impressive File Data Source subgraphs!
The Graph Builders Office Hours - Thursdays 5pm UTC
Jump into The Graph Builders Office Hours every Thursday at 5pm UTC hosted by Edge & Node Developer Relations Engineer in .
Each session includes live workshops and Q&A discussions with developers who are building in The Graph Ecosystem.
Start building fast with all 20(!) !
Here are a few recent episodes:
- Hackathon winner ‘Nazar’
- Explore Graph Client’s
- See how
- Dive into new subgraph features -
- Build with
Developer Survey
Building The Graph Network is a collaborative effort, and the core devs would love to hear your !
Thanks for reading and happy hacking! 💌
Marcus Rein
Developer Relations and Success
Edge & Node, working on The Graph
About The Graph
is the source of data and information for the decentralized internet. As the original decentralized data marketplace that introduced and standardized subgraphs, The Graph has become web3’s method of indexing and accessing blockchain data. Since its launch in 2018, tens of thousands of developers have for dapps across 80+ blockchains - including Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Polygon, Celo, Fantom, Gnosis, and Avalanche.
As demand for data in web3 continues to grow, The Graph enters a with a more expansive vision including new data services and query languages, ensuring the decentralized protocol can serve any use case - now and into the future.
Discover more about how The Graph is shaping the future of decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) and stay connected with the community. Follow The Graph on , , , , , and . Join the community on The Graph’s , join technical discussions on The Graph’s .
oversees The Graph Network. The Graph Foundation is overseen by the . , , , , , and are eight of the many organizations within The Graph ecosystem.
