Install the Graph CLI

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The Graph CLI is a command-line interface that facilitates developers' commands for The Graph. It processes a subgraph manifest and compiles the mappings to create the files you will need to deploy the subgraph to Subgraph Studio and the network.

The Graph CLI is written in TypeScript, and you must have node and either npm or yarn installed to use it. Check for the most recent CLI version.

On your local machine, run one of the following commands:

npm install -g @graphprotocol/graph-cli@latest

yarn global add @graphprotocol/graph-cli

The graph init command can be used to set up a new subgraph project, either from an existing contract or from an example subgraph. If you already have a smart contract deployed to your preferred network, you can bootstrap a new subgraph from that contract to get started.

The following command creates a subgraph that indexes all events of an existing contract:

graph init \
  --product subgraph-studio
  --from-contract <CONTRACT_ADDRESS> \
  [--network <ETHEREUM_NETWORK>] \
  [--abi <FILE>] \
  <SUBGRAPH_SLUG> [<DIRECTORY>]

• The command tries to retrieve the contract ABI from Etherscan.

  • The Graph CLI relies on a public RPC endpoint. While occasional failures are expected, retries typically resolve this issue. If failures persist, consider using a local ABI.

• If any of the optional arguments are missing, it guides you through an interactive form.

• The <SUBGRAPH_SLUG> is the ID of your subgraph in Subgraph Studio. It can be found on your subgraph details page.

The following command initializes a new project from an example subgraph:

graph init <SUBGRAPH_SLUG> --from-example=example-subgraph

• The example subgraph is based on the Gravity contract by Dani Grant, which manages user avatars and emits NewGravatar or UpdateGravatar events whenever avatars are created or updated.

• The subgraph handles these events by writing Gravatar entities to the Graph Node store and ensuring these are updated according to the events.

dataSources are key components of subgraphs. They define the sources of data that the subgraph indexes and processes. A dataSource specifies which smart contract to listen to, which events to process, and how to handle them.

Recent versions of the Graph CLI supports adding new dataSources to an existing subgraph through the graph add command:

graph add <address> [<subgraph-manifest default: "./subgraph.yaml">]

Options:

      --abi <path>              Path to the contract ABI (default: download from Etherscan)
      --contract-name           Name of the contract (default: Contract)
      --merge-entities          Whether to merge entities with the same name (default: false)
      --network-file <path>     Networks config file path (default: "./networks.json")

The graph add command will fetch the ABI from Etherscan (unless an ABI path is specified with the --abi option) and creates a new dataSource, similar to how the graph init command creates a dataSource --from-contract, updating the schema and mappings accordingly. This allows you to index implementation contracts from their proxy contracts.

• The --merge-entities option identifies how the developer would like to handle entity and event name conflicts:

  • If true: the new dataSource should use existing eventHandlers & entities.

  • If false: a new entity & event handler should be created with ${dataSourceName}{EventName}.

• The contract address will be written to the networks.json for the relevant network.

The ABI file(s) must match your contract(s). There are a few ways to obtain ABI files:

• If you are building your own project, you will likely have access to your most current ABIs.
• If you are building a subgraph for a public project, you can download that project to your computer and get the ABI by using npx hardhat compile or using solc to compile.
• You can also find the ABI on Etherscan, but this isn't always reliable, as the ABI that is uploaded there may be out of date. Make sure you have the right ABI, otherwise running your subgraph will fail.