Querying a graph

Overview

The query interface is split into these endpoints:

• /query - graph query to retrieve instances matching a query.
• /sync - graph query to retrieve instances matching a query that have changed since the previously issued cursor.
• /search - retrieve instances matching full-text search queries.
• /aggregate - aggregate instance data.

A few higher level query endpoints, like /byids and /list, provide simpler interfaces building on the /query endpoint.

The query interface supports a wide array of features.

• Advanced filters
• Parameterization
• Recursive edge traversal
• Chaining of result sets
• Granular property selection
• Subscribing to changes
• Full-text search
• Aggregation

How to define a graph query

You can use a query in both the /query and the /sync endpoints.

Queries are composed of:

• A with section defining result set expressions that describe which instances to retrieve.
• A parameters section with optional parameter substitutions if the query is parameterized.
• A select section that defines which properties to return as part of the result.

The below examples use a pump and valve example, represented as two sets of nodes with edges between them indicating which pumps flow to which valves.

This query fetches a specific pump as well as the valves it flows to:

with: # Define the result set expressions
  pumps:
    nodes:
      filter:
      equals:
        property: ['node', 'externalId']
        value: { 'parameter': 'pumpExternalId' }
    limit: 1
  pump_flows_to_valves:
    edges:
      from: pumps
      maxDistance: 1
      direction: outwards
      filter:
        equals:
          property: ['edge', 'type']
          value: { 'space': 'types', 'externalId': 'flows-to' }
  valves:
    nodes:
      from: pump_flows_to_valves
parameters: # Provide parameter values
  pumpExternalId: pump42
select: # Define the result sets to return
  pumps: {}
  valves: {}

The query returns a result similar to this:

items:
  pumps:
    - instanceType: node
      version: 1
      space: equipment
      externalId: pump42
      createdTime: 123
      lastUpdatedTime: 456
  valves:
    - instanceType: node
      version: 2
      space: equipment
      externalId: valve1
      createdTime: 321
      lastUpdatedTime: 654
    - instanceType: node
      version: 3
      space: equipment
      externalId: valve2
      createdTime: 213
      lastUpdatedTime: 546
nextCursor:
  pumps: cursorForPumps
  valves: cursorForValves

Result set expressions

Result set expressions appear directly below with in a query, and define a set of either nodes or edges. You can use the set to return results, as stepping stones to derive other sets from, or both. Result set expressions are named and can be chained.

A result set expression can also define sort order and a limit. See sorting for more details.

Result set expressions can relate to each other via chaining, but they don't have to. You can query for unrelated items in the same query, but you'll generally use different sets to power graph traversals.

A set either queries nodes or edges, possibly recursively.

All fields:

• nodes: An object to specify a result set of matching nodes.
• edges: An object to specify a result set of matching edges.
• sort: A list of sort configurations.
• limit: How many nodes or edges to return in the result. Default: 100.

Pagination

The max limit you can set for any result set expression is 10,000. To retrieve the entire result set, queries accept a cursor object mapping result sets to cursors. Pagination cursors in the nextCursor object are emitted for each result set, allowing you to page through everything.

You can't combine pagination cursors with custom sorts, unless they are backed by a cursorable index. If no pagination cursor is present for a given result set expression in the response, there is no more matching data.

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We do not recommend paging through result sets repeatedly using the /query endpoint. Instead, use sync, which is designed to keep clients up to date with changes.

Node result set expressions

A nodes statement in your result set expression makes the set contain nodes.

A node result set can be chained off both node and edge result set expressions.

When chaining off another node result set, you'll retrieve the nodes pointed to by a direct relation property. The direct relation property is defined using the through field.

When chaining off an edge result set, you'll retrieve the end nodes defined by the edges in the set.

• from: a different result set expression to chain from.

• through: when from is a node result set expression, through defines which direct relation property we traverse.

• direction: defines which direction we traverse the direct relation property defined in through.

• chainTo: control which side of the edge to chain to. This option only applies if the view referenced in the from field consists of edges. chainTo can be one of:

  • source chains to start if you're following edges outwards, direction=outwards. If you're following edges inwards, direction=inwards, it chains to end.

  • destination (default) chains to end if you're following edges outwards, direction=outwards. If you're following edges inwards, direction=inwards, it chains to start.

• filter: A filter to determine which nodes to match and return in the result set.

Edge result set expressions

An edges statement in a result set expression makes the set contain edges, and the statement defines the rules the graph traversal will follow.

A graph traversal can start from an initial set, defined by from, which names another result set expression.

The graph traversal follows edges in a particular direction, controlled by direction (Default: outwards.)

    Alice -is_parent-> Bob
    Bob -fancies-> Mallory

In the above graph, if you follow any edge from Bob outwards (the default), you'll get the edge Bob -fancies-> Mallory.

If you follow edges inwards, direction=inwards, you'll get Alice -is-parent-> Bob.

The traversal happens breadth-first. See limitations for more details.

A traversal is defined by what edges to follow, what nodes to match, and what nodes to terminate the traversal at. This is controlled by filter, nodeFilter and terminationFilter:

• filter is a filter on edges. You would typically filter on the property [edge, type], but you can filter on any property on an edge.

• nodeFilter is a node filter, which the node on the "other" side must match.

  • With direction: outwards, that means the "end node" of the edge must match.

  • With direction: inwards, the "start node" must match.

• terminationFilter is similar to nodeFilter, except if it matches, the traversal ends. A node must also match nodeFilter (if any) to steer the traversal to the node to terminate at in the first place.

  maxDistance controls how many hops away from the initial set traversal will go. maxDistance defaults to unlimited (but the set must respect its limit, defined on the result set expression). If maxDistance is 1, execution might be faster. If you know there will only be one level, use maxDistance: 1.

Full options:

Option
from	Result set expression to chain from.
filter	Edges traversed must match this filter.
nodeFilter	Nodes on the "other" side of the edge must match this filter.
terminationFilter	Do not traverse beyond nodes matching this filter.
maxDistance	How many levels to traverse. Default unlimited.
direction	Whether to traverse edges pointing out of the initial set, or into the initial set.
limitEach	Limit the number of returned edges for each of the source nodes in the result set. The indicated uniform limit applies to the result set from the referenced from. limitEach only has meaning when you also specify maxDistance=1 and from.

Selects

Select configurations appear directly below select in a query and specify which data to retrieve for the respective result set expression. The configuration specifies a number of sources (views) and a property selector for each. The property selectors define which view properties to emit in the query result.

You can have sets whose properties aren't emitted. This is useful if the sets are necessary for chaining, but can be excluded in the final results. Sets that are neither chained nor selected aren't run, but they'll cause a slight query processing overhead.

The results are grouped by their respective sets and contain properties that match the property selectors for the set.

Filters

Filters define what a part of the query matches. Filters are tree structures where the operator comes first and then the parameters for that operator.

A simple example is the in filter:

in:
  property: [node, name]
  values: [movie]

If the property node.name, which is a text property, is equal to any of the values in the provided list, the node will match. Properties are typed, and what query operators you can use on a property depends on its type. These are the supported filters.

Equals

The equals filter performs exact matches

equals:
  property: ['node', 'space']
  value: 'someSpace'

In

The in filter matches if any of the elements in the list of values match the property.

in:
  property: ['node', 'name']
  values: ['movie', 'actor']

If the property is an array, it will match if any of the stored values matches any of the provided values.

ContainsAny

The containsAny filter matches if any of the stored values matches any of the provided values. The property must be an array.

containsAny:
  property: ['someSpace', 'someContainer', 'someArrayProperty']
  values: ['movie', 'actor']

ContainsAll

The containsAll filter matches if the stored array contains all the provided values. The property must be an array.

containsAll:
  property: ['someSpace', 'someContainer', 'someArrayProperty']
  values: ['value1', 'value2']

Range

The range filter matches if the stored value is within the provided bounds. The property must be a number or timestamp.

range:
  property: ['node', 'createdTime']
  gte: 2022-08-09T11:39:48+0000
  lt: 2024-08-09T11:39:48+0000

The supported parameters are gt (greater than), gte (greater than or equal to), lt (less than), and lte (less than or equal to).

Overlaps

The range filter matches if the range made up of the two properties startProperty and endProperty overlap with the provided range. The properties must be numbers or timestamps.

range:
  startProperty: ['someSpace', 'someContainer', 'startTime']
  endProperty: ['someSpace', 'someContainer', 'endEndTime']
  gte: 2022-08-09T11:39:48+0000
  lt: 2024-08-09T11:39:48+0000

The supported parameters are gt (greater than), gte (greater than or equal to), lt (less than), and lte (less than or equal to).

Exists

The exists filter matches if the stored value is not null.

exists:
  property: ['node', 'type']

Prefix

The prefix filter matches if the stored value has the provided prefix. The property must be a string or an array.

prefix:
  property: ['someSpace', 'someContainer', 'someArray']
  value: [1, 2]

prefix:
  property: ['someSpace', 'someContainer', 'someString']
  value: 'myPrefix'

HasData filter

A hasData filters matches if data is present in a set of containers or views.

There is an implicit AND between the containers and views referenced in the filter, and the filter matches only if the node or edge has data in all the specified containers and views.

When you specify a container, the filter matches if the instance has all required properties populated for the container.

When you specify a view, the filter matches nodes with data in all the containers that the view references through properties, respecting the filters of the view if they are defined (and the filters of views implemented by the view).

Example:

hasData:
  - type: container
    space: my_space
    externalId: my_container
  - type: view
    space: my_space
    externalId: my_view
    version: v1

If my_space.my_view.v1 maps properties in the containers my_space.c1 and my_space.c2, the filter matches if there is data in my_space.my_container AND (my_space.c1 AND my_space.c2) if there is no filter defined on my_space.my_view.v1 and my_space.my_container AND my_space.my_view.v1.filter if there is a filter defined on my_space.my_view.v1.

Nested

Use a nested filter to apply the filter on the node pointed to by a direct relation. scope specifies the direct relation property you want use as the filtering property.

nested:
  scope: ['some', 'directRelation', 'property']
  filter:
    equals:
      property: ['node', 'name']
      value: 'ACME'

Compound filters

You can combine filters with and, or, not:

and:
  - not:
      in:
        property: ['node', 'type']
        values: ['movie']
  - range:
      property: ['imdb', 'movie', 'released']
      gte: { parameter: start }

This corresponds to (NOT node.type in ('movie')) AND imdb.movie.released >= $start.

Parameters

You can use parameters for values in filters. The parameters are provided as part of the query object, not in the filter itself.

This filter is parameterized:

range:
  property: [imdb, movie, released]
  gte: { parameter: start }

A query containing this filter will only run if you provide the start parameter. The parameter must be compatible with all the types and operators that refer to the parameter. In the above example, the "released" property is a date, and the start parameter must be compatible with the date type. Otherwise, the query will fail, even if the range filter is optional because it's OR-.ed

padoms

We recommend that you parameterize queries that take user input. This allows you to reuse query plans across queries with a noticable effect on read-heavy workloads.

Sorting and limiting

Sorting and limiting can happen in different places in a query:

• In the result set expression, that is, in the with object that defines a node or edge set.
• In the result selection, that is, under select where you can define sets to emit as results.

Sorting and limiting the set definitions under with transitively affects dependent sets. If you only change the sort order of a with expression, dependent sets will not (necessarily) change (based on how the dependent sets are defined). If you, however, put a limit on an expression, all dependent sets will inherit the limit and consequently change. This is also true for sets that aren't emitted via select, that is, for sets that are only defined as stepping-stones for other sets.

Sorts and limits defined under select change the result appearing order for that set only, not for dependant sets.

This example query would let some_edges and target_nodes pull from the full amount of nodes in some_nodes, even if what's returned as a result for some_nodes is capped at 100:

with:
  some_nodes: … # Omitted. No sorting here.
  some_edges:
    from: some_nodes
    # Omitted. Also no sorting.
  target_nodes:
    from: some_edges
    # …
select:
  some_nodes:
    sources: ...
    sort:
      - property: ['node', 'space']
        direction: descending
    limit: 100

Order of sorting and limiting

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A limit in an edge traversal applies to when to start traversing, which happens before sorting.

Nodes and edges have different sorting and limiting behavior: Nodes sort and limit simultaneously, while recursive edge exploration do limited traversal then sort.

The top-n set of nodes sorted by some property will be guaranteed to have the top-n of that property for the set.

For edges found through traversal, that is, via edges, the limit applies to how many edges to discover. This may not be all the edges that could be discovered in a full traversal. If you start traversing from some node and ask for 100 edges sorted by creation timestamp, the 100 edges discovered before the traversal stops get sorted. The full graph is not traversed to find the 100 newest edges in the graph defined by the traversal filters.

To sort with a recursive graph traversal, you'll need to specify the sort configuration via postSort.

An edge traversal with maxDistance=1 can take a standard sort configuration.

Syncing - subscribing to changes

The /sync endpoint lets you subscribe to changes on instances, matching an arbitrary filter. The interface for the /sync endpoint is largely very similar to the /query endpoint but differs in a few ways:

• It always returns a value for nextCursor.

• It returns instances that have changed since the provided cursor.

• It returns soft-deleted instances until they have been hard-deleted. These will have a deletedTime property set to a non-null timestamp value. Read more about soft deletion here.

• Cursor from /sync is valid for a soft deletion grace period, three days by default.

• A cursor older than the soft deletion grace period may not pick up all changes, especially the deletions.

• If the cursor is too old, you must restart the sync.

This endpoint is helpful to avoid continuously pulling a full set of instances and putting unnecessary load on the system. Instead, you can use the /sync endpoint to subscribe to changes. You'll pull everything once and then keep that state updated incrementally. The Python SDK documentation has an example of how to do this.

The endpoint also enables you to sync a subgraph into memory and then use libraries like NetworkX to perform various specialized graph analysis tasks on live data.

You can also use the endpoint to keep specialized dashboards up to date by syncing out all data about a data model.

Limitations

Search and aggregation endpoints are eventually consistent

Any query that involves search or aggregation is subject to eventual consistency. It may take a few seconds before changes to the data are reflected in the endpoints.

Graph traversal

Any query that involves a graph traversal will force nested loop-style execution. This will work well enough for traversals limited to a few hundred thousand unique paths.

The graph traversal is breadth-first, and all possible paths are traversed. This is especially important to keep in mind with traversals across loops. For example, a query that follows all the possible paths of a fully connected graph will likely be terminated due to constraints on either time, memory, or temporary disk usage.

Timeout errors

Queries get canceled with a 408 Request Timeout error if they take longer than the timeout. If you hit a timeout like this, you must reduce the load or contention or optimize your query.

Sync one space at a time

We recommend that you sync only one space at a time. More granular filters may result in poor performance.

Reverse direct relations targeting lists can't be traversed using the graph query endpoint

You can't traverse reverse direct relations which target lists of direct relations—reverse direct relations with targetsList=true—using the /query endpoint. You must use the /search endpoint instead.

Let's say you have an Activity with a list of direct relations pointing to nodes which have data in an Asset view. The Asset view has a reverse direct relation pointing to a set of nodes with data in the Activity view. To retrieve the activies related to an asset, you must send a request to the /search endpoint where you filter on the space+externalId combinations of those assets. For example:

view:
  space: schema
  externalId: Activity
  version: v1
filter:
  and:
    - containsAny:
        property: ['schema', 'Activity/v1', 'assets']
        values:
          - { 'space': 'assets', 'externalId': 'asset1' }
          - { 'space': 'assets', 'externalId': 'asset2' }
          - { 'space': 'assets', 'externalId': 'asset3' }

Graph query examples

Simple retrieval by node.type

This is an example query to retrieve all nodes of type Pump, and all the properties on the Pump/v1 view.

with:
  pumps:
    nodes:
      filter:
        equals:
          property: ['node', 'type']
          value: { 'space': 'types', 'externalId': 'pump' }
select:
  pumps:
    sources:
      - source:
          type: view
          space: equipment
          externalId: Pump
          version: v1
        properties: ['*'] # All properties

Retrieve everything in a space

This is an example query to retrieve all nodes in the equipment space and retrieve the manufacturer property on the Equipment/v1 view. This query is parameterized and can be used for both the /query and the /sync endpoints.

with:
  pumps:
    nodes:
      filter:
        equals:
          property: ['node', 'space']
          value: { 'parameter': 'space' }
select:
  pumps:
    sources:
      - source:
          type: view
          space: equipment
          externalId: Equipment
          version: v1
        properties: [manufacturer] # Only the manufacturer property
parameters:
  space: equipment

Traverse edges to retrieve workorders related to a set of assets

This query retrieves all work orders related to the set of assets with external IDs asset1, asset2, and asset3. It traverses edges of the type relates-to that point from work orders to assets.

with:
  assets:
    nodes:
      filter:
        and:
          - equals:
              property: ['node', 'space']
              value: 'assets'
          - in:
              property: ['node', 'externalId']
              values: ['asset1', 'asset2', 'asset3']
  assets_relate_to_workorders:
    edges:
      from: assets # chain off the assets result expression
      direction: inwards # the edges point from the workorders to the assets
      filter:
        equals:
          property: ['edge', 'type']
          value: 'relates-to'
  workorders:
    nodes:
      from: assets_relate_to_workorders
      filter: # only get active workorders
        equals:
          property: ['workorders', '', 'status']
          value: 'active'
select:
  workorders: # only select the workorders
    sources:
      - source:
          type: view
          space: workorders
          externalId: WorkOrder
          version: v1
        properties: ['*'] # get all the properties

Traverse direct relations to retrieve the locations of a set of sites

Consider a scenario where there are two sets of nodes representing sites and locations, respectively. The sites are connected to the locations using a direct relation property. This query retrieves the set of location nodes related to a set of sites.

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To traverse direct relation properties performantly, make sure that the property is associated with a b-tree index.

with:
  sites:
    nodes:
      filter:
        and:
          - hasData:
              - type: container
                space: sites
                externalId: Site
          - in:
              property: ['node', 'externalId']
              values: ['site1', 'site2', 'site3']
  locations:
    nodes:
      from: sites
      direction: outwards
      through:
        source: # The view mapping the direct relation property to traverse
          type: view
          space: sites
          externalId: Site
          version: v1
        identifier: location # the identifier of the direct relation property to traverse
select:
  locations:
    sources:
      - source:
          type: view
          space: locations
          externalId: Location
          version: v1
        properties: ['*']

Traverse direct relations inwards

Traverse direct relations outwards

Traverse direct relations multiple levels

Traverse edges single hop

Traverse edges recursively

Traverse edges recursively with a node filter

Traverse edges recursively with a termination filter

Traversing edges using the chainTo parameter