graphql-hive-gateway

packaged by Chainguard

Chainguard Container for graphql-hive-gateway

A minimal wolfi-based image for Hive Gateway, which federates or proxies multiple GraphQL services behind a single endpoint

Chainguard Containers are regularly-updated, secure-by-default container images.

Download this Container Image

For those with access, this container image is available on cgr.dev:

docker pull cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/graphql-hive-gateway:latest

Be sure to replace the ORGANIZATION placeholder with the name used for your organization's private repository within the Chainguard Registry.

Compatibility Notes

Chainguard's graphql-hive-gateway image is comparable to the upstream Hive Gateway image, and is designed to be a drop-in replacement for it. It keeps the upstream filesystem layout, so /gateway is the working directory, the bundle's modules resolve from /node_modules, and the deprecated /serve alias still points at /gateway.

Two differences are worth knowing about:

• Like upstream, the container runs as the non-root node user at uid and gid 1000. Because /gateway/package.json and /gateway/.npmrc are owned by root, installing extra plugins with npm install at runtime is not supported. Add them in a derived build instead, or use Custom Assembly.
• The Rust query planner is compiled from source rather than shipped as a prebuilt binary, so it is covered by this image's SBOM and vulnerability scanning like every other component.

The command is available as hive-gateway, matching the name the upstream CLI uses for itself.

Getting Started

Hive Gateway needs a schema to serve. Create a composed supergraph, then point the gateway at it. The supergraph command reads supergraph.graphql from the working directory by default:

cat > supergraph.graphql <<'EOF'
schema
  @link(url: "https://specs.apollo.dev/link/v1.0")
  @link(url: "https://specs.apollo.dev/join/v0.3", for: EXECUTION)
{
  query: Query
}

directive @join__field(graph: join__Graph, requires: join__FieldSet, provides: join__FieldSet, type: String, external: Boolean, override: String, usedOverridden: Boolean) repeatable on FIELD_DEFINITION | INPUT_FIELD_DEFINITION
directive @join__graph(name: String!, url: String!) on ENUM_VALUE
directive @join__type(graph: join__Graph!, key: join__FieldSet, extension: Boolean! = false, resolvable: Boolean! = true, isInterfaceObject: Boolean! = false) repeatable on OBJECT | INTERFACE | UNION | ENUM | INPUT_OBJECT | SCALAR
directive @link(url: String, as: String, for: link__Purpose, import: [link__Import]) repeatable on SCHEMA

scalar join__FieldSet
scalar link__Import

enum link__Purpose { SECURITY EXECUTION }

enum join__Graph {
  ACCOUNTS @join__graph(name: "accounts", url: "http://accounts.example.com/graphql")
}

type Query @join__type(graph: ACCOUNTS) {
  hello: String @join__field(graph: ACCOUNTS)
}
EOF

Serve it on the default port 4000:

docker run --rm -p 4000:4000 \
  -v "$(pwd)/supergraph.graphql:/gateway/supergraph.graphql:ro" \
  cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/graphql-hive-gateway supergraph

The gateway exposes /healthcheck and /readiness for probes, and serves GraphQL at /graphql:

curl -sf http://localhost:4000/readiness

To put the gateway in front of a single existing GraphQL API instead of a federated graph, use proxy:

docker run --rm -p 4000:4000 \
  cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/graphql-hive-gateway proxy http://upstream.example.com/graphql

Configuration

Runtime behavior comes from a gateway.config.ts file, which the gateway resolves relative to its working directory. Mounting it at /gateway/gateway.config.ts is therefore all that is required.

A common reason to add one is to turn on the Rust query planner, which plans federated queries in native code rather than JavaScript. It is off by default because it changes the planner used for every request, so enable it deliberately:

docker run --rm -p 4000:4000 \
  -v "$(pwd)/supergraph.graphql:/gateway/supergraph.graphql:ro" \
  cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/graphql-hive-gateway supergraph --hive-router-runtime

If the planner cannot be loaded, the gateway logs a warning and silently falls back to the JavaScript planner. Check the startup logs for Using Hive Router Runtime to confirm it is active.

Documentation and Resources

• Hive Gateway documentation
• Gateway CLI reference
• Deploying Hive Gateway
• Apollo Federation specification

What are Chainguard Containers?

Chainguard's free tier of Starter container images are built with Wolfi, our minimal Linux undistro.

All other Chainguard Containers are built with Chainguard OS, Chainguard's minimal Linux operating system designed to produce container images that meet the requirements of a more secure software supply chain.

The main features of Chainguard Containers include:

• Minimal design, without unnecessary software bloat
• Daily builds to ensure container images are up-to-date with available security patches
• High quality build-time SBOMs attesting to the provenance of all artifacts within the image
• Verifiable signatures provided by Sigstore
• Reproducible builds with Cosign and apko (read more about reproducibility)

For cases where you need container images with shells and package managers to build or debug, most Chainguard Containers come paired with a development, or -dev, variant.

In all other cases, including Chainguard Containers tagged as :latest or with a specific version number, the container images include only an open-source application and its runtime dependencies. These minimal container images typically do not contain a shell or package manager.

Although the -dev container image variants have similar security features as their more minimal versions, they include additional software that is typically not necessary in production environments. We recommend using multi-stage builds to copy artifacts from the -dev variant into a more minimal production image.

Need additional packages?

To improve security, Chainguard Containers include only essential dependencies. Need more packages? Chainguard customers can use Custom Assembly to add packages, either through the Console, chainctl, or API.

To use Custom Assembly in the Chainguard Console: navigate to the image you'd like to customize in your Organization's list of images, and click on the Customize image button at the top of the page.

Learn More

Refer to our Chainguard Containers documentation on Chainguard Academy. Chainguard also offers VMs and Libraries — contact us for access.

Trademarks

This software listing is packaged by Chainguard. The trademarks set forth in this offering are owned by their respective companies, and use of them does not imply any affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement by such companies.