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Clean GraphQL API
Lean Mean Clean Apps

Five templates, one search box. Everything in the docs is in here, including the bits we hoped you'd skim.

Try one of these

Results say which template they came from, so you won't end up reading about Lambda when you wanted GraphQL. Again.

A Lean Mean Clean Apps template for .NET 10

Clean Architecture for GraphQL, minus the ceremony.

A .NET 10 template that gives you a tested, layered GraphQL API on Hot Chocolate in two commands. Your clients ask for exactly what they need. Revolutionary.

Get startedView on GitHub
dotnet new install CleanGraphQLApi.Template
dotnet new cleangraphqlapi --name Acme.Movies --authorName "Your Name"
cd Acme.Movies && docker compose up -d

Three layers, the tests, a Dockerfile and a CI pipeline. Go and tell your team you've been working on it all week.

What’s in the box

Section titled “What’s in the box”

Hot Chocolate, served hot

A source-generated Hot Chocolate schema with the Nitro IDE built in, and descriptions pulled from the XML comments on your models.

Paging done properly

Relay-style cursor paging and search on movies, authors and reviews, with a DataLoader so a page of 50 movies takes three queries, not 52.

Errors with manners

Validation lives in the Application layer with FluentValidation, and failures come back as GraphQL errors with proper codes in the extensions.

Tested like it matters

xUnit, Shouldly, a schema snapshot test and a 95% coverage gate. Every test gets its own throwaway SQLite database.

Run it

Section titled “Run it”
Terminal window
cd Acme.Movies
docker compose up -d

Then open Nitro, the GraphQL IDE, at http://localhost:8080/graphql and start querying. The logs go to Seq at http://localhost:5341, because Console.WriteLine is not an observability strategy.

Want it locked down? Pass --authority and --audience when you create the solution and the movie, author and review queries and the review mutations need a JWT bearer token. Leave them off and it runs wide open, which is lovely on a laptop and less lovely in production.

Get startedInstall the template, create a solution and run your first query in Nitro.
Add a fieldPut a new resolver on a type, update the schema snapshot and test it.
Schema referenceEvery query, mutation, type and error, and how paging works.
Why it's built this wayThe opinions, so you can disagree with them on purpose.

One of five

Section titled “One of five”

Clean GraphQL API is one of five Lean Mean Clean Apps templates. They share the same Application and Infrastructure layers, the same tests and the same pipeline. Only Presentation changes. Like a family, really. Same genes, different haircuts.

Clean Minimal APIASP.NET Core Minimal APIsClean Model Context ProtocolModel Context Protocol serversClean GraphQL APIGraphQL on Hot ChocolateClean Web APIASP.NET Core Web APIsClean Lambda FunctionAWS Lambda

Each template gets the same ring logo in its own colour. The rings follow the Clean Architecture diagram, from the entities in the core out to the frameworks and drivers on the edge. GraphQL drew pink, which is only fitting for the one that lets clients pick and choose. The logos, colours and everything else live in the brand kit.

Part of Lean Mean Clean Apps

Made by the Lean Mean Clean Apps team with Clean Architecture, strong coffee and a healthy disregard for pomp and ceremony. Not affiliated with Microsoft, AWS, Uncle Bob or anyone with a marketing budget.