CLI Overview

The graphql CLI validates and lints your GraphQL projects. Use it in CI/CD pipelines or during local development.

Install

# Homebrew (macOS/Linux)
brew install trevor-scheer/graphql-analyzer/graphql-analyzer

# Or via install script
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/trevor-scheer/graphql-analyzer/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

See Installation for all methods.

Commands

Command	Description
check	Run validation + linting in a single pass (recommended)
validate	Run schema validation only
lint	Run lint rules only
deprecations	List all deprecated field usages across the project
schema	Schema-related commands (download, etc.)
stats	Display statistics about the GraphQL project
fragments	Analyze fragment usage across the project
coverage	Show schema field coverage by operations
complexity	Analyze query complexity for GraphQL operations
mcp	Start an MCP server for AI agent integration
list-rules	List all available lint rules
explain	Show details about a lint rule
completions	Generate shell completion scripts
lsp	Start the Language Server Protocol (LSP) server

check is the recommended command — it’s more efficient than running validate and lint separately.

Quick usage

# Run all checks (recommended)
graphql check

# Validate only
graphql validate

# Lint only
graphql lint

# Watch mode
graphql check --watch

# Download schema from a remote endpoint
graphql schema download https://api.example.com/graphql -o schema.graphql

# View project statistics
graphql stats

# Analyze query complexity with a threshold
graphql complexity --threshold 100

Global options

Option	Description
-c, --config <FILE>	Path to config file (auto-discovered by default)
-p, --project <PROJECT>	Project name for multi-project configs
--color	Force colored output even when not a TTY
--no-color	Disable colored output
-q, --quiet	Suppress all output except errors
--no-progress	Suppress progress spinners only
-V, --version	Print version and exit

Each output-producing command supports -f, --format independently.

Output verbosity:

Flag	Spinner	Results	Errors
(none)	Yes	Yes	Yes
--no-progress	No	Yes	Yes
--quiet	No	No	Yes

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success — no errors
1	Validation or lint errors found
2	Configuration error (missing/invalid config)
3	Schema load error (introspection failed, etc.)
4	I/O error (file read/write failure)
5	Parse error (invalid GraphQL syntax)
6	Warning threshold exceeded (--max-warnings limit hit)

graphql validate
case $? in
  0) echo "All good!" ;;
  1) echo "Fix your GraphQL errors" ;;
  2) echo "Check your .graphqlrc configuration" ;;
  3) echo "Schema could not be loaded" ;;
  *) echo "Unexpected error" ;;
esac

Environment variables

Variable	Description
GRAPHQL_CONFIG	Override config file path
RUST_LOG	Log level (error, warn, info, debug, trace)
NO_COLOR	Disable colored output
CLICOLOR	0 to disable, 1 to enable colors
CLICOLOR_FORCE	1 to force colors even without TTY

Color priority (highest to lowest):

1. --color / --no-color flags
2. NO_COLOR environment variable
3. CLICOLOR_FORCE environment variable
4. CLICOLOR environment variable
5. Auto-detect (colors enabled if stdout is a TTY)