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):

--color / --no-color flags
NO_COLOR environment variable
CLICOLOR_FORCE environment variable
CLICOLOR environment variable
Auto-detect (colors enabled if stdout is a TTY)