validate

The validate command runs Apollo compiler validation on your GraphQL documents against your schema.

Usage

graphql validate [OPTIONS]

Options

Option	Description
-f, --format <FORMAT>	Output format: human (default), json, github, sarif
-w, --watch	Watch for file changes and re-validate
--syntax-only	Skip schema validation, only check syntax

Examples

# Basic validation (requires schema)
graphql validate

# JSON output for CI
graphql validate --format json

# Watch mode for development
graphql validate --watch

# Only check syntax, skip schema validation
graphql validate --syntax-only

# Specific project in a multi-project config
graphql --project backend validate

Behavior

By default, validate requires a schema and will fail with exit code 2 if:

• No schema files match the configured patterns
• No document files match the configured patterns

Use --syntax-only to skip schema validation when you only need to check GraphQL syntax.

Example output

✗ Validation error in src/queries.graphql:5:3
  Cannot query field "invalidField" on type "User"

  3 |   user(id: $id) {
  4 |     id
  5 |     invalidField
    |     ^^^^^^^^^^^^
  6 |   }

✓ 12 files validated, 1 error found