Apollo Rover CLI Guide

Rover is the official CLI for Apollo GraphOS. It helps you manage schemas, run composition locally, publish to GraphOS, and develop supergraphs on your local machine.

Quick Start

Step 1: Install

# macOS/Linux
curl -sSL https://rover.apollo.dev/nix/latest | sh

# npm (cross-platform)
npm install -g @apollo/rover

# Windows PowerShell
iwr 'https://rover.apollo.dev/win/latest' | iex

Step 2: Authenticate

# Interactive authentication (opens browser)
rover config auth

# Or set environment variable
export APOLLO_KEY=your-api-key

Step 3: Verify Installation

rover --version
rover config whoami

Core Commands Overview

Graph Reference Format

Most commands require a graph reference in the format:

<GRAPH_ID>@<VARIANT>

Examples:

• my-graph@production
• my-graph@staging
• my-graph@current (default variant)

Set as environment variable:

export APOLLO_GRAPH_REF=my-graph@production

Subgraph Workflow

Publishing a Subgraph

# From schema file
rover subgraph publish my-graph@production \
  --name products \
  --schema ./schema.graphql \
  --routing-url https://products.example.com/graphql

# From running server (introspection)
rover subgraph publish my-graph@production \
  --name products \
  --schema <(rover subgraph introspect http://localhost:4001/graphql) \
  --routing-url https://products.example.com/graphql

Checking Schema Changes

# Check against production traffic
rover subgraph check my-graph@production \
  --name products \
  --schema ./schema.graphql

Fetching Schema

# Fetch from GraphOS
rover subgraph fetch my-graph@production --name products

# Introspect running server
rover subgraph introspect http://localhost:4001/graphql

Supergraph Composition

Local Composition

Create supergraph.yaml:

federation_version: =2.9.0
subgraphs:
  products:
    routing_url: http://localhost:4001/graphql
    schema:
      file: ./products/schema.graphql
  reviews:
    routing_url: http://localhost:4002/graphql
    schema:
      subgraph_url: http://localhost:4002/graphql

Compose:

rover supergraph compose --config supergraph.yaml > supergraph.graphql

Fetch Composed Supergraph

rover supergraph fetch my-graph@production

Local Development with rover dev

Start a local Router with automatic schema composition:

# Start with supergraph config
rover dev --supergraph-config supergraph.yaml

# Start with GraphOS variant as base
rover dev --graph-ref my-graph@staging --supergraph-config local.yaml

With MCP Integration

# Start with MCP server enabled
rover dev --supergraph-config supergraph.yaml --mcp

Reference Files

Detailed documentation for specific topics:

• Subgraphs - fetch, publish, check, lint, introspect, delete
• Graphs - monograph commands (non-federated)
• Supergraphs - compose, fetch, config format
• Dev - rover dev for local development
• Configuration - install, auth, env vars, profiles

Common Patterns

CI/CD Pipeline

# 1. Check schema changes
rover subgraph check $APOLLO_GRAPH_REF \
  --name $SUBGRAPH_NAME \
  --schema ./schema.graphql

# 2. If check passes, publish
rover subgraph publish $APOLLO_GRAPH_REF \
  --name $SUBGRAPH_NAME \
  --schema ./schema.graphql \
  --routing-url $ROUTING_URL

Schema Linting

# Lint against GraphOS rules
rover subgraph lint --name products ./schema.graphql

# Lint monograph
rover graph lint my-graph@production ./schema.graphql

Output Formats

# JSON output for scripting
rover subgraph fetch my-graph@production --name products --format json

# Plain output (default)
rover subgraph fetch my-graph@production --name products --format plain

Ground Rules

• ALWAYS authenticate before using GraphOS commands (rover config auth or APOLLO_KEY)
• ALWAYS use the correct graph reference format: graph@variant
• PREFER rover subgraph check before rover subgraph publish in CI/CD
• USE rover dev for local supergraph development instead of running Router manually
• NEVER commit APOLLO_KEY to version control; use environment variables
• USE --format json when parsing output programmatically
• SPECIFY federation_version explicitly in supergraph.yaml for reproducibility
• USE rover subgraph introspect to extract schemas from running services