Gel is a new kind of database
that takes the best parts of
relational databases, graph
databases, and ORMs. We call it
a graph-relational database.
Schema is the foundation of your application. It should be something you can read, write, and understand.
Forget foreign keys; tabular data modeling is a relic of an older age, and it isn't compatible with modern languages. Instead, Gel thinks about schema the same way you do: as object types containing properties connected by links.
type Person {
required name: str;
}
type Movie {
required title: str;
multi actors: Person;
}This example is intentionally simple, but Gel supports everything you'd expect from your database: a strict type system, indexes, constraints, computed properties, stored procedures...the list goes on. Plus it gives you some shiny new features too: link properties, schema mixins, and best-in-class JSON support. Read the schema docs for details.
Gel's super-powered query language EdgeQL is designed as a ground-up redesign of SQL. EdgeQL queries produce rich, structured objects, not flat lists of rows. Deeply fetching related objects is painless...bye, bye, JOINs.
select Movie {
title,
actors: {
name
}
}
filter .title = "The Matrix"EdgeQL queries are also composable; you can use one EdgeQL query as an expression inside another. This property makes things like subqueries and nested mutations a breeze.
insert Movie {
title := "The Matrix Resurrections",
actors := (
select Person
filter .name in {
'Keanu Reeves',
'Carrie-Anne Moss',
'Laurence Fishburne'
}
)
}There's a lot more to EdgeQL: a comprehensive standard library, computed
properties, polymorphic queries, with blocks, transactions, and much more.
Read the EdgeQL docs for the full
picture.
While Gel solves the same problems as ORM libraries, it's so much more. It's a full-fledged database with a powerful and elegant query language, a migrations system, a suite of client libraries in different languages, a command line tool, and—coming soon—a cloud hosting platform. The goal is to rethink every aspect of how developers model, migrate, manage, and query their database.
Here's a taste-test of Gel's next-level developer experience: you can install our CLI, spin up an instance, and open an interactive EdgeQL shell with just three commands.
$ curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://geldata.com/sh | sh
$ edgedb project init
$ edgedb
edgedb> select "Hello world!"
Windows users: use this Powershell command to install the CLI.
PS> iwr https://geldata.com/ps1 -useb | iex
To start learning about Gel, check out the following resources:
- The quickstart. If you're just starting out, the 10-minute quickstart guide is the fastest way to get up and running.
- Gel Cloud 🌤️. The best most effortless way to host your Gel database in the cloud.
- The interactive tutorial. For a structured deep-dive into the EdgeQL query language, try the web-based tutorial— no need to install anything.
- The docs. Jump straight into the docs for schema modeling or EdgeQL!
PRs are always welcome! To get started, follow this guide to build Gel from source on your local machine.
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The code in this repository is developed and distributed under the Apache 2.0 license. See LICENSE for details.
