++ After over 100 releases, PostGraphile V5 and Grafast V1 have finally reached + release candidate status!🎉 Assuming no issues are found, this software, these + APIs, are what will make up the final release. The runtime is ready and many + of you are already using it in production, but the types and docs are a little behind. + Try it out and tell us where the gaps are, and maybe help fill them! +
+ +### Five years in the making, PostGraphile V5 raises the bar again + +After a couple false starts, in February 2020 we kicked off the journey that +would ultimately become PostGraphile V5 and the Gra*fast* planning and execution +engine. Since January 2023 we have shipped 38 pre-alpha, 20 alpha, and 49 beta +releases. Every stage refined the ergonomics, uncovered tricky edge cases, and +ultimately solved the four Gra*fast* epics that blocked a stable release: + +- ✅ “Everything is batched” but “unary” values (variables, context, etc) are + treated as a special case. +- ✅ Early termination of field execution with a `null` now has first-class + support. +- ✅ Plan-time “peeking” at runtime values is now forbidden, improving plan + re-use. +- ✅ The exponential polymorphic branching hazard is now eradicated by + converging before branching again. + +The result is a platform that is faster, more expressive, more configurable, and +easier to extend than anything we have shipped before. + +### Why this is still a release candidate + +We do not anticipate breaking changes to the runtime behaviour. Numerous teams +have already trusted beta builds in production for over a year and the feedback +has been excellent. The remaining work is polish: verifying the docs, catching +stray rough edges, and ensuring that migration guidance reflects the software as +it exists today. + +You can expect the occasional breaking change in TypeScript typings as we close +gaps and fix inaccuracies. The runtime APIs will remain compatible, but you may +need to adjust type annotations while we tighten things up. Likewise, some TSDoc +comments are behind reality; we will update them alongside the docs. + +If you bump into rough edges while trying V5, please raise an issue in the +[Crystal repo](https://github.com/graphile/crystal) so we can address it before +the final release. + +### Thinking in plans + +For those using Gra*fast* outside of PostGraphile, now is the perfect moment to +validate that the “[plans as dataflow](https://grafast.com/grafast/flow)” +approach clicks for you: do you understand the separation of “plan-time” and +“execution-time”? Can you see how principled communication between the steps +allows for optimization without needing to revisit plan resolvers? + +If you don’t understand it, that’s likely a failing of our documentation! Help +us improve our explanations by sharing your feedback (whether confusion and +frustration or success and praise!) in our +[Discord](https://discord.gg/graphile) or with GitHub issues and pull requests! + +### Read more + +[Visit the announcement on PostGraphile.org](https://postgraphile.org/news/2025-10-28-v5-release-candidate) +for specific news about PostGraphile V5 and how to get the release candidate up +and running. + +[Visit the announcement on Grafast.org](https://grafast.org/news/2025-10-28-grafast-v1-release-candidate) +for news about Gra*fast* V1 - the new GraphQL planning and execution engine +which powers PostGraphile under-the-hood. + +### Thank you Sponsors + +Gra*fast* and PostGraphile are crowd-funded open-source software, they rely on +crowd-sourced funding from individuals and companies to keep advancing. + +If your company benefits from Gra*fast*, PostGraphile or the wider Graphile +suite, you should consider asking them to fund our work. By significantly +reducing the amount of work needed to achieve business goals and reducing +running costs, Graphile’s software results in huge time and money savings for +users. We encourage companies to contribute a portion of these savings back, +enabling the projects to advance more rapidly, and result in even greater +savings for your company. +[Find out more about sponsorship here on our website](/sponsor/). + +
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