Querying basics

Structure of a GraphQL query

GraphQL structures data as a graph. GraphQL uses a schema to define the objects and their hierarchy in your data graph. You can explore the edges of the graph by using queries to get the needed data. These queries must respect the structure of the schema.

A node, followed by its fields, is at the core of a GraphQL query. A node is an object of a specific type; the type specifies the fields that make up the object.

A field can be another node where the appropriate query would contain nested elements. Some nodes look like functions that can take on arguments to limit the scope of what they can act on. You can apply filters at each node.

Cloudflare GraphQL schema

A typical query against the Cloudflare GraphQL schema is made up of four main components:

viewer - is the root node,
zones or accounts - indicate the scope of the query, that is the domain area or account you want to query. The viewer can access one zones or accounts, or both,
data node or dataset - represent the data you want to query. zones or accounts may contain one or more datasets. To find out more about discovering nodes, please refer to introspection,
fieldset - a set of fields or nested fields of the dataset.

The query to Cloudflare GraphQL API must be sent over HTTP POST request with payload in JSON format that consists of these fields:

{
  "query": "",
  "variables": {}
}

From the above structure, the query field must contain a GraphQL query formatted as a single line string (meaning all newline symbols should be stripped / escaped), when variables is an object that contains all values of used placeholders in the query itself.

A single dataset example

In the following example, the GraphQL query fetches a datetime, action, and client request HTTP host as host field of 2 WAF events from zone-scoped firewallEventsAdaptive dataset.

{
  viewer {
    zones(filter: { zoneTag: $tag }) {
      firewallEventsAdaptive(
        filter: {
          datetime_gt: $start
          datetime_lt: $end
        }
        limit: 2
        orderBy: [
          datetime_DESC
        ]
      ) {
        action
        datetime
        host: clientRequestHTTPHost
      }
    }
  }
}

In the query above, we have variable placeholders: $tag, $start, and $end. We provide values for those placeholders alongside the query by placing them into variables field of the payload.

{
  "tag": "<zone-tag>",
  "start": "2020-08-03T02:07:05Z",
  "end": "2020-08-03T17:07:05Z"
}

There are multiple ways to send your query to Cloudflare GraphQL API. You can use you favourite GraphQL client or CLI to send a request via curl. We have a how-to guide about using GraphiQL client, also check a guide on how to execute a query with a curl here.

{
  "data": {
    "viewer": {
      "zones": [
        {
          "firewallEventsAdaptive": [
            {
              "action": "log",
              "host": "cloudflare.guru",
              "datetime": "2020-08-03T17:07:03Z"
            },
            {
              "action": "log",
              "host": "cloudflare.guru",
              "datetime": "2020-08-03T17:07:01Z"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  },
  "errors": null
}

Query multiple datasets in a single GraphQL API request

As previously mentioned, a query might contain one or multiple nodes (datasets). At the API level, the data extraction would be done simultaneously, but the response would be delayed until all dataset queries got their results. If any fails during the execution, the entire query will be terminated, and the error will be returned.

{
  viewer {
    zones(filter: { zoneTag: $tag }) {
      last10Events: firewallEventsAdaptive(
        filter: {
          datetime_gt: $start
          datetime_lt: $end
        }
        limit: 10
        orderBy: [
          datetime_DESC
        ]
      ) {
        action
        datetime
        host: clientRequestHTTPHost
      }
      top3DeviceTypes: httpRequestsAdaptiveGroups(
        filter: {
          date: $ts
        }
        limit: 10
        orderBy: [
          count_DESC
        ]
      ) {
        count
        dimensions {
          device: clientDeviceType
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

{
  "tag": "<zone-tag>",
  "start": "2022-10-02T00:26:49Z",
  "end": "2022-10-04T14:26:49Z",
  "ts": "2022-10-04"
}

{
  "data": {
    "viewer": {
      "zones": [
        {
          "last10Events": [
            {
              "action": "block",
              "country": "TR",
              "datetime": "2022-10-04T08:41:09Z"
            },
            {
              "action": "block",
              "country": "TR",
              "datetime": "2022-10-04T08:41:09Z"
            },
            {
              "action": "block",
              "country": "RU",
              "datetime": "2022-10-04T01:09:36Z"
            },
            {
              "action": "block",
              "country": "US",
              "datetime": "2022-10-03T14:26:49Z"
            },
            {
              "action": "block",
              "country": "US",
              "datetime": "2022-10-03T14:26:46Z"
            },
            {
              "action": "block",
              "country": "CN",
              "datetime": "2022-10-02T23:51:26Z"
            },
            {
              "action": "block",
              "country": "TR",
              "datetime": "2022-10-02T23:39:41Z"
            },
            {
              "action": "block",
              "country": "TR",
              "datetime": "2022-10-02T23:39:41Z"
            }
          ],
          "top3DeviceTypes": [
            {
              "count": 4580,
              "dimensions": {
                "device": "desktop"
              }
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  },
  "errors": null
}

Helpful Resources

Here are some helpful articles about working with the Cloudflare Analytics API and GraphQL.

Cloudflare specific

How to find your zoneTag using the API

General info on the GraphQL framework

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