- Install Git (may be already installed on your system, or available through your OS package manager)
- Install Make (may be already installed on your system, or available through your OS package manager)
- Install Docker and Docker Compose.
- Install Go 1.13 or above.
It's best to put the Dgraph repo somewhere in $GOPATH
.
$ mkdir -p "$(go env GOPATH)/src/github.com/dgraph-io"
$ cd "$(go env GOPATH)/src/github.com/dgraph-io"
$ git clone https://github.com/hypermodeinc/dgraph.git
$ cd ./dgraph
$ make install
This will put the source code in a Git repo under $GOPATH/src/github.com/dgraph-io/dgraph
and compile the binaries to $GOPATH/bin
.
Dgraph source repo vendors its own version of Badger. If you are just working on Dgraph, you do not necessarily need to check out Badger from its own repo. However, if you want to contribute to Badger as well, you will need to check it out from its own repo.
$ go get -t -v github.com/dgraph-io/badger
This will put the source code in a Git repo under $GOPATH/src/github.com/dgraph-io/badger
.
We use protocol buffers to serialize data between our server and the Go client and also for inter-worker communication. If you make any changes to the .proto
files, you would have to recompile them.
Install the protoc
compiler which is required for compiling proto files used for gRPC communication. Get protoc
version 3.0.0 or above from GitHub releases page (look for the binary releases at the bottom, or compile from sources following the instructions).
We use gogo protobuf in Dgraph. To get the protocol buffer compiler plugin from gogo run
$ go get -u github.com/gogo/protobuf/protoc-gen-gofast
To compile the proto file using the protoc
plugin and the gogo compiler plugin run the command make regenerate
from within the directory containing the .proto
files.
$ cd protos
$ make regenerate
This should generate the required .pb.go
file.
You can build Dgraph using make dgraph
or make install
which add the version information to the binary.
make dgraph
: Creates adgraph
binary at./dgraph/dgraph
make install
: Creates adgraph
binary at$GOPATH/bin/dgraph
. You should add$GOPATH/bin
to your$PATH
if it isn't there already.
$ make install
Installing Dgraph...
Commit SHA256: 15839b156e9920ca2c4ab718e1e73b6637b8ecec
Old SHA256: 596e362ede7466a2569d19ded91241e457e665ada785d05a902af2c6f2cea508
Installed dgraph to /Users/<homedir>/go/bin/dgraph
$ dgraph version
Dgraph version : v24.0.2-103-g15839b156
Dgraph codename : dgraph
Dgraph SHA-256 : 9ce738cd055dfebdef5d68b2a49ea4e062e597799498607dbd1bb618d48861a6
Commit SHA-1 : 15839b156
Commit timestamp : 2025-01-10 17:56:49 -0500
Branch : username/some-branch-that-im-on
Go version : go1.22.7
jemalloc enabled : true
For Dgraph official documentation, visit https://dgraph.io/docs.
For discussions about Dgraph , visit https://discuss.dgraph.io.
For fully-managed Dgraph Cloud , visit https://dgraph.io/cloud.
Licensed variously under the Apache Public License 2.0 and Dgraph Community License.
Copyright 2015-2025 Hypermode Inc.
make image-local
To build a test Docker image from source, use make image-local
. This builds a linux-compatible
Dgraph binary using make dgraph
and creates a Docker image tagged dgraph/dgraph:local
.
You can then use this local image to test Dgraph in your local Docker setup.
For release images, follow Doing a release. It creates
Docker images that contains dgraph
and badger
commands.
Dgraph employs a complex sophisticated testing framework that includes extensive test coverage.
Due to the comprehensive nature of these tests, a complete test run can take several hours, depending
on your hardware. To manage this complex testing process efficiently, we've developed a custom test
framework implemented in Go, which resides in the ./t directory. This specialized framework provides
enhanced control and flexibility beyond what's available through standard Go testing framework.
For dependencies, runner flags and instructions for running tests on non-Linux machines, see the README in the t folder.
Other integration tests do not use the testing framework located in the t
folder. Consult the github
actions definitions folder to discover the tests we run as part of our continuous delivery process.
Non-integration unit tests exist for many core packages that can be exercised without invoking the testing
framework. For instance, to unit test the core DQL parsing package: go test github.com/hypermodeinc/dgraph/v24/dql
.
Over years of writing big scalable systems, we are convinced that striving for simplicity wherever possible is the only way to build robust systems. This simplicity could be in design, could be in coding, or could be achieved by rewriting an entire module, that you may have painstakingly finished yesterday.
- Pull requests are welcome, as long as you're willing to put in the effort to meet the guidelines. After you fork dgraph, create your pull request against our
main
branch - Contributors are required to execute our Individual Contributor License Agreement
- Aim for clear, well written, maintainable code
- Simple and minimal approach to features, like Go
- New features must include passing unit tests, and integration tests when appropriate
- Refactoring existing code now for better performance, better readability or better testability wins over adding a new feature
- Don't add a function to a module that you don't use right now, or doesn't clearly enable a planned functionality
- Don't ship a half done feature, which would require significant alterations to work fully
- Avoid Technical debt like cancer
- Leave the code cleaner than when you began
- We're following Go Code Review
- Use
go fmt
to format your code before committing - If you see any code which clearly violates the style guide, please fix it and send a pull request. No need to ask for permission
- Avoid unnecessary vertical spaces. Use your judgment or follow the code review comments
- Wrap your code and comments to 120 characters, unless doing so makes the code less legible
Every new source file must begin with a license header.
Most of Dgraph, Badger, and the Dgraph clients (dgo, dgraph-js, pydgraph and dgraph4j) are licensed under the Apache 2.0 license:
/*
* Copyright 2016-2025 Hypermode Inc. and Contributors
*
* Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
* you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
* You may obtain a copy of the License at
*
* http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
* WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
* See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
* limitations under the License.
*/
Signed commits help in verifying the authenticity of the contributor. We use signed commits in Dgraph, and we prefer it, though it's not compulsory to have signed commits. This is a recommended step for people who intend to contribute to Dgraph on a regular basis.
Follow instructions to generate and setup GPG keys for signing code commits on this Github Help page.