Field-Level Control

Use the graphql.field option to customize how individual fields are exposed in the GraphQL schema.

Basic Field Options

message User {
  string id = 1 [(graphql.field) = { required: true }];
  string email = 2 [(graphql.field) = { name: "emailAddress" }];
  string internal_id = 3 [(graphql.field) = { omit: true }];
  string password_hash = 4 [(graphql.field) = { omit: true }];
}

Available Options

Renaming Fields

Use name to map protobuf field names to GraphQL conventions:

message User {
  string user_name = 1 [(graphql.field) = { name: "username" }];
  string email_address = 2 [(graphql.field) = { name: "email" }];
  int64 created_at_unix = 3 [(graphql.field) = { name: "createdAt" }];
}

Generated GraphQL:

type User {
  username: String!
  email: String!
  createdAt: Int!
}

Omitting Fields

Hide sensitive or internal fields:

message User {
  string id = 1;
  string name = 2;
  string password_hash = 3 [(graphql.field) = { omit: true }];
  string internal_notes = 4 [(graphql.field) = { omit: true }];
}

Generated GraphQL:

type User {
  id: String!
  name: String!
  # password_hash and internal_notes are not exposed
}

Required Fields

Mark fields as non-nullable in GraphQL:

message CreateUserInput {
  string name = 1 [(graphql.field) = { required: true }];
  string email = 2 [(graphql.field) = { required: true }];
  string bio = 3;  // Optional
}

Generated GraphQL:

input CreateUserInput {
  name: String!
  email: String!
  bio: String
}

Federation Directives

For Apollo Federation, use field-level directives:

message User {
  string id = 1 [(graphql.field) = { 
    required: true
    shareable: true 
  }];
  
  string email = 2 [(graphql.field) = { 
    external: true 
  }];
  
  repeated Review reviews = 3 [(graphql.field) = { 
    requires: "id" 
  }];
}

See Federation Directives for more details.

Combining Options

Options can be combined:

message Product {
  string upc = 1 [(graphql.field) = { 
    required: true
    name: "id"
    shareable: true 
  }];
}

Default Values

Protobuf fields have default values (empty string, 0, false). In GraphQL:

• Fields with defaults may still be nullable
• Use required: true to make them non-nullable
• The gateway handles type conversion automatically