# Test your GraphQL queries easily
Altair makes it very easy and delightful to test your GraphQL queries and server implementations, providing you with all the features you would need. Download it here.
Altair (also Altaïr) is a free feature packed GraphQL IDE that helps you with things like running GraphQL queries, mutations and subscriptions, prettifying or minifying queries, uploading files with the multipart specification (opens new window), downloading queries and schemas, exporting collections of queries, and many more. It provides all that in a simple but powerful editor and an easy-to-use UI interface.
It is an indispensable tool in the tool belt of any GraphQL developer or team!
# Available Platforms
There are several options to choose from for you to use Altair, depending on your environment:
Desktop apps for Mac, Windows and Linux (opens new window). You can get the latest version here (opens new window).
Chrome extension (opens new window) for Google Chrome (opens new window) users.
Firefox add-on (opens new window) for Mozilla Firefox (opens new window) users.
For MacOS users, you can also install Altair using cask (opens new window):
$ brew install --cask altair-graphql-client
For linux users, you can also install Altair using snap (opens new window):
$ snap install altair
For quick one-time usage or to see how it works, you can also use the web app (opens new window): https://altair-gql.sirmuel.design/ (opens new window)
Note
It is NOT recommended to use the web app for full development, because there are some limitations there which might lead to frustrations if something isn't working as expected. It is preferred for you to use the desktop apps where possible, or the browser extensions for ease of use.
# Usage with your application
You can easily integrate Altair with several application setups. Check the available integrations.
You can also use Altair directly from a CDN e.g. https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/build/dist/. You can take a look at this fiddle (opens new window) for an example of how to integrate using the CDN.
Checkout the features available in Altair here.
# How it's built
Altair GraphQL is built on modern web technologies using Angular (opens new window) - a JavaScript web framework, and written in Typescript (opens new window).
The desktop apps are built with electron (opens new window), another awesome opensource project from the folks at github (opens new window).
As a GraphQL IDE, it relies on graphql.js (opens new window) for several operations.
Altair is made to work with your existing workflow. You can run the desktop apps on MacOS (both on the intel and the Apple Silicon chips), on Windows and the various Linux distributions including Ubuntu (opens new window), Debian (opens new window), Fedora (opens new window), CentOS (opens new window), OpenSUSE (opens new window), etc.
The generated browser extensions are built to work on Google Chrome (opens new window) and Mozilla firefox (opens new window), but it can also work on Microsoft Edge (opens new window) and Opera (opens new window) browsers. The extensions allow you to debug your GraphQL development right in the browser environment you are already working in.