Software Engineering Daily Rethinking GraphQL Frontends with Robert Balicki
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Sep 23, 2025 Robert Balicki, Staff Software Engineer at Pinterest and former member of Meta's Relay team, explores the complexities of fetching and managing GraphQL data. He introduces Isograph, his innovative, type-safe solution that helps tackle over-fetching and under-fetching issues efficiently. Robert discusses how Isograph can improve data stability through client fields and compile-time composition. He also compares Isograph to Relay, sharing insights on performance, use cases, and future adaptability across different platforms.
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Smithy In Rust Shaped His Approach
- Robert built Smithy, a Rust framework that used procedural macros to emulate JSX and avoid borrow checker issues.
- That project influenced his focus on safe, developer-friendly UI tooling.
Compile-Time Query Generation
- Isograph compiles component-declared fields into an exact page query at build time, fetching no more and no less data.
- This removes coordination overhead and keeps local component changes stable and efficient.
Fetch Exactly What The Screen Needs
- Avoid both overfetching and underfetching by letting components declare their data and automating query assembly.
- Fetch exactly the data for the screen to reduce backend load and prevent runtime breaks.
