Quickstart​

1. Installation​

First let’s install the EdgeDB CLI. Open a terminal and run the appropriate command below.

macOS/Linux

$ 

curl https://sh.edgedb.com --proto '=https' -sSf1 | sh

Windows

# in Powershell
PS> iwr https://ps1.edgedb.com -useb | iex

This command downloads and executes a bash script that installs the edgedb CLI on your machine. You may be asked for your password. Once the installation completes, restart your terminal so the edgedb command becomes available.

Now let’s set up your EdgeDB project.

2. Initialize a project​

In a terminal, create a new directory and cd into it.

$ 

mkdir edgedb-quickstart

$ 

cd edgedb-quickstart

Then initialize your EdgeDB project:

$ 

edgedb project init

This starts an interactive tool that walks you through the process of setting up your first EdgeDB instance. You should see something like this:

$ 

edgedb project init

No `edgedb.toml` found at `~/path/to/edgedb-quickstart`
or above. Do you want to initialize a new project? [Y/n]
> Y

Specify the name of EdgeDB instance to use with this
project [default: edgedb_quickstart]:
> edgedb_quickstart

How would you like to run EdgeDB for this project?
1. Local (native package)
2. Docker
Type a number to choose an option:
> 1

Checking EdgeDB versions...
Specify the version of EdgeDB to use with this project
[default: 1-beta3]:
> 1-beta3
┌─────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Project directory   │ ~/path/to/edgedb-quickstart                   │
│ Project config      │ ~/path/to/edgedb-quickstart/edgedb.toml       │
│ Schema dir (empty)  │ ~/path/to/edgedb-quickstart/dbschema          │
│ Installation method │ Native System Package                         │
│ Version             │ 1.0b2+ga7130d5c7.cv202104290000-202105060205  │
│ Instance name       │ edgedb_quickstart                             │
└─────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Initializing EdgeDB instance...
Bootstrap complete. Server is up and running now.
Project initialialized.
To connect to edgedb_quickstart, just run `edgedb`.

This did a couple things.

First, it scaffolded your project by creating an edgedb.toml config file and a schema file dbschema/default.esdl. In the next section, you’ll define your schema in default.esdl.

Second, it spun up an EdgeDB instance called edgedb-quickstart (unless you overrode this with a different name). As long as you’re inside the project directory all edgedb CLI commands will be executed against this instance. For more details on how EdgeDB projects work, check out this blog post.

Let’s give it a try! Run edgedb in your terminal. This will connect to your database and open a REPL. You’re now connected to a live EdgeDB instance running on your computer! Try executing a simple query:

edgedb> 

SELECT 1 + 1;

{2}

Run \q to exit the REPL. More interesting queries are coming soon, promise! But first we need to set up a schema.

3. Set up your schema​

With EdgeDB, you define your schema with EdgeDB’s dedicated schema description language (SDL). It’s an elegant, declarative way to define your data model. By convention, you write your schema inside a file called default.esdl inside a dbschema folder in your project directory. Alternatively you can split your schema across several .esdl files; the filenames don’t matter.

Let’s build a simple movie database. We’ll need to define two object types (equivalent to table in SQL): Movie and Person. Open dbschema/default.esdl in your editor of choice and paste the following:

module default {
    type Person {
        required property first_name -> str;
        required property last_name -> str;
    }

    type Movie {
        required property title -> str;
        property year -> int64;
        required link director -> Person;
        multi link actors -> Person;
    }
};

Our Person schema just contains two string properties, first_name and last_name (both required). Our Movie schema contains a string property title and an optional integer property year. EdgeDB automatically assigns a unique id property to every object inserted into the database — no need to define it manually.

The Movie type also includes two links. In EdgeDB, links are used to represent relationships between object types. They entirely abstract away the concept of foreign keys. Later, you’ll see just how easy it is to write “deep” queries that include relations — no JOINs required!

Now we’re ready to run a migration to apply this schema to the database.

$ 

edgedb migration create

did you create object type 'default::Person'? [y,n,l,c,b,s,q,?]
> y
did you create object type 'default::Movie'? [y,n,l,c,b,s,q,?]
> y
Created ./dbschema/migrations/00001.edgeql, id: m1la5u4qi...

y - confirm the prompt, use the DDL statements
n - reject the prompt
l - list the DDL statements associated with prompt
c - list already confirmed EdgeQL statements
b - revert back to previous save point, perhaps previous question
s - stop and save changes (splits migration into multiple)
q - quit without saving changes
h or ? - print help

$ 

edgedb migrate

Applied m1la5u4qi... (00001.edgeql)

$ 

edgedb -d my-database migrate

$ edgedb
edgedb> \lt
┌─────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┐
│      Name       │          Extending           │
├─────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│ default::Movie  │ std::BaseObject, std::Object │
│ default::Person │ std::BaseObject, std::Object │
└─────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┘

4. Insert data​

For this tutorial we’ll just use the REPL tool to execute queries. In practice, you’ll probably be using one of EdgeDB’s client libraries for JavaScript/TypeScript, Go, or Python.

Open the REPL:

$ 

edgedb

Now, let’s add Ryan Gosling to the database with a simple EdgeQL query:

edgedb> 
....... 
....... 
....... 

INSERT Person {
    first_name := 'Ryan',
    last_name := 'Gosling',
};

{default::Person {id: 86d0eb18-b7ff-11eb-ba80-7b8e9facf817}}

That was easy!

As you can see, EdgeQL differs from SQL in some important ways. It uses curly braces and the assignment operator (:=) to make queries explicit and intuitive for the people who write them: programmers. It’s also completely composable, so it’s possible to add a movie, its director, and its actors simultaneously:

edgedb> 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 

INSERT Movie {
    title := 'Blade Runner 2049',
    year := 2017,
    director := (
        INSERT Person {
            first_name := 'Denis',
            last_name := 'Villeneuve',
        }
    ),
    actors := {
        (INSERT Person {
            first_name := 'Harrison',
            last_name := 'Ford',
        }),
        (INSERT Person {
            first_name := 'Ana',
            last_name := 'de Armas',
        }),
    }
};

{default::Movie {id: 4d0c8ddc-54d4-11e9-8c54-7776f6130e05}}

As you can see, it’s easy to nest INSERT subqueries inside each other. Now lets add Ryan Gosling to the cast with an UPDATE:

edgedb> 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 

UPDATE Movie
FILTER .title = 'Blade Runner 2049'
SET {
    actors += (
        SELECT Person
        FILTER .id = <uuid>'86d0eb18-b7ff-11eb-ba80-7b8e9facf817'
    )
};

{default::Movie {id: 64d024dc-54d5-11e9-8c54-a3f59e1d995e}}

This query also uses a subquery to fetch Ryan Gosling and add him to the cast of Blade Runner 2049 using the += operator. You could also remove a cast member with -=.

Our database is still a little sparse. Let’s add another movie directed by Denis Villeneuve: “Dune”.

edgedb> 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 

INSERT Movie {
    title := 'Dune',
    director := (
        SELECT Person
        FILTER
            .first_name = 'Denis' AND
            .last_name = 'Villeneuve'
        # the LIMIT is needed to satisfy the single
        # link requirement validation
        LIMIT 1
    )
};

{default::Movie {id: 64d024dc-54d5-11e9-8c54-a3f59e1d995e}}

We have to use LIMIT 1 for this query to be valid. In EdgeDB, the result of a query is a set (in the “set theory” sense). Since we’re assigning to Movie.director (a singular/”to-one” relation) , we need to provide a guarantee that our query set will only contain a single element. To do that we need to either 1) use LIMIT 1 or 2) FILTER by .id (or another property with a uniqueness constraint).

5. Run some queries​

Let’s write some basic queries:

edgedb> 

SELECT Movie;

{
  default::Movie {id: 4d0c8ddc-54d4-11e9-8c54-7776f6130e05},
  default::Movie {id: 64d024dc-54d5-11e9-8c54-a3f59e1d995e}
}

The above query simply returned all the Movie objects in the database. By default, only the id property is returned for each result. To select more properties, we add a shape:

edgedb> 
....... 
....... 
....... 

SELECT Movie {
    title,
    year
};

{
  default::Movie {title: 'Blade Runner 2049', year: 2017},
  default::Movie {title: 'Dune', year: {}},
}

This time, the results contain title and year as requested in the query shape. Note that the year for Dune is given as {} (the empty set). This is the equivalent of a NULL value in SQL.

Let’s narrow down the Movie search to “blade runner” using ILIKE (case-insensitive pattern matching). With the % at the end, anything after blade runner will match: “Blade Runner”, “Blade Runner 2049”, “BlAdE RUnnEr 2: Electric Boogaloo”, etc….

edgedb> 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 

SELECT Movie {
    title,
    year
}
FILTER .title ILIKE 'blade runner%';

{default::Movie {title: 'Blade Runner 2049', year: 2017}}

Let’s get more details about the Movie:

edgedb> 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 

SELECT Movie {
    title,
    year,
    director: {
        first_name,
        last_name
    },
    actors: {
        first_name,
        last_name
    }
}
FILTER .title ILIKE 'blade runner%';

{
  default::Movie {
    title: 'Blade Runner 2049',
    year: 2017,
    director: default::Person {
      first_name: 'Denis',
      last_name: 'Villeneuve'
    },
    actors: {
      default::Person {
        first_name: 'Harrison',
        last_name: 'Ford'
      },
      default::Person {
        first_name: 'Ryan',
        last_name: 'Gosling'
      },
      default::Person {
        first_name: 'Ana',
        last_name: 'de Armas',
      },
    },
  },
}

6. Migrate your schema​

Let’s add some more information about “Dune”. For example, we can add some of the actors, like Jason Momoa, Zendaya, and Oscar Isaac:

edgedb> 
....... 
....... 
....... 

INSERT Person {
    first_name := 'Jason',
    last_name := 'Momoa'
};

default::Person {id: 618d4cd6-54db-11e9-8c54-67c38dbbba18}

edgedb> 
....... 
....... 
....... 

INSERT Person {
    first_name := 'Oscar',
    last_name := 'Isaac'
};

default::Person {id: 618d5a64-54db-11e9-8c54-9393cfcd9598}

edgedb> 

INSERT Person { first_name := 'Zendaya'}

ERROR: MissingRequiredError: missing value for required property
'last_name' of object type 'default::Person'

Unfortunately, adding Zendaya isn’t possible with the current schema since both first_name and last_name are required. So let’s migrate our schema to make last_name optional.

First, we’ll update the dbschema/schema.esdl:

module default {
    type Person {
        required property first_name -> str;

        # delete "required"
        property last_name -> str;
    }
    type Movie {
        required property title -> str;
        property year -> int64; # the year of release
        required link director -> Person;
        multi link actors -> Person;
    }
};

Then we’ll create a new migration and apply it:

$ 

edgedb migration create

did you make property 'last_name' of object type
'default::Person' optional? [y,n,l,c,b,s,q,?]
> y
Created ./dbschema/migrations/00002.edgeql, id: m1k62y4x...

$ 

edgedb migrate

Applied m1k62y4x... (00002.edgeql)

Now back in our REPL we can add Zendaya:

edgeql> 
....... 
....... 

INSERT Person {
    first_name := 'Zendaya'
};

{default::Person {id: 65fce84c-54dd-11e9-8c54-5f000ca496c9}}

7. Computables​

Now that last names are optional, we may want an easy way to retrieve the full name for a given Person. We’ll do this with a computable property:

edgedb> 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 

SELECT Person {
    full_name := .first_name ++ ' ' ++ .last_name
      IF EXISTS .last_name
      ELSE .first_name
};

{
  default::Person {full_name: 'Zendaya'},
  default::Person {full_name: 'Harrison Ford'},
  default::Person {full_name: 'Ryan Gosling'},
  ...
}

Let’s say we’re planning to use full_name a lot. Instead of re-defining it in each query, we can add it directly to the schema alongside the other properties of Person. Let’s update dbschema/default.esdl:

module default {
    type Person {
        required property first_name -> str;
        property last_name -> str;

        # add computable property "name"
        property name :=
            .first_name ++ ' ' ++ .last_name
            IF EXISTS .last_name
            ELSE .first_name;
    }
    type Movie {
        required property title -> str;
        property year -> int64; # the year of release
        required link director -> Person;
        multi link actors -> Person;
    }
};

Then create and run another migration:

$ 

edgedb migration create

did you create property 'name' of object type
'default::Person'? [y,n,l,c,b,s,q,?]
> y
Created ./dbschema/migrations/00003.edgeql, id:
m1gd3vxwz3oopur6ljgg7kzrin3jh65xhhjbj6de2xaou6i7owyhaq

$ 

edgedb migrate

Applied m1gd3vxwz3oopur6ljgg7kzrin3jh65xhhjbj6de2xaou6i7owyhaq
(00003.edgeql)

Now we can easily fetch full_name just like any other property!

edgeql> 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 
....... 

SELECT Movie {
    title,
    year,
    director: { full_name },
    actors: { full_name }
}
FILTER .title = 'Dune';

{
    default::Movie {
        title: 'Dune',
        year: {},
        director: default::Person {name: 'Denis Villeneuve'},
        actors: {
            default::Person {name: 'Jason Momoa'},
            default::Person {name: 'Zendaya'},
            default::Person {name: 'Oscar Isaac'},
        }
    }
}

8. Onwards and upwards​

You now know the basics of EdgeDB! You’ve installed the CLI and database, set up a local project, created an initial schema, added and queried data, and run a schema migration.

• For guided tours of major concepts, check out the showcase pages for Data Modeling, EdgeQL, and Migrations.

• For a deep dive into the EdgeQL query language, check out the Interactive Tutorial.

• For an immersive, comprehensive walkthrough of EdgeDB concepts, check out our illustrated e-book Easy EdgeDB; it’s designed to walk a total beginner through EdgeDB, from the basics all the way through advanced concepts.

• To start building an application using the language of your choice, check out our client libraries for JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, and Go.

• Or just jump into the docs!