Technology

GraphQL

GraphQL is a query language for APIs where the client specifies what fields it needs and the server returns exactly that shape. TantraDev uses GraphQL where the client surface is varied (web, iOS, Android, an internal admin) and the over-fetch / under-fetch tax of REST starts costing real bandwidth. We default to REST for service-to-service and GraphQL at the BFF or storefront edge.

Where we use it

In production at TantraDev.

E-commerce headless commerce

Related terms

Concepts that travel with this one.

Architecture rarely lives in isolation — these are the terms that come up in the same conversation.

TECHNOLOGY

gRPC

gRPC is a Google-designed RPC framework over HTTP/2 with Protocol Buffers as the schema and serialization layer. The contract is the .proto file, generated code lives in every client language, and bidirectional streaming is a first-class primitive. TantraDev uses gRPC service-to-service where latency budgets and schema discipline justify the tooling tax over a JSON REST contract.

Canonical references

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