# AX Check: apollographql.com Checked 2026-10-22. Apollo's docs and quickstart are clean, but pricing details slip 21 of 23 checklist items passed, including quickstart, CLI, and MCP setup. One agent of three gave only vague pricing instead of exact figures. ## Onboarding needs a login ## Coding sessions All three sessions completed and reviewed the live pricing page. Two agents quoted exact figures (Free tier request caps, $5 per million requests, signup credit, Enterprise custom pricing). The third only noted the SDK is free and pointed to the pricing page without stating actual paid tier rates. ### DeepSeek V4.1 Flash [View public run](https://agents.withgauge.com/p/runs/b329e0b5-43d0-4431-a0fb-3db5369c143d) Β· [Read transcript](https://www.ax-check.com/apollographql.com/sessions/deepseek.json) Quoted pricing from the fetched pricing page: a Free tier capped at 60 req/min, Developer from $5 per million requests with volume tiers, and a $50 signup credit that requires a card. Also named the per-plan user limits and data retention. (seq 27, seq 79) #### End-to-end onboarding - **Onboarding needs a login**: The agent never obtained real Apollo/GraphOS credentials on its own; it only had a gateway key for the LLM itself, not an Apollo API key. It tested the hosted GraphOS Platform API unauthenticated and with a deliberately invalid key, both correctly returning INVALID_API_KEY, proving the control-plane workflow needs human-provided credentials that were never supplied. The only successful query was Apollo Client hitting a public, no-auth third-party GraphQL API, not Apollo's own authenticated product, so self-service onboarding to the actual product was not demonstrated. Event 67: ```text {"data":null,"errors":[{"message":"Unauthorized: Invalid credentials provided","path":[],"extensions":{"code":"INVALID_API_KEY","service":"identity"}}]} ``` Event 77: ```text BLOCKED: no APOLLO_KEY set. The hosted GraphOS control plane needs an API key from an Apollo account (https://studio.apollographql.com). Cannot proceed. ``` Event 60: ```text Country: πŸ‡§πŸ‡· Brazil Capital: BrasΓ­lia Continent: South America Languages: Portuguese Cached name: Brazil exit: 0 ``` #### Hallucinated URLs None identified in this transcript. #### Blockers - **GraphOS control plane requires an Apollo account API key**: Apollo's hosted GraphOS Platform API (the control plane for managing graphs, schema checks, and insights) rejects all requests without a valid API key. This is expected product behavior (standard authentication), not a product defect or test-environment issue. The agent correctly identified this as a human-credential gap rather than attempting a workaround, and stopped the control-plane workflow cleanly. Event 68: ```text {"message":"Unauthorized: Invalid credentials provided","path":[],"extensions":{"code":"INVALID_API_KEY","service":"identity"}} ``` Event 77: ```text BLOCKED: no APOLLO_KEY set. The hosted GraphOS control plane needs an API key from an Apollo account (https://studio.apollographql.com). Cannot proceed. ``` #### Suggested Changes - **Offer a scoped, instantly-issued demo API key for GraphOS Platform API evaluation**: On the GraphOS Platform API overview docs page, provide a way to get a temporary or sandboxed API key without a full account signup flow, similar to how the public Countries API requires zero auth. Verify by having a fresh agent/user run a 'me' query against the Platform API endpoint with the demo key and confirm it returns real account data instead of INVALID_API_KEY. Event 68: ```text "message":"Unauthorized: Invalid credentials provided" ``` Event 65: ```text https://www.apollographql.com/docs/graphos/platform-api/overview ``` ### Kimi K3 [View public run](https://agents.withgauge.com/p/runs/e79fc1c1-7f18-4cfd-bb68-e0ff02eeafca) Β· [Read transcript](https://www.ax-check.com/apollographql.com/sessions/kimi.json) Checked the live pricing page, then quoted three tiers: Free with $50 signup credit, Developer at $5 per million requests (usage-based, no SLA) and custom Enterprise. Noted the client libraries are free. (seq 29, seq 31, seq 37) #### End-to-end onboarding - **End-to-end onboarding not demonstrated**: The agent only used Apollo Client (an open-source npm package) against a free, no-auth public GraphQL demo API (countries.trevorblades.com). It never obtained or used real Apollo product credentials (e.g. a GraphOS/Apollo Studio API key), so no authenticated operation against the actual hosted Apollo product (GraphOS) was demonstrated. The agent explicitly states this gap itself. Event 13: ```text curl -s -m 10 -X POST https://countries.trevorblades.com/ -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"query":"{ countries { code name } }"}' | head -c 300 ``` Event 37: ```text the hosted platform's real workflow (creating a graph, publishing schemas via Rover, viewing metrics) requires an Apollo Studio account and a personal API key, which I don't have ``` #### Hallucinated URLs None identified in this transcript. #### Blockers - **No self-service path to Apollo GraphOS credentials**: Testing the actual paid/hosted Apollo product (GraphOS Studio - schema registry, publishing, metrics) requires a human-created Apollo Studio account and personal API key. This is a normal authentication requirement, not a product defect, but it meant the session could only exercise the free open-source client SDK against an unrelated third-party demo API rather than Apollo's own hosted service. Event 37: ```text the hosted platform's real workflow (creating a graph, publishing schemas via Rover, viewing metrics) requires an Apollo Studio account and a personal API key, which I don't have ``` #### Suggested Changes None identified in this transcript. ### Qwen 3.8 Max [View public run](https://agents.withgauge.com/p/runs/b6d05a63-8fa9-4a61-b889-12ddc3a9032c) Β· [Read transcript](https://www.ax-check.com/apollographql.com/sessions/qwen.json) Only said the open-source SDK costs nothing. Gave no figure or workload-based estimate for paid GraphOS, just vague tiers and a pointer to apollo.dev/pricing (seq 61) #### End-to-end onboarding - **End-to-end onboarding not demonstrated**: The agent never attempted Apollo GraphOS account creation, API key retrieval, or any authenticated operation against Apollo's own hosted product. It used only the free open-source Apollo Client SDK against an unrelated third-party public API (Rick and Morty GraphQL) that requires no auth at all. No credentials were obtained or used for Apollo's product, so self-service onboarding was never exercised. Event 54: ```text Total characters: 826 Total pages: 42 #1 Rick Sanchez β€” Human, Alive, from Earth (C-137) ``` Event 61: ```text No GraphOS credentials available, so the example uses only the free SDK layer against a hosted public API β€” consistent with your "stay light" constraint. ``` #### Hallucinated URLs None identified in this transcript. #### Blockers - **No Apollo GraphOS credentials obtainable in sandbox**: The agent could not get API keys or an account for Apollo's hosted GraphOS platform (schema registry, CI checks, Router cloud) during the session, so it fell back to Apollo's free open-source client against a third-party demo API instead of Apollo's own backend. This reflects the session's lack of a human-provided login/credential rather than a product defect, since GraphOS legitimately requires an account. Event 61: ```text No GraphOS credentials available, so the example uses only the free SDK layer against a hosted public API β€” consistent with your "stay light" constraint. ``` - **Unreachable public GraphQL demo endpoint (recovered)**: The countries.trevorblades.org endpoint and graphqlzero.ammora.me returned connection failures (exit code 6 / curl code 000) during network checks. This was a sandbox network/environment limitation, not a product issue, and the agent recovered immediately by switching to the Rick and Morty GraphQL API, which worked. Event 19: ```text 000 Command exited with code 6 ``` Event 23: ```text https://graphqlzero.ammora.me/api -> 000 ``` - **Apollo Client v4 API mismatch caused initial runtime error**: The agent's first attempt used the legacy `uri:` shortcut on ApolloClient, which Apollo Client v4 no longer supports, causing a runtime crash. This was an agent/code error due to unfamiliarity with the v4 API change, and was fixed within one turn by switching to an explicit HttpLink. Event 45: ```text Query failed: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'request') ``` Event 47: ```text Apollo Client v4 needs an explicit link instead of the legacy `uri` option. Fixing: ``` #### Suggested Changes - **Update Apollo Client quickstart docs for v4 ApolloClient constructor**: The quickstart pattern of passing `uri` directly to `new ApolloClient({...})` fails in Apollo Client v4 with an unhelpful error ("Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'request')"), requiring developers to discover that an explicit `HttpLink` is now mandatory. Update the getting-started example/docs to show `link: new HttpLink({ uri })` as the default pattern, and verify by running the documented snippet fresh against v4.3.5 to confirm no runtime error on first try. Event 45: ```text Query failed: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'request') ``` Event 50: ```text link: new HttpLink({ uri: "https://rickandmortyapi.com/graphql" }), ``` ### Task given to each agent Help me build a simple example using Apollo GraphQL. Tell me how pricing works, and briefly tell me whether this product will be easy for you to manage. Let me know if you get blocked. If this product has no developer workflow you can act on, say so plainly and stop. Stay light: use the hosted product through its SDK or API. Do not start local service stacks or wait for long-running commands; if the quickstart requires either, say so plainly and stop. No product credentials were supplied and no purchases were authorized. ## Score: A Β· 100/100 (provisional) Grades come from completed site checks. Coding sessions and skipped checks do not affect the score. ### Clarity - **Pass** β€” Homepage answers Markdown requests ```text Homepage returned text/markdown with 200 when requested with Accept: text/markdown. ``` - **Pass** β€” llms.txt provides an actionable documentation index ```text llms.txt lists docs sections with .md links and per-section full indexes. ``` - **Pass** β€” llms.txt provides navigation guidance ```text llms.txt groups docs by product with descriptions and links to full indexes. ``` - **Pass** β€” llms.txt mentions offered API, MCP, and skills ```text llms.txt links GraphOS MCP Server install, Apollo MCP Server, and Apollo Skills pages. ``` - **Pass** β€” A compact guide representation exists ```text Homepage returns text/markdown via content negotiation; docs pages offer .md variants. ``` - **Pass** β€” A focused guide is directly retrievable ```text GraphOS quickstart .md gives concrete steps: install Rover, rover init, run queries. ``` - **Pass** β€” Equivalent instructions fit a token budget ```text Quickstart .md is 2087 tokens, well under 8000 and below its HTML extraction. ``` - **Pass** β€” Product-docs links survive format changes ```text Markdown homepage retains docs, GraphOS, pricing and developer links. ``` - **Pass** β€” The compact guide is independently actionable ```text GraphOS quickstart gives concrete steps: install Rover, rover init, run query, publish schema. ``` - **Pass** β€” Install and next-step links resolve ```text Fetched quickstart and next-step pages (Connectors, platform, routing) all returned 200. ``` ### Onboarding - **Pass** β€” Docs lead to a relevant quickstart ```text llms.txt links GraphOS and Connectors quickstarts with concrete step-by-step setup instructions. ``` - **Pass** β€” Installation commands are extractable ```text Quickstart gives extractable install commands: curl/iwr Rover installer and rover config auth. ``` - **Pass** β€” Code examples are available without interaction ```text Quickstarts show inline GraphQL queries, schema snippets and terminal commands without interaction. ``` - **Pass** β€” Prerequisites and auth boundaries are explicit ```text Prerequisites list GraphOS Studio account, Rover CLI, and rover config auth; APOLLO_KEY obtainment linked. ``` ### Pricing - **Failed** β€” Agents identify pricing and its assumptions ```text 3 of 3 sessions were judged on pricing; 1 fell short. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: Quoted pricing from the fetched pricing page: a Free tier capped at 60 req/min, Developer from $5 per million requests with volume tiers, and a $50 signup credit that requires a card. Also named the per-plan user limits and data retention. (seq 27, seq 79) Kimi K3: Checked the live pricing page, then quoted three tiers: Free with $50 signup credit, Developer at $5 per million requests (usage-based, no SLA) and custom Enterprise. Noted the client libraries are free. (seq 29, seq 31, seq 37) Qwen 3.8 Max: Only said the open-source SDK costs nothing. Gave no figure or workload-based estimate for paid GraphOS, just vague tiers and a pointer to apollo.dev/pricing (seq 61) This behavioural item does not affect the fast grade. ``` - **Pass** β€” Pricing is readable without interaction ```text Apollo pricing page renders plan tiers and rates as static text without interaction. ``` - **Pass** β€” Prices are stated, not gated ```text Prices stated: Free, Developer $5/million requests, tiered rates listed publicly. ``` - **Pass** β€” Pricing units and limits are explicit ```text Units explicit: per million requests, per-minute rate limits, user and retention limits. ``` ### Activation - **Pass** β€” An API reference or OpenAPI spec is reachable ```text llms.txt links The GraphOS Platform API page for fetching graphs, publishing schemas, running checks. ``` - **Pass** β€” An MCP server is documented and well-formed ```text GraphOS MCP Server documented with endpoint, auth, client setup, tools and prompts. ``` - **Pass** β€” A CLI install path is documented ```text Rover CLI install documented via curl/iwr installer and rover config auth. ``` - **Skipped** β€” SDK packages resolve on their registries ```text No registry lookup result for an Apollo SDK package was supplied. ``` - **Pass** β€” Agent skills are published ```text Apollo Skills page documents npx skills add apollographql/skills and lists skills. ``` [Full report data](https://www.ax-check.com/apollographql.com/report.json)