Traverse Relations (Outbound + Backlinks)

An entity has two relation views: outbound (relations starting at this entity) and backlinks (relations pointing to this entity from elsewhere). Both are needed to fully understand how a node sits in the graph.

Outbound: entity.relations

Returns relations where this entity is the from. Use this to see "what does this entity link to?".

query Outbound($id: UUID!) {
  entity(id: $id) {
    name
    relations(first: 50) {
      totalCount
      nodes {
        id
        typeEntity { name }
        toEntity { id name }
        position
      }
    }
  }
}

Example output for the Stable Diffusion project entity:

{
  "data": {
    "entity": {
      "name": "Stable Diffusion",
      "relations": {
        "totalCount": 13,
        "nodes": [
          { "typeEntity": { "name": "Blocks" }, "toEntity": { "id": "...", "name": null } },
          { "typeEntity": { "name": "Topics" }, "toEntity": { "id": "...", "name": "Generative AI" } },
          { "typeEntity": { "name": "Authors" }, "toEntity": { "id": "...", "name": "Robin Rombach" } }
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

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Backlinks: entity.backlinks

Returns relations where this entity is the to. Use this to see "what links to this entity?".

query Backlinks($id: UUID!) {
  entity(id: $id) {
    name
    backlinks(first: 50) {
      totalCount
      nodes {
        typeEntity { name }
        fromEntity { id name }
      }
    }
  }
}

Example: querying the Project type entity returns the entities tagged with it:

{
  "data": {
    "entity": {
      "name": "Project",
      "backlinks": {
        "totalCount": 3414,
        "nodes": [
          { "typeEntity": { "name": "Types" }, "fromEntity": { "name": "One concern" } },
          { "typeEntity": { "name": "Types" }, "fromEntity": { "name": "Santiago Roel Santos" } }
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

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Filtering relations

Both relations and backlinks accept a filter argument that takes the same shape as RelationFilter:

# Just the Authors relations from this project
relations(
  first: 50
  filter: { typeId: { is: "$AUTHORS_PROPERTY_ID" } }
) { ... }

# Just the type-tag backlinks (i.e. "what's tagged with this type?")
backlinks(
  first: 50
  filter: { typeId: { is: "$TYPES_PROPERTY_ID" } }
) { ... }

Common patterns

Goal	Field	Filter
What types is this entity tagged with?	relations	typeId: { is: TYPES_PROPERTY }
Who authored this paper?	relations	typeId: { is: AUTHORS_PROPERTY }
What papers did this person author?	backlinks	typeId: { is: AUTHORS_PROPERTY }
What's tagged with this topic?	backlinks	typeId: { is: TYPES_PROPERTY } (assuming Topic-as-Type)
What blocks are attached here?	relations	typeId: { is: BLOCKS_PROPERTY }

Notes

• Relations have their own IDs. If you need to delete or update a specific edge, use the relation's id (not its endpoints). See Graph.deleteRelation in the SDK.
• toEntity { name } can be null. Block entities, anonymous entities, and partial publishes often lack a Name — the relation still resolves, the target just has no label.
• position is for ordered collections. Relations on a parent entity (e.g. Blocks) have a fractional-index position so the consumer can render them in order. See Position.generateBetween in the SDK.