Add WPGraphQL as an mu-plugin with composer

While the docs say to add WPGraphQL to your WordPress plugin directory (wp-content/plugins), here's a quick config if you want to add it to your mu-plugins instead.

This configuration assumes your composer file sits in wp-content.

Why mu-plugins (must-use)?

I like to add core logic in mu-plugins because:

• no one can ever accidentally disable your logic, thereby causing unexpected errors
• all custom app logic is neatly organized in a central place as opposed to mixed in with 3rd party libraries or within a theme
• the code always loads; no need to activate anything

Check out the full WordPress.org docs on mu-plugins: https://wordpress.org/support/article/must-use-plugins/

tldr - the final composer json config

Here's the final composer.json file that you'll want to use.

{
  "name": "wpgrapql",
  "type": "project",
  "license": "proprietary",
  "config": {
    "preferred-install": "dist",
    "vendor-dir": "mu-plugins/app/vendor"
  },
  "extra": {
    "installer-paths": {
      "mu-plugins/{$name}/": [
        "type:wordpress-muplugin",
        "wp-graphql/wp-graphql",
        "wp-graphql/wp-graphiql"
      ]
    }
  },
  "repositories": [
    {
      "type": "github",
      "url": "https://github.com/wp-graphql/wp-graphql"
    },
    {
      "type": "github",
      "url": "https://github.com/wp-graphql/wp-graphiql"
    }
  ],
  "require": {
    "php": ">=7.4",
    "composer/installers": "^1.5",
    "wp-graphql/wp-graphql": "^0.8.0",
    "wp-graphql/wp-graphiql": "^1.0"
  }
}

Let's break down this composer file step-by-step.

Add the Github repositories in the repositories array

In your composer.json file, add the WPGraphQL GitHub repos to the repositories array. This tells composer to pull its data from GitHub, as opposed to packagist. Sometimes there's a slight delay on when a version is available in packagist.

 "repositories": [
    {
      "type": "github",
      "url": "https://github.com/wp-graphql/wp-graphql"
    },
    {
      "type": "github",
      "url": "https://github.com/wp-graphql/wp-graphiql"
    }
  ]

Provide the install path

This tells composer where to install the packages.

"extra": {
    "installer-paths": {
      "mu-plugins/{$name}/": [
        "type:wordpress-muplugin",
        "wp-graphql/wp-graphql",
        "wp-graphql/wp-graphiql"
      ]
    }
  },

Install via composer

Now that all of the settings are in place, you can go ahead an run the composer install commands.

composer require wp-graphql/wp-graphql
composer require wp-graphql/wp-graphiql

Load the files

I usually have a mu-plugins/load.php file that simply fires off some requires.

// wp-content/mu-plugins/load.php

require_once __DIR__ . '/wp-graphql/wp-graphql.php';
require_once __DIR__ . '/wp-graphiql/wp-graphiql.php';

WPGraphQL should now load on your site as expected!