Export to JSON / JSONL

This page walks through exporting a graph to JSON or JSONL files using gqldb-exporter. The two formats share the same configuration shape — only the format value and the resulting file layout differ.

Usage Guides

Generate Configuration File

Bash
./gqldb-exporter -sample json
# or
./gqldb-exporter -sample jsonl

A file named export.sample.json.yml (or export.sample.jsonl.yml) will be created in the current directory. Rename it before editing so a re-run doesn't clobber your changes:

Bash
mv export.sample.json.yml export.json.yml

Modify Configuration File

Edit the renamed file to point at your source graph and choose an output directory. See the Export Configurations for every field; the only format-specific knob is format itself (json or jsonl).

config snippet
settings:
  format: json              # or jsonl
  output_path: "./exported"
  batch_size: 5000
  export_nodes: true
  export_edges: true
  include_metadata: true
  nodes_file: "nodes"
  edges_file: "edges"
  log_level: info

Execute Export

Bash
./gqldb-exporter -c export.json.yml

Output Layout

Within output_path, the exporter writes one file per label:

Directory layout
exported/
├── nodes.Person.json
├── nodes.Company.json
├── edges.KNOWS.json
└── edges.WORKS_AT.json

The pattern is <nodes_file>.<Label>.<format> for nodes and <edges_file>.<Label>.<format> for edges. With format: jsonl, the extension becomes .jsonl.

File Contents

JSON

Each file holds one JSON array. Each element carries the node's or edge's properties, with _id (and _from / _to for edges) as additional fields:

nodes.Person.json
[
  { "_id": "P001", "name": "Alice", "age": 30 },
  { "_id": "P002", "name": "Bob",   "age": 25 }
]

edges.KNOWS.json
[
  { "_from": "P001", "_to": "P002", "since": 2024 },
  { "_from": "P002", "_to": "P001", "since": 2025 }
]

JSONL

Same shape as JSON, but with one object per line and no enclosing array:

nodes.Person.jsonl
{ "_id": "P001", "name": "Alice", "age": 30 }
{ "_id": "P002", "name": "Bob",   "age": 25 }

JSONL is the more memory-friendly choice for very large exports: downstream tools can stream the file line by line without parsing the entire array into memory.