Rust Backend Template: GraphQL + PostgreSQL + OpenID Connect

A production-ready backend template featuring GraphQL API, PostgreSQL database, and JWKS authentication. Built with clean architecture principles and modern Rust practices.

🚀 Key Features

Frontend template for Android/iOS applications

• Expo Mobile App Template

Core Technologies

• GraphQL API using async-graphql with playground support
• PostgreSQL Database with both embedded (for fast development or testing) and external options
• JWKS Authentication compatible with Auth0 and other OpenID Connect providers
• Axum Web Framework for flexible and performant HTTP handling

Developer Experience

• Fast compilation times and responsive IDE support
• Embedded database option for rapid development
• Authentication-free mode for testing
• Comprehensive integration tests with isolated database support
• Cross-platform support (Linux/MacOS/Windows)

Production Ready

• Docker containerization with optimized caching
• CI/CD pipeline configuration
• Structured logging with tracing
• Type-safe error handling using thiserror
• Database migrations and entity patterns using sqlx

🏁 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Rust toolchain (latest stable)
• PostgreSQL (optional if using embedded database)
• Auth0 account or other OIDC provider

Environment Setup

1. Copy .env.example to .env and update the variables with your own values.
2. Refer to the Auth0 documentation for more information on how to configure the authentication system.
3. Refer to Database Setup for more information on how to configure the database.

Running the Application

Development Mode (with embedded database)

cargo run --features embedded-database

Standard Mode (external database)

cargo run --database-url "postgresql://user:pass@localhost/dbname"
# or with .env configuration
cargo run

Testing the API

1. Access GraphQL playground: http://<listen_address>/graphql
2. Try a sample query:

   query {
     getCurrentUserFeed(category: HOME, limit: 10) {
       offset
       posts {
         content
       }
     }
   }

🧪 Testing

# Run integration tests (uses isolated database)
cargo test --features embedded-database

# Run specific test suite
cargo test user_tests --features embedded-database

Project Structure

Refer to the Project Structure for more information on the project structure.