What's new in Data API builder version 1.3 (November 2024)

Release notes and information about the updates and enhancements in Data API builder (DAB) version 1.3.
Release 1.3: Data API builder for Azure Databases

Introducing: Hot Reload

Your developer loop is now smaller, faster, and more efficient. Previously, changing the configuration file required stopping and restarting the engine. With Hot Reload, DAB detects configuration changes automatically and applies updates without restarting the engine. You can test changes instantly and stay in the flow. As of version 1.3, nearly every DAB feature supports Hot Reload.

Hot Reload is always on and can't be disabled. However, in production mode, it doesn't apply configuration changes. This behavior prevents unauthorized updates from silently reconfiguring endpoints. In a future release, production mode also supports the log-level setting—a feature that adjusts log verbosity by namespace to help diagnose runtime behavior.

Introducing: Cosmos schema generation

Data API builder is one of the first command-line interfaces (CLIs) to help developers generate schemas for NoSQL data sources. When you configure Cosmos DB, DAB needs a schema to build a structured GraphQL endpoint.

Creating that schema manually can be complex. With this release, the DAB CLI includes a schema generation feature. By sampling your data based on the entities you define, it generates a working schema—requiring only minimal review and updates to get started.

dab init 
  --database-type cosmosdb_nosql 
  --connection-string @env('cosmos-connection-string') 
  --cosmosdb_nosql-database MyDatabase
  --cosmosdb_nosql-container MyContainer

dab add MyEntity
  --source "MyDatabase.MyEntity"
  --permissions "anonymous:*"
  --graphQL "MyEntity:MyEntities"

dab export
  --graphql
  --generate
  -o ./schemas

dab start

Command line everything

As Data API builder evolves, the configuration file grows longer and more sophisticated. This format is JSON—easy to read and edit—it’s also easy to break with a misplaced comma or bracket. That option is why the DAB CLI helps developers safely modify configuration without editing JSON directly.

In version 1.3, the new dab configure subcommand updates almost every setting in the runtime and data-source sections. This update brings DAB closer to full CLI coverage, and each release continues to expand that coverage.

Example: Update data-source

Option 1: One comprehensive command

dab configure 
  --data-source.database-type cosmosdb_nosql
  --data-source.options.database testdbname 
  --data-source.options.schema testschema.gql

Option 2: Several smaller commands

dab configure --data-source.database-type cosmosdb_nosql
dab configure --data-source.options.database testdbname
dab configure --data-source.options.schema testschema.gql

A note about database-type

Some options are specific to the database type. If your configuration currently uses mssql and you apply Cosmos DB options without first switching to cosmosdb_nosql, the command fails.

More examples

dab configure --runtime.graphql.enabled true
dab configure --runtime.graphql.path /updatedPath
dab configure --runtime.graphql.allow-introspection true 
dab configure --runtime.graphql.multiple-mutations.create.enabled true

DAB continues to move toward complete command-line coverage—even for deeply nested configuration properties.