Case Study: Block scales graph adoption with Apollo GraphQL and AI

Block brings 3,000 services onto the graph in 4 days with Apollo GraphQL

The customer, Block, faced significant challenges with API fragmentation across its 700 teams and 3,000 internal gRPC services. This siloed architecture slowed development, delayed partner integrations, and created barriers to innovation. The vendor, Apollo GraphQL, provided a solution using Apollo Connectors to help Block bring these disparate APIs onto a unified graph without forcing teams to deploy new services or learn new tooling.

Apollo GraphQL's solution involved leveraging Apollo Connectors and the Apollo MCP Server, which Block creatively adapted for its gRPC services via an existing JSON translation layer. This was paired with Block's own AI agent, Goose, to automate schema generation. The results were transformative; a four-day hackathon saw dozens of APIs connected, leading to a company-wide pivot to make Connectors the default path to the graph. This significantly accelerated adoption, reduced engineering costs, and provided a scalable, production-ready system for unifying Block's entire API surface.

Block