How to Interact With ArangoDB

How to Communicate with the Server

The core component of ArangoDB is the ArangoDB server that stores data and handles requests. You have different options for talking to the server.

Web Interface

The easiest way to get started with ArangoDB is to use the included web interface. The ArangoDB server serves this graphical user interface (GUI) and you can access it by pointing your browser to the server’s endpoint, which is http://localhost:8529 by default if you run a local server.

The web interface lets you perform all essential actions like creating collections, viewing documents, and running queries. You can also view graphs and the server logs and metrics, as well as administrate user accounts.

Command-line Interface (CLI)

If you are a developer, you may feel more comfortable to work in a terminal. You can use arangosh, an interactive shell that ships with ArangoDB, and its JavaScript API, to interact with the server. You can also use it for automating tasks.

Drivers and Integrations

When you start using ArangoDB in your project, you will likely use an official or community-made driver written in the same language as your project. Drivers implement a programming interface that should feel natural for that programming language, and do all the talking to the server.

Integrations combine a third-party technology with ArangoDB and can be seen as a translation layer that takes over the low-level communication with the server.

REST API

Under the hood, all interactions with the server make use of its REST API. A REST API is an application programming interface based on the HTTP protocol that powers the world wide web.

All requests from the outside to the server need to made against the respective endpoints of this API to perform actions. This includes the web interface, arangosh, as well as the drivers and integrations for different programming languages and environments. They all provide a convenient way to work with ArangoDB, but you may use the low-level REST API directly as needed.

See the HTTP documentation to learn more about the API, how requests are handled and what endpoints are available.