- installation guide
- delegation
- monitoring
- security hardening
- tooling
- skill
The Graph — Ecosystem Tooling
A working review of the tools around The Graph: what each one is for, who it serves, and whether an Indexer should run it, read it, or ignore it.
All links checked 2026-09-17.
Official
Graph Explorer — https://thegraph.com/explorer
Canonical profiles, subgraphs, curation and delegation. Everything else in this list is a different view of the same on-chain data. When a dashboard and the Explorer disagree, the network subgraph decides — not either UI.
Use: the source of truth for Indexer profiles and delegation.
Delegate — https://thegraph.com/explorer/delegate
The delegation UI. Under Graph Horizon you choose an Indexer and a data
service (SubgraphService). See the Delegation tab.
Rewards Eligibility Oracle — https://hub.thegraph.foundation/reo/
Reads the live eligibility criteria straight from the oracle repository: active on 5+ days per rolling 28 days, at least one qualifying query per counted day, qualifying = HTTP 200 / under 5,000 ms / under 50,000 blocks behind head. Established by GIP-0079.
Use: required reading for any Indexer whose indexing rewards matter. The criteria are gateway-observed, so no local check can replace it.
Graph Node docs — https://thegraph.com/docs/en/indexing/tooling/graph-node/
Ports, config.toml, horizontal scaling, dedicated query nodes, and the
explicit warning never to expose the admin ports.
Subgraph Gateway — https://thegraph.com/docs/en/gateways/subgraphs/overview/
Documentation for operating a gateway: the entry point between data consumers and Indexers, handling routing, QoS, auth, billing and per-query payment over Graph Tally / Horizon Escrow. It gives an operator branded, metered access to 15,000+ published subgraphs without running indexing infrastructure for each one.
Note: this is a different business from indexing — consumer-side revenue rather than protocol rewards. Worth a separate evaluation, not an afternoon.
Indexer operations
graphprotocol-mainnet-docker — https://github.com/StakeSquid/graphprotocol-mainnet-docker
The one-host Compose stack: graph-node, indexer-agent, indexer-service-rs, indexer-tap-agent, PostgreSQL, Traefik, Prometheus, Grafana, Alertmanager, cAdvisor, node_exporter, plus a CLI container. Requires an external EIP-1898-capable archive RPC; the archive node is not included.
Use: the basis of the POSTHUMAN indexer deployment. See the Installation guide.
Indexer Tools v3 — https://github.com/vincenttaglia/indexer-tools-v3
Allocation Dashboard, Subgraph Dashboard and Allocation Wizard in one Vue 3 app. Self-hostable:
Needs a Graph Studio API key (https://thegraph.com/studio/apikeys/).
Use: the highest-value optional tool for an Indexer. Self-host it rather than using a shared deployment — allocation planning should not leak through someone else's analytics.
Allocation Optimizer — https://github.com/graphprotocol/allocation-optimizer
The optimiser The Graph's own docs recommend, integrated with the indexer stack. Proposes allocation sizes from signal and competing stake.
Use: evaluate against real closed-allocation returns before trusting it with size decisions. An optimiser's model of the reward curve changes as your own stake moves.
Analytics and dashboards (read-only)
| Tool | What it is | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| GraphSeer | GraphOps analytics for Indexers, deployments and network performance | Good cross-check for allocation decisions |
| graphtools.pro/delegators | Delegator activity log, regenerated every 8 hours (04:00/12:00/20:00 UTC) | Useful for watching delegation flows; not real-time |
| Lodestar | Protocol analytics site; the current front page is a public roadmap-progress board | Check what it is serving before citing it |
| okgraph | Lightweight, fast subgraph browsing UI | Handy for quick deployment lookups |
| The Graph Market | Client-rendered marketplace front-end; no server-side content to inspect | Confirm scope in-app before relying on it |
None of these is a monitoring system. They are periodic, external, and can be stale or wrong; alerting belongs on your own Prometheus.
Data consumption
Pinax API — https://pinax.network/products/api
Token, NFT, balance, perp and prediction-market data over REST, built with The Graph, with a native MCP server for agents. 70+ chains, sub-second on hot endpoints.
Use: consumer-side. Relevant if you build products on blockchain data, not for running an Indexer.
AI agents
Subgraph MCP — https://thegraph.com/docs/en/subgraphs/tooling/subgraph-mcp/introduction/
An open-source Model Context Protocol server exposing The Graph's subgraph data as MCP tools: search subgraphs, inspect GraphQL schemas, run queries against deployments, fetch 30-day query volumes. It holds no model — it translates MCP calls into subgraph queries. Works with Claude, Cline and Cursor.
Use: low cost, immediately useful for any agent-assisted analysis of network data.
Agent Skills for Subgraphs — https://thegraph.com/docs/en/subgraphs/tooling/skills/
Subgraph development, optimization and testing knowledge packaged for AI coding assistants, shipped in two formats: a Claude Code plugin and OpenClaw skills.
Use: directly compatible with the agent framework POSTHUMAN already runs. These cover subgraph development; indexer operations are covered by the POSTHUMAN skill on the Skill tab.
Summary — what an Indexer should actually run
| Priority | Tool | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Required | graphprotocol-mainnet-docker + own Prometheus/Alertmanager | the stack and the only real monitoring |
| Required | REO criteria page | rewards depend on gateway-observed quality |
| High | Self-hosted Indexer Tools v3 | allocation and subgraph decisions |
| High | Own external endpoint probe | catches DNS/TLS/proxy failures the stack cannot see |
| Medium | Allocation Optimizer | after validating against realized returns |
| Medium | Subgraph MCP + agent skills | agent-assisted analysis and development |
| Read-only | GraphSeer, graphtools.pro, okgraph | cross-checks, never alert sources |
| Strategic | Subgraph Gateway | a separate consumer-side business decision |