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Version: v25.0 (latest)

Read only and Strict mode

You can control mutation operations using the --limit flag with the mutations parameter. There are three modes available: allow, disallow, and strict.

Mutation Modes​

Allow (Default)​

The default mode is allow. In this mode:

  • Users can read and mutate data
  • Mutations can be performed on predicates that don't exist in the DQL schema
  • If a predicate in a mutation doesn't exist in the schema, it gets automatically added to the schema with an appropriate Dgraph Type

No configuration is needed as this is the default behavior.

Disallow​

The disallow mode disables all mutation operations. This makes the database read-only.

dgraph alpha --limit "mutations=disallow;"

Strict​

The strict mode enforces schema validation for mutations:

  • Mutations are only allowed on predicates that are already declared in the schema
  • Before performing a mutation on a predicate that doesn't exist in the schema, you must first perform an alter operation to add that predicate and its schema type
dgraph alpha --limit "mutations=strict"