The Linux Foundation has announced the launch of a new sub-organisation, the GraphQL Foundation, to support the application programming interface (API) query language developed by Facebook and released under an open-source licence in 2015.

“As one of GraphQL’s co-creators, I’ve been amazed and proud to see it grow in adoption since its open sourcing,” explains Lee Byron, who worked on the Facebook team developing the tool for internal use back in 2012. “Through the formation of the GraphQL Foundation, I hope to see GraphQL become industry standard by encouraging contributions from a broader group and creating a shared investment in vendor-neutral events, documentation, tools, and support.”

“We are thrilled to welcome the GraphQL Foundation into the Linux Foundation,” adds Jim Zemlin, executive director at the Linux Foundation, of the new group’s formation. “This advancement is important because it allows for long-term support and accelerated growth of this essential and groundbreaking technology that is changing the approach to API design for cloud-connected applications in any language.”

Designed as an alternative to REST-based APIs, GraphQL is built with flexibility in mind: users can query precise data from multiple cloud-based sources using fewer lines of code, greater performance, and improved security – all of which holds considerable promise for replacing older data communication methods for the Internet of Things (IoT) and other embedded spheres. GraphQL itself has already entered production at companies including its creator Facebook, Netflix, Twitter, Pinterest, GitHub, Audi, and Atlassian, scaling to hundreds of billions of API calls.

“GraphQL has redefined how developers work with APIs and client-server interactions,” claims the Linux Foundation’s Chris Aniszczyk, vice president of developer relations. “we look forward to working with the GraphQL community to become an independent foundation, draft their governance and continue to foster the growth and adoption of GraphQL.”

Full details on the GraphQL Foundation can be found on the Foundation website, while GraphQL itself is available from the official website.