The Secret to Infinite Loops in AEM GraphQL (Or Is It Just a Myth?)

Imagine watching your instance buckle under the pressure of one rogue query. And it is just 1 rogue query — we are not yet considering multiple requests.

GraphQL isn’t just a tool for querying data — it’s a way of thinking about data as a graph with nodes and relationships that can grow dynamically. This makes GraphQL a powerful tool but also risky when working with complex data structures.

But what if I told you that a poorly constructed recursive query could break your entire AEM instance

Yes, you can crash your instance if you don’t handle recursion correctly! Imagine the chaos of infinite loops spiraling out of control.

Keep reading to uncover how recursion works in AEM GraphQL, how Big O analysis can help you avoid catastrophic failure, and the exact steps you need to use this powerful feature safely.

Stay tuned because I’ll even perform a live demo to test whether recursion can be executed in AEM — let’s see if the myth holds up!

How Big O Applies to Your GraphQL Queries

When working with GraphQL queries, we can think of it as navigating a graph where content fragments models (nodes) are linked through content references (edges).