# Global Node IDs

https://api-docs.lumar.io/docs/graphql/global-node-ids

In the GraphQL API, the `id` field returns a unique global node identifier instead of a numeric value. This is useful for querying a node by its unique identifier.

1. Finding object's node ID

You can navigate GraphQL API without knowing node IDs using connections.

```graphql
query {
  me {
    id
    username
    accounts(first: 10) {
      nodes {
        id
      }
    }
  }
}
```

This query will return currently logged in user's node ID and first 10 accounts' node IDs that user has access to.

2. Finding object type in GraphQL

In this example, the `id` value is `TjAwNFVzZXIzMzkwMA`. You can use this value to query the same object in GraphQL.

You'll need to know the object's type first, though. You can check the type with a simple GraphQL query:

```graphql
query {
  node(id: "TjAwNFVzZXIzMzkwMA") {
    __typename
  }
}
```

This type of query—that is, finding the node by ID—is known as a "direct node lookup."

When you run this query, you'll see that the `__typename` is `User`.

3. Do a direct node lookup in GraphQL

Once you've confirmed the type, you can use an [inline fragment](https://graphql.org/learn/queries/#inline-fragments) to access the object by its ID and return additional data. In this example, we define the fields on User that we'd like to query:

```graphql
{
  node(id: "TjAwNFVzZXIzMzkwMA") {
    __typename
    ... on User {
      username
    }
  }
}
```

This type of query is the standard approach for looking up an object by its global node ID.

### Querying object by its numeric ID

You can still query for objects by their numeric IDs with helper queries.

```graphql
query {
  getCrawl(id: 123) {
    id
    rawID
  }
}
```

Would return the crawl with ID where id field would return global node ID and rawID would returned stringified numeric ID.

### Building Global Node ID

Global Node ID is url-safe base64 encoded string of concatenated `type` and `id` fields.

For example to build global node ID for `User` object with ID `123` you can do this:

```
N + len("User") + "User" + 123
base64("N004User123") -> "TjAwNFVzZXIxMjM"
```

or for `Project` with ID `456`:

```
N + len("Project") + "Project" + 456
base64("N007Project456") -> "TjAwN1Byb2plY3Q0NT"
```

or for `Crawl` with ID `78999`:

```
N + len("Crawl") + "Crawl" + 78999
base64("N005Crawl78999") -> "TjAwNUNyYXdsNzg5OTk"
```