Software Engineering Daily – Data (category)

Airbnb’s Open-Source GraphQL Framework with Adam Miskiewicz

Software Engineering Daily – Data (category)

•February 5, 2026•55 min

Software Engineering Daily – Data (category)•Feb 5, 2026

Why It Matters

A unified data graph like Viaduct offers a blueprint for organizations struggling with fragmented microservice ecosystems, promising faster feature delivery and lower maintenance costs. As AI tools begin to generate and consume data at scale, having a consistent, high‑performance backend layer becomes critical for building reliable, future‑proof applications.

AI Summary

In this episode, Adam Miskiewicz, Principal Software Engineer at Airbnb, explains how the company built Viaduct, an open‑source data‑oriented service mesh and GraphQL platform that unifies a central schema across millions of microservices. He details the architectural principles—centralized schema, consistent execution layer, and performance‑first design—that allowed Airbnb to scale to tens of millions of queries per second while reducing duplicated logic and operational overhead. The conversation also covers the motivations for open‑sourcing Viaduct, the challenges of maintaining reliability at scale, and how unified data graphs could shape backend development in an increasingly AI‑driven world.

Episode Description

Engineering teams often build microservices as their systems grow, but over time this can lead to a fragmented ecosystem with scattered data access patterns, duplicated business logic, and an uneven developer experience. A unified data graph with a consistent execution layer helps address these challenges by centralizing schema, simplifying how teams compose functionality, and reducing

The post Airbnb’s Open-Source GraphQL Framework with Adam Miskiewicz appeared first on Software Engineering Daily.

Show Notes

Viaduct is Airbnb’s open-source, data-oriented service mesh and GraphQL platform built around a single, highly connected central schema. It has played a major role in scaling Airbnb’s engineering organization.

Adam Miskiewicz is a Principal Software Engineer at Airbnb and he worked on Viaduct. He joins the podcast with Gregor Vand to talk about how Viaduct originated inside Airbnb, the architectural principles that shaped it, the challenges of scaling GraphQL to millions of queries per second, and why the team decided to open-source the platform. They also discuss the future of backend development in an AI-driven world and how unified data layers may influence the next generation of engineering systems.

Gregor Vand is a security-focused technologist, having previously been a CTO across cybersecurity, cyber insurance and general software engineering companies. He is based in Singapore and can be found via his profile at vand.hk or on LinkedIn.