g6/packages/site/docs/manual/introduction.en.md

---
title: Introduction
order: 0
redirect_from:
  - /en/docs/manual
---

![](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/6113694/45008751-ea465300-b036-11e8-8e2a-166cbb338ce2.png)

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[中文 README](README.md)

## What is G6

[G6](https://github.com/antvis/g6) is a graph visualization engine, which provides a set of basic mechanisms, including rendering, layout, analysis, interaction, animation, and other auxiliary tools. G6 aims to simplify the relationships, and help people to obtain the insight of relational data.

<img src='https://gw.alipayobjects.com/mdn/rms_f8c6a0/afts/img/A*zTjwQaXokeQAAAAAAAAAAABkARQnAQ' width=550 alt='' />

Developers are able to build graph visualization **analysis** applications or graph visualization **modeling** applications easily.

<img src='https://gw.alipayobjects.com/mdn/rms_f8c6a0/afts/img/A*zau8QJcVpDQAAAAAAAAAAABkARQnAQ' height=200 alt='' /><img src='https://gw.alipayobjects.com/mdn/rms_f8c6a0/afts/img/A*RIlETY_S6IoAAAAAAAAAAABkARQnAQ' height=200 alt='' />

<img src='https://gw.alipayobjects.com/mdn/rms_f8c6a0/afts/img/A*cDzXR4jIWr8AAAAAAAAAAABkARQnAQ' height=150 alt='' /><img src='https://gw.alipayobjects.com/mdn/rms_f8c6a0/afts/img/A*DifbSahOblAAAAAAAAAAAABkARQnAQ' height=150 alt='' /><img src='https://gw.alipayobjects.com/mdn/rms_f8c6a0/afts/img/A*HTasSJGC4koAAAAAAAAAAABkARQnAQ' height=150 alt='' />

> Powerful Animation and Interactions

<img src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/6113694/44995293-02858600-afd5-11e8-840c-349e4730d63d.gif" height=150 alt='' /><img src="https://gw.alipayobjects.com/mdn/rms_f8c6a0/afts/img/A*I9OdTbXJIi0AAAAAAAAAAABkARQnAQ" height=150 alt='' /><img src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/6113694/44995332-2ba61680-afd5-11e8-8cab-db0e9d08ceb7.gif" height=150 alt='' />

<img src="https://gw.alipayobjects.com/zos/rmsportal/HQxYguinFOMIXrGQOABY.gif" height=150 alt='' /><img src="https://gw.alipayobjects.com/zos/rmsportal/nAugyFgrbrUWPmDIDiQm.gif" height=150 alt='' /><img src="https://gw.alipayobjects.com/mdn/rms_f8c6a0/afts/img/A*xoufSYcjK2AAAAAAAAAAAABkARQnAQ" height=150 alt='' />

> Powerful Layouts

## 🎉 Features (5.0 Alpha)

- Extensionable: All the modules (seven types) are integrated as plugins;
- Style and animation standards, supports level of details (see the graph below);
- Beautiful Built-in Theme and cound be customized (see the graph below);
- Layouts with Great Performance: More than 10 layout algorithms, supports GPU and Rust parallel computing, and custom layouts;
- Steerable Interactions: More than 10 basic interaction behaviors ;
- Friendly User Experience: Complete documents for different levels of user requirements. TypeScript supported.
- Multiple renderers: Canvas, SVG, WebGL;
- 3D Graph:

The gif is not fully loaded, [Click Here to See the Original Image](https://mdn.alipayobjects.com/huamei_qa8qxu/afts/img/A*qPrmQrdV77gAAAAAAAAAAAAADmJ7AQ/original)

<img src="https://mdn.alipayobjects.com/huamei_qa8qxu/afts/img/A*IUOnSbLisyoAAAAAAAAAAAAADmJ7AQ/original" width=600 height=334 alt='' />

> 3D Graph

The gif is not fully loaded, [Click Here to See the Original Image](https://mdn.alipayobjects.com/huamei_qa8qxu/afts/img/A*1BFvQ4r3P7UAAAAAAAAAAAAADmJ7AQ/original)

<img src="https://mdn.alipayobjects.com/huamei_qa8qxu/afts/img/A*tPPGSokdSYsAAAAAAAAAAAAADmJ7AQ/original" width=600 height=367 alt='' />

> Animations and Level of Details

<img src="https://mdn.alipayobjects.com/huamei_qa8qxu/afts/img/A*QjJoSbD7GTwAAAAAAAAAAAAADmJ7AQ/original" width=800 height=226 alt='' />

> Built-in Themes and Custom Themes

<img src="https://mdn.alipayobjects.com/huamei_qa8qxu/afts/img/A*x7NTT5_baKYAAAAAAAAAAAAADmJ7AQ/original" width=400 height=218 alt='' />

> Seven Types of Plugins

- Abundant Built-in Items: Nodes and edges with free configurations;
- Convenient Components: Outstanding ability and performance;
- Tree Shaking to reduce the package's size.

G6 concentrates on the principle of 'good by default'. In addition, the custom mechanism of the item, interation behavior, and layout satisfies the customazation requirements.

> Abundant Built-in Items

## Installation (5.0 Beta)

```bash
$ npm install @antv/g6@5.0.0-beta.21
```

## Usage (5.0 Beta)

<img src="https://mdn.alipayobjects.com/huamei_qa8qxu/afts/img/A*M-MTRaLiZN0AAAAAAAAAAAAADmJ7AQ/original" width=437 height=148 alt='' />

The configuration specification of the graph can be refered to: [Specification Doc](https://g6-next.antv.antgroup.com/en/apis/interfaces/graph/specification)

Graph API: [Graph API](https://g6-next.antv.antgroup.com/en/apis/interfaces/graph/i-graph)

A simple graph demo:

<img src="https://mdn.alipayobjects.com/huamei_qa8qxu/afts/img/A*M-MTRaLiZN0AAAAAAAAAAAAADmJ7AQ/original" width=437 height=138 alt='' />

[![Edit compassionate-lalande-5lxm7](https://codesandbox.io/static/img/play-codesandbox.svg)](https://codesandbox.io/s/g6-v5-beta-quick-start-m3yncv?from-embed=&file=/index.js)

```js
import G6 from '@antv/g6';

const data = {
  nodes: [
    {
      id: 'node1',
      data: {
        x: 150,
        y: 150,
        label: 'Node 1',
      },
    },
    {
      id: 'node2',
      data: {
        x: 400,
        y: 150,
        label: 'Node 2',
      },
    },
  ],
  edges: [
    {
      id: 'edge1',
      source: 'node1',
      target: 'node2',
      data: {
        label: 'Edge 1',
      },
    },
  ],
};

const graph = new G6.Graph({
  container: 'container',
  width: 500,
  height: 500,
  data,
  node: (innerModel) => ({
    ...innerModel,
    type: 'circle',
    data: {
      ...innerModel.data,
      labelShape: {
        text: innerModel.label,
      },
      labelBackgroundShape: {},
      iconShape: {
        img: 'https://gw.alipayobjects.com/zos/basement_prod/012bcf4f-423b-4922-8c24-32a89f8c41ce.svg',
      },
    },
  }),
  edge: (innerModel) => ({
    ...innerModel,
    type: 'line',
    data: {
      labelShape: {
        text: innerModel.label,
      },
      labelBackgroundShape: {},
    },
  }),
});
```

## Development (5.0 Beta)

```bash
# enter packages/g6 from root of project
$ cd packages/g6

# install dependencies
$ npm install

# build
$ npm run build

# start the integration demos
$ npm run dev

# Test lint
$ npm run lint

# Fix lint
$ npm run fix

# Run all the integration tests
$ npm run test:integration

# Run one the integration test: modify the dir in test:integration_oneo be the one you want to test in package.json, then execute:
$ npm run test:integration_one
```

## How to Contribute

Please let us know what you are you going to help. Do check out [issues](https://github.com/antvis/g6/issues) for bug reports or suggestions first.

### Issue Hunt

Refer to the [Doc of Issue Hunt](https://github.com/antvis/G6/blob/v5-readme/ISSUEHUNT.en-US.md).

## License

[MIT license](./LICENSE).