The AgensGraph Development Team is pleased to announce the release of
AgensGraph v2.18.6.1, the latest version in the 2.18 series. AgensGraph is an
open-source graph database, built on PostgreSQL 18.6, that runs SQL and graph
queries over the same data, in the same transaction and even in the same
statement.
AgensGraph 2.18 is a major step toward the ISO GQL standard (ISO/IEC 39075),
the international standard query language for property graphs. We are committed
to bringing AgensGraph in line with GQL: 2.18 adds the first set of GQL clauses
alongside openCypher, and more will follow in upcoming releases.
Performance was the other focus of this release. Variable-length traversals now
use the edge label's index at each hop, whereas 2.17 scanned the entire label
at every hop. On the public soc-Pokec graph (30 million edges), a two-hop
traversal that did not finish within 20 seconds in our tests on 2.17 now
completes in milliseconds.
### Highlights
- **GQL clauses:** `LET`, `FOR`, `FILTER`, `NEXT`, `FINISH` and `INSERT`, plus
standalone `ORDER BY`, `OFFSET` and `LIMIT` clauses.
- **Graph subqueries:** `CALL { }`, `OPTIONAL CALL`, `EXISTS { }`, `COUNT { }`,
`COLLECT { }` and `VALUE { }`, plus `CALL ... YIELD` to invoke PostgreSQL
functions from Cypher.
- **Based on PostgreSQL 18.6:** asynchronous I/O, `uuidv7()`, virtual generated
columns, OAuth authentication, B-tree skip scan and all PostgreSQL fixes
through 18.6.
- **Faster graph queries:** variable-length traversals, pattern matching, label
scans, `EXISTS` subqueries, path functions, sorting, grouping and counting of
vertices and edges, ordering by vector distance, and the `SET` and `DELETE`
clauses.
- **Typed property columns:** frequently queried properties can be stored as
native typed columns and indexed like any other PostgreSQL column for faster
filtering and sorting.
- **Security:** Cypher writes now enforce row-level security policies, and
fixed-length patterns also enforce row-level security and privileges on labels
they match without naming them.
### AI and Python
- [**agensgraph-python 2.1**](https://pypi.org/project/agensgraph-python/): a
major new version of the Python driver, rebuilt on psycopg 3. It supports both
synchronous and asynchronous code, runs Cypher and SQL in the same transaction,
and returns vertices, edges and paths as native Python objects. Query results
load straight into pandas, Polars or Arrow for analytics, and connection
pooling, bulk loading and OpenTelemetry tracing are available.
- [**agensgraph-ai**](https://github.com/skaiworldwide-oss/agensgraph-ai):
integrations for building GraphRAG and knowledge-graph applications with
LangChain (including a LangGraph checkpointer and store), LlamaIndex, LightRAG
and cognee, plus Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers that let AI assistants
work with your graph.
- **Graph and vectors together:** with the pgvector extension (installed
separately), graph data and vector embeddings live in the same database, so a
single query can combine graph traversal with vector similarity search.
### Upgrading
A 2.17 data directory cannot be used directly with 2.18. Upgrade with
`pg_upgrade`, or dump with the 2.18 version of `pg_dump` and restore. Before
you start, review [what changed from
2.17](https://tech.skaiworldwide.com/docs/en/agensgraph/18/release_notes/2.18.html#migrating-to-2-18).
Installations already on 2.18.6.0 only need to replace the binaries and
restart.
### Links
- [Release
notes](https://tech.skaiworldwide.com/docs/en/agensgraph/18/release_notes/2.18.html)
-
[Downloads](https://github.com/skaiworldwide-oss/agensgraph/releases/tag/v2.18.6.1)
- [Source](https://github.com/skaiworldwide-oss/agensgraph)
- [Docker images](https://hub.docker.com/r/skaiworldwide/agensgraph)
- [Documentation](https://tech.skaiworldwide.com/docs/en/agensgraph/18/)
### About AgensGraph
AgensGraph is a multi-model graph database that extends PostgreSQL with
openCypher and ISO GQL clauses, released under the Apache License 2.0. It has
been developed since 2016 by SKAI Worldwide (formerly Bitnine).
