Refresh GraphQL Query Results in Lightning Web Components

Posted by Vinay Vernekar 17th November 2025

If you want to keep your Salesforce data accurate for your users, you’ll eventually need to use a Refresh GraphQL Query approach in your Lightning Web Components. It’s one of those things that seems simple until you try to do it and realize the cache is a bit more stubborn than you’d like.

Why you need to Refresh GraphQL Query results

The GraphQL wire adapter is great because it’s fast, but it achieves that speed by caching everything. If you update a record through a separate wire or an Apex call, the GraphQL cache doesn’t always get the memo. So, your user clicks “Save,” the modal closes, but the list behind it still shows the old value. Sound familiar?

I’ve seen teams try to force a page refresh to fix this, but that’s a terrible user experience. Instead, we use a specific function to tell Salesforce to go get the latest data for this specific query. This is where the refreshGraphQL() function comes into play. It’s much cleaner than trying to hack together a manual state update.

Step-by-step: How to Refresh GraphQL Query in LWC

The biggest mistake I see developers make is destructuring the result in their wire function. If you do @wire(graphql, {...}) myWire({data, error}), you’ve already lost the reference you need. You have to capture the entire object to Refresh GraphQL Query successfully later on.

Think of it like a library book. If you tear out the pages, you can’t return the whole book to the librarian to get a new edition. You need the whole thing intact. Here is how you set that up in your JavaScript file. It’s a small change that saves a lot of headaches.

The JavaScript Implementation


import { LightningElement, wire } from 'lwc';
import { gql, graphql, refreshGraphQL } from 'lightning/uiGraphQLApi';

export default class MyComponent extends LightningElement {
    wiredResult;
    accounts;

    @wire(graphql, {
        query: gql`
        query GetAccounts {
            uiapi {
                query {
                    Account(first: 5) {
                        edges {
                            node {
                                Id
                                Name { value }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }`
    })
    handleResponse(result) {
        this.wiredResult = result; 
        if (result.data) {
            this.accounts = result.data.uiapi.query.Account.edges.map(e => e.node);
        }
    }

    async handleRefresh() {
        await refreshGraphQL(this.wiredResult);
    }
}

The HTML Template

In your HTML, you just need a way to trigger that function. Usually, this happens after a successful record update or a button click. If you are working on LWC component communication, you might even trigger this refresh based on an event from a child component.


<template>
    <lightning-card title="Account List">
        <ul>
            <template for:each={accounts} for:item="acc">
                <li key={acc.Id}>{acc.Name.value}</li>
            </template>
        </ul>
        <lightning-button label="Refresh Data" onclick={handleRefresh}></lightning-button>
    </lightning-card>
</template>

Pro tip: Always make your refresh function async. While refreshGraphQL returns a promise, handling it with await makes your code cleaner and easier to read when you’re chain-linking updates.

Best practices for GraphQL refreshes

  • Don’t overdo it. Only call the refresh when you know data has actually changed on the server.
  • Keep the entire wire result in a dedicated property like wiredResult.
  • Check for errors after the refresh. Just because the first query worked doesn’t mean the second one will if permissions changed.
  • If you’re using LWC expressions or complex logic, ensure your template handles the loading state during the refresh.

Key Takeaways

  • To Refresh GraphQL Query results, you must pass the original, non-destructured wire object.
  • The refreshGraphQL() function is specifically designed for the UI API’s GraphQL implementation.
  • It helps avoid full page reloads, making your app feel much snappier for the end user.
  • It’s essential for components that perform DML operations or listen for record changes via Lightning Message Service.

Now, I’ve seen some developers get frustrated because the UI doesn’t update immediately. Usually, it’s because they passed this.wiredResult.data instead of just this.wiredResult. Small detail, but it makes all the difference. Honestly, once you get the hang of it, you’ll find that to Refresh GraphQL Query is way more efficient than older patterns we used to use. Give this a shot in your next project and you’ll see how much better the UX feels when the data stays current.

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