Neo4j Nvl Skill

When to Use

• Rendering a Neo4j graph in a browser (vanilla JS, React, Vite) with custom interactions, rendering, or data shapes
• Visualizing driver.executeQuery results as an interactive graph
• Wiring zoom, pan, drag, click, hover, lasso, or box-select interactions
• Embedding NVL inside an existing app and synchronizing graph state

When NOT to Use

• Pre-styled embedded graph view with default behavior, no custom interactions → GraphVisualization from @neo4j-ndl/react (Neo4j Needle / NDL design system) — wraps NVL with default Neo4j styling. See Use NVL or the Needle Component? below.
• Python / Jupyter notebook graph visualization → neo4j/python-graph-visualization (the Python port of NVL)
• Writing/optimizing Cypher → neo4j-cypher-skill
• Driver setup / executeQuery / sessions → neo4j-driver-javascript-skill
• Server-side data fetching with no rendering → neo4j-driver-javascript-skill
• GDS algorithm execution → neo4j-gds-skill or neo4j-aura-graph-analytics-skill
• GraphQL API → neo4j-graphql-skill

Use NVL or the Needle Component?

If the answer is the first row, install and use the Needle component instead of NVL — do not duplicate styling work.

Install

npm install @neo4j-nvl/base                  # core (required)
npm install @neo4j-nvl/interaction-handlers  # standard interactions (optional, vanilla JS)
npm install @neo4j-nvl/react                 # React wrappers (optional)

Peer requirements: React 19 for @neo4j-nvl/react. The published peerDependency range still permits React 18, but mixing major versions is not recommended — target 19. @neo4j-nvl/layout-workers is a transitive dependency — never install directly. neo4j-driver is a peer of @neo4j-nvl/base only when using nvlResultTransformer.

Starter templates: https://github.com/neo4j-devtools/nvl-boilerplates — official per-framework scaffolds; prefer these over hand-rolled setups.

License: NVL ships under the Neo4j Visualization Library License — for use with Neo4j products only. Cannot be used against other graph backends.

Pick the Right Paradigm

Pick the Right Renderer

const nvl = new NVL(container, nodes, rels, { renderer: 'webgl' })
nvl.setRenderer('canvas')   // swap at runtime

Container Setup

The container must have an explicit width AND height. Missing height → container collapses to 0 → graph invisible. Most-reported NVL bug.

<!-- ❌ height defaults to 0; graph invisible -->
<div id="viz"></div>

<!-- ✅ explicit dimensions -->
<div id="viz" style="width: 100%; height: 600px;"></div>

Vanilla — Base Library

import { NVL } from '@neo4j-nvl/base'

const container = document.getElementById('viz')
const nodes = [{ id: '1' }, { id: '2' }]
const relationships = [{ id: '12', from: '1', to: '2', type: 'KNOWS' }]

const nvl = new NVL(container, nodes, relationships)

With options + callbacks:

import { NVL } from '@neo4j-nvl/base'

const options = {
  initialZoom: 1.0,
  minZoom: 0.1,
  maxZoom: 8,
  layout: 'forceDirected',
  renderer: 'canvas',
  styling: { defaultNodeColor: '#0e86d4', defaultRelationshipColor: '#888' }
}
const callbacks = {
  onInitialization: () => console.log('NVL ready'),
  onLayoutDone: () => nvl.fit([]),
  onError: (err) => console.error('NVL error', err)
}

const nvl = new NVL(container, nodes, relationships, options, callbacks)

// On teardown — always:
nvl.destroy()

NVL constructor signature: new NVL(frame, nvlNodes?, nvlRels?, options?, callbacks?). All but frame are optional and default to empty.

Vanilla — Interaction Handlers

Compose handlers onto an existing NVL instance. Each handler registers callbacks via .updateCallback(name, fn) and must be torn down with .destroy().

import { NVL } from '@neo4j-nvl/base'
import {
  ZoomInteraction, PanInteraction, DragNodeInteraction,
  ClickInteraction, HoverInteraction, BoxSelectInteraction,
  LassoInteraction, KeyboardInteraction
} from '@neo4j-nvl/interaction-handlers'

const nvl = new NVL(container, nodes, relationships)

const zoom  = new ZoomInteraction(nvl)
const pan   = new PanInteraction(nvl)
const drag  = new DragNodeInteraction(nvl)
const click = new ClickInteraction(nvl, { selectOnClick: true })
const hover = new HoverInteraction(nvl, { drawShadowOnHover: true })

click.updateCallback('onNodeClick',         (node, hits, evt) => console.log('node',  node.id))
click.updateCallback('onRelationshipClick', (rel,  hits, evt) => console.log('rel',   rel.id))
click.updateCallback('onCanvasClick',       (evt)             => console.log('canvas'))
hover.updateCallback('onHover',             (el, hits, evt)   => el && console.log('over', el.id))
drag.updateCallback('onDragEnd',            (nodes, evt)      => savePositions(nodes))
zoom.updateCallback('onZoom',               (level)           => console.log('zoom', level))

// Teardown — destroy all handlers, then the NVL instance
function teardown() {
  for (const h of [zoom, pan, drag, click, hover]) h.destroy()
  nvl.destroy()
}

Disable an event without removing the handler: click.removeCallback('onCanvasClick'). Passing true instead of a function enables the event with a no-op (useful for default selection behavior).

React — InteractiveNvlWrapper

Pre-wires every interaction handler. Toggle events with mouseEventCallbacks (function = on + callback; true = on, no-op; false/omit = off).

import { InteractiveNvlWrapper } from '@neo4j-nvl/react'
import type { MouseEventCallbacks, NvlOptions } from '@neo4j-nvl/react'
import { useRef } from 'react'
import type { NVL } from '@neo4j-nvl/base'

export function GraphView({ nodes, rels }) {
  const nvlRef = useRef<NVL>(null)

  const nvlOptions: NvlOptions = { initialZoom: 1, renderer: 'canvas' }

  const mouseEventCallbacks: MouseEventCallbacks = {
    onNodeClick:         (node, hits, evt) => console.log('node',  node.id),
    onRelationshipClick: (rel,  hits, evt) => console.log('rel',   rel.id),
    onCanvasClick:       (evt)             => console.log('canvas'),
    onHover:             (el, hits, evt)   => el && console.log('hover', el.id),
    onDragEnd:           (nodes, evt)      => persist(nodes),
    onZoom: true,                                       // enable, no callback
    onPan:  true
  }

  return (
    <div style={{ width: '100%', height: 600 }}>
      <InteractiveNvlWrapper
        ref={nvlRef}
        nodes={nodes}
        rels={rels}
        nvlOptions={nvlOptions}
        interactionOptions={{ selectOnClick: true, drawShadowOnHover: true }}