Apollo Server is an open source GraphQL server that helps connect a GraphQL schema to an HTTP server in Node and can be used with popular frameworks like Express, Connect, Hapi, Koa, Restify, and AWS Lambda. Developed four years ago when Facebook open sourced GraphQL, it has gained popularity over REST APIs due to its efficiency. However, GraphQL operations can be challenging to monitor due to their single operation or endpoint nature, which makes measuring response time insufficient for understanding an application's health. The New Relic Apollo Server plugin provides visibility into GraphQL payloads down to the resolver level and associated external service calls, allowing developers to identify the root cause of issues such as latency and errors. By using distributed tracing, developers can attribute latency to specific external services and troubleshoot errors more effectively. The plugin records overall operation timing and parses payload data to uncover and diagnose slow GraphQL operations, enabling developers to get to the root cause of issues and optimize their applications for better performance.