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williamleif/graphsage

Analysis updated 2026-07-03

3,687PythonAudience · researcherComplexity · 4/5LicenseSetup · moderate

TLDR

GraphSAGE is a Stanford research library that learns a numerical fingerprint for every node in a large graph (like a social network or protein database) so you can classify or cluster them.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((GraphSAGE))
    What it does
      Node embeddings
      Graph classification
      Inductive learning
    How it works
      Neighbor sampling
      Aggregation strategies
      Random walks
    Tech stack
      Python
      TensorFlow
      NumPy
      Docker
    Use cases
      Social network analysis
      Protein interaction
      Content categorization
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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Train a model to classify nodes in a large social network (such as detecting spam accounts) using GraphSAGE embeddings.

USE CASE 2

Generate embeddings for protein interaction data to cluster proteins by function without needing labeled examples.

USE CASE 3

Run inductive learning on a graph so new nodes added after training still get valid embeddings without retraining.

USE CASE 4

Reproduce the experiments from the 2017 'Inductive Representation Learning on Large Graphs' paper using the included datasets.

What is it built with?

PythonTensorFlowNumPyDocker

How does it compare?

williamleif/graphsagecanonical/cloud-initboris-code/feapder
Stars3,6873,6873,686
LanguagePythonPythonPython
Setup difficultymoderatemoderatemoderate
Complexity4/53/53/5
Audienceresearcherops devopsdeveloper

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 1h+

Requires TensorFlow (older version pinned in the repo) and NumPy, Docker setup helps manage the specific dependency versions.

MIT, use freely for any purpose including commercial, just keep the copyright notice.

In plain English

GraphSAGE is a research algorithm and code library from Stanford University for learning about the nodes in very large graphs. A graph here is any collection of items connected by relationships: users and friendships, proteins and interactions, documents and links. GraphSAGE produces a numerical summary (called an embedding) for each node that captures what that node is like and who its neighbors are. The core idea is that instead of looking at every connection a node has, GraphSAGE samples a random subset of neighbors at each step. This sampling makes it practical to work with graphs containing hundreds of thousands or millions of nodes, which would be too large for older approaches. The algorithm is also inductive, meaning it can generate embeddings for nodes it has never seen before, such as new users who join a network after training is complete. The code supports two modes. In supervised mode, you provide labeled examples and the model learns embeddings that help classify nodes (for example, predicting which category a piece of content belongs to). In unsupervised mode, it learns embeddings based on which nodes appear together in random walks through the graph, with no labels required. The resulting embeddings can then be fed into other machine learning models for tasks like classification or clustering. Several aggregation strategies are available for combining a node's neighbor information, including mean, max-pooling, and an approach based on a sequence model. The repository includes a small protein interaction dataset to test with, and links to the full datasets used in the original paper. Running the code requires Python with TensorFlow, NumPy, and a few other scientific libraries. A Docker setup is included to make installing the right versions easier. This code accompanies a 2017 paper titled "Inductive Representation Learning on Large Graphs," and the README asks that users cite that paper if they use this work.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
I have a CSV of user-to-user connections in a social network. Help me format it for GraphSAGE and run unsupervised training to get node embeddings I can cluster.
Prompt 2
Using williamleif/graphsage, train a supervised model on the included protein interaction dataset and evaluate classification accuracy.
Prompt 3
Explain the difference between GraphSAGE's mean, max-pooling, and LSTM aggregation strategies and when I should pick each one.
Prompt 4
Set up the GraphSAGE Docker environment and run the example training script on the sample protein dataset to confirm everything works.
Prompt 5
I have a recommendation system with millions of users. Walk me through using GraphSAGE's inductive mode so new users get embeddings without retraining the whole model.

Frequently asked questions

What is graphsage?

GraphSAGE is a Stanford research library that learns a numerical fingerprint for every node in a large graph (like a social network or protein database) so you can classify or cluster them.

What language is graphsage written in?

Mainly Python. The stack also includes Python, TensorFlow, NumPy.

What license does graphsage use?

MIT, use freely for any purpose including commercial, just keep the copyright notice.

How hard is graphsage to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated moderate, with roughly 1h+ to a first successful run.

Who is graphsage for?

Mainly researcher.

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