Software development platform GitHub Inc. introduced an official marketplace aimed at making it easier for developers to find the tools they need and fine-tune their workflows.

The company said in a blog post Monday that the new GitHub Marketplace will help users to discover and purchase apps for use across the entire development process. The marketplace is divided into five categories: code quality, code review, continuous integration, monitoring and project management. Popular applications already in the store include Travis CI, Appveyor, Waffle, ZenHub, Sentry and Codacy, Kyle Daigle, senior engineering manager for GitHub’s application program interface group, wrote in a blog post.

Daigle explained that the new platform makes it possible for developers to get up and running with new tools without needing to worry about account management. For example, it supports more than a dozen integrators through a single account and payment method. GitHub said more applications will be introduced soon, and eventually developers will be able to upload their own apps to the store if they meet its community standards.

Besides the Marketplace, GitHub introduced two new software development tools: the GraphQL application programming interface for data access and GitHub Apps for process control.

The GraphQL API is a query language tool that also provides a runtime for fulfilling queries with existing data. It’s also useful when the client software benefits from being able to customize data requests for efficiency reasons.

“Ask for the exact data you need in a single request and get updates in real time—no more hitting multiple endpoints or waiting for new ones after a feature has been released,” said Daigle in his blog post. GitHub has been using GraphQL API internally. It was previously available in beta and is now available in production release.

As for GitHub Apps, this is a rebranded version of its Integrations service, featuring granular API permissions, web hooks and build bots for workflow automation.

Image: GitHub