---
title: "Using Unmanaged Federation"
canonical: "https://support.apollographql.com/space/ETKB/655753297/Using%20Unmanaged%20Federation"
format: markdown
---
With [managed federation](https://www.apollographql.com/docs/federation/managed-federation/overview/), your federated supergraph's gateway or router automatically fetches its composed supergraph schema from Apollo. If your supergraph *doesn't *use managed federation, you need to compose the supergraph schema and provide it to your gateway via another mechanism.