I was able to get it working. I had to change my mutation file.
mutation {
category_insert(
data: {id: "2709c745-34c5-495d-9c89-85c4402350bf", active: false, description: "", name: "Home & Garden"}
)
category_insertMany(
data: [
{
id: "22222222-3333-4444-5555-666666666666",
parent: {id: "2709c745-34c5-495d-9c89-85c4402350bf"},
active: false,
description: "",
name: "Adult Clothing"
}
In my original question, I was trying to add the parent category and children categories in the same _insertMany mutation.
So under the hood, graphql needed the parent record created first, then create the child records. After I made the above modification this mutation worked (I verified it in the database)