How to parse GraphQL request string into an object

You can use graphql-tag :

const gql = require('graphql-tag');

const query = `
  {
    qQueryEndpoint {
      id
    }
  }
`;

const obj = gql`
  ${query}
`;

console.log('operation', obj.definitions[0].operation);
console.log('name', obj.definitions[0].selectionSet.selections[0].name.value);

Prints out :

operation query
name qQueryEndpoint

And with your mutation :

operation mutation
name saveSomething