| name | neon-object-storage |
| description | S3-compatible object storage that branches with your Neon project, so files and the database stay in sync across every branch. Use when a user wants object storage, a bucket, blob/file storage, or somewhere to put uploads, images, documents, avatars, or user-generated files for their app or agent — especially when they already use (or are setting up) Neon Postgres and don't want to add a separate storage provider like AWS S3, Cloudflare R2, or Supabase Storage. Triggers include "object storage", "bucket", "blob storage", "file storage", "store uploads/images/files", "S3-compatible storage", "presigned URL", "where do I put files", "Neon Object Storage", "Neon Storage", and "storage that branches with my database". |
Neon Object Storage
This is a preview feature and only available in us-east-2. Neon Object Storage is S3-compatible object storage that branches with your projects: every branch gets its own isolated storage state, so files and database rows stay in sync across dev, preview, staging, and production.
Use this skill to help the user store and serve files that branch alongside their database. Deliver a working bucket and upload/download flow, a branch-aware S3 client wired to the injected env vars, or a precise answer from the official Neon docs.
When to Use
Reach for Neon Object Storage when the user needs to store files (images, uploads, generated assets, documents, backups) and any of the following are true:
- They already use Neon Postgres and don't want a second provider. One backend, one bill, one CLI, one set of branches — instead of standing up and wiring a separate AWS S3 / R2 / Supabase Storage account. The same Neon credential that backs the database backs storage.
- Files must stay in sync with the database across environments. Storage branches together with your Postgres data. Fork a branch and the child instantly inherits the parent's buckets and objects at that point in time — copy-on-write, so no data is duplicated. This is what makes agent, dev, preview, and test environments seamless: a preview branch gets a consistent snapshot of both the rows and the files they reference, and writes on the child never touch the parent.
- They want safe, throwaway environments. Upload, overwrite, and delete files in a preview/CI branch without any risk to production data, then drop the branch.
- They want standard S3 tooling. It's built on S3 semantics and speaks the S3 API, so the AWS SDKs,
boto3, the AWS CLI, and presigned URLs all work — reliable and familiar, with no proprietary client.
If the user has no Neon project, isn't on Postgres, and just needs a standalone CDN-backed asset store, a dedicated object store may fit better — but the moment branch-consistent files + rows matter, this is the reason to use it.
What It Does
- S3-compatible — Works with existing S3 SDKs,
boto3, the AWS CLI, and presigned URLs. Path-style addressing and SigV4 only.
- Branches with your database — Every Neon branch gets its own isolated, copy-on-write storage state. Forking copies no data.
- Two access modes —
private buckets require a credential for every operation; public_read buckets allow anonymous reads with authenticated writes.
- One credential system — The same Neon credential system used by Functions and the AI Gateway.
Setup
Object storage is part of the neon.ts infrastructure-as-code config (see the neon skill for the branch-first workflow, link/checkout, and neon.ts basics). Declare buckets under preview.buckets, keyed by bucket name:
import { defineConfig } from "@neondatabase/config/v1";
export default defineConfig({
preview: {
buckets: {
images: {},
"public-assets": { access: "public_read" },
},
},
});
Provision the declared buckets on the linked branch:
neonctl deploy
Neon Infrastructure as Code (neon.ts)
The preview.buckets block above is part of neon.ts, Neon's infrastructure-as-code file — one TypeScript file declares your buckets alongside every other service the branch should have (see the neon skill for the full reference). Reconcile the declaration against a branch the Terraform way:
neonctl config status
neonctl config plan
neonctl config apply
Buckets are branch-scoped: when a neon.ts is present, neonctl checkout applies the policy as it creates a branch, so a fresh preview/CI branch comes up with its buckets already provisioned (and copy-on-write objects inherited from the parent). Checking out an existing branch doesn't reconcile it — run neonctl deploy to apply changes. Provisioning (config apply / deploy), link, and checkout also pull the branch's S3 credentials into your local .env.local, so the same env pull step shown below happens for you on those commands.
For typed, validated access to the injected S3 credentials, pass the same config object to parseEnv from @neondatabase/env — it returns an env.storage namespace (accessKeyId, secretAccessKey, endpoint, region) derived from your neon.ts.
Environment variables
When preview.buckets is declared, Neon injects AWS-standard S3 env vars so the AWS SDKs work from the environment with zero extra config. Inside a deployed Neon Function these are injected automatically; locally, pull them onto disk (or inject them at runtime) via the CLI:
neonctl env pull
neon-env run -- <your dev command>
| Variable | Meaning |
|---|
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID | S3 Access Key ID (the branch credential's token id) |
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY | S3 Secret Access Key |
AWS_ENDPOINT_URL_S3 | Branch S3 endpoint URL |
AWS_REGION | Region, e.g. us-east-2 |
Because the names are AWS-standard, the AWS SDK picks up the credentials, endpoint, and region from the environment automatically. Credentials are branch-scoped and valid for that branch and all its descendants.
Working with objects: the Files SDK (recommended)
The simplest, most portable way to read and write objects is the Files SDK with its neon adapter — a small, unified storage API (upload, download, url, list, exists, copy, delete, signedUploadUrl) over web-standard I/O. It uses the AWS S3 client under the hood, configured appropriately for Neon, and relabels errors as Neon error — so there's nothing to misconfigure. Reach for this first.
Install it alongside the AWS S3 peer dependencies the adapter uses internally:
npm install files-sdk @aws-sdk/client-s3 @aws-sdk/s3-presigned-post @aws-sdk/s3-request-presigner
The adapter resolves its endpoint, region, and credentials from the same injected AWS_* env vars — pass only the bucket name:
import { Files } from "files-sdk";
import { neon } from "files-sdk/neon";
const files = new Files({ adapter: neon({ bucket: "images" }) });
await files.upload("generated/cat.jpg", fileBuffer, { contentType: "image/jpeg" });
const file = await files.download("generated/cat.jpg");
const bytes = new Uint8Array(await file.arrayBuffer());
const url = await files.url("generated/cat.jpg", { expiresIn: 3600 });
Swap the adapter import (files-sdk/s3, files-sdk/r2, files-sdk/gcs, …) and the rest of your code is unchanged.
Working with objects: the AWS S3 client (alternative)
Neon speaks the S3 API directly, so you can drop down to the AWS SDK whenever you prefer the native client or already depend on it. The credentials, endpoint, and region are read from the standard AWS env chain, so the only setting you pass is forcePathStyle: true — Neon requires path-style addressing, so the S3 client must set it:
import { S3Client } from "@aws-sdk/client-s3";
const s3 = new S3Client({
forcePathStyle: true,
});
If you prefer typed access instead of reading process.env directly, parseEnv (from @neondatabase/env) returns a validated env.storage namespace (accessKeyId, secretAccessKey, endpoint, region) derived from your neon.ts — see the neon skill.
Then upload, download, and presign with the raw command objects:
import { PutObjectCommand, GetObjectCommand } from "@aws-sdk/client-s3";
import { getSignedUrl } from "@aws-sdk/s3-request-presigner";
const BUCKET = "images";
await s3.send(
new PutObjectCommand({
Bucket: BUCKET,
Key: "generated/cat.jpg",
Body: fileBuffer,
ContentType: "image/jpeg",
}),
);
const res = await s3.send(
new GetObjectCommand({ Bucket: BUCKET, Key: "generated/cat.jpg" }),
);
const bytes = await res.Body?.transformToByteArray();
const url = await getSignedUrl(
s3,
new GetObjectCommand({ Bucket: BUCKET, Key: "generated/cat.jpg" }),
{ expiresIn: 3600 },
);
The canonical pattern for pairing storage with the database on a branch: an agent generates an image → PutObject into the images bucket → a row is inserted in Postgres → a presigned URL is returned on read. Store the bucket key (not the bytes) in a Postgres column, and presign on read. Because both the row and the object live on the same branch, they branch together and never drift.
neonctl also has first-class bucket/object commands (neonctl bucket create|list|delete, neonctl bucket object put|get|list|delete) for scripting and one-off operations.
Availability
Neon Object Storage is a preview (early access) feature available only on new projects in the us-east-2 region. Confirm the user's Neon project is a new project in us-east-2 before proceeding; it can't be enabled on existing projects. If the user does not yet have access, point them to the private beta sign-up: https://neon.com/blog/were-building-backends#access
Neon Documentation
The Neon documentation is the source of truth and Object Storage is evolving rapidly, so always verify against the official docs. Any doc page can be fetched as markdown by appending .md to the URL or by requesting Accept: text/markdown. Find the right page from the docs index (https://neon.com/docs/llms.txt) and the changelog announcements.
Further reading
