neon

name	neon
title	Neon (Serverless Postgres)
category	Backend & Data
description	Use to connect an app to serverless Postgres with pooled connections, the HTTP serverless driver, and database branching for previews.
tags	["postgres","serverless","database","branching","connection-pooling","edge"]
official_docs	https://neon.com/docs
sources	["https://neon.com/docs/get-started-with-neon/connect-neon","https://neon.com/docs/connect/connection-pooling","https://neon.com/docs/guides/branching-intro"]
last_verified	2026-08-10T00:00:00.000Z

Neon — Skillship

Serverless Postgres that separates storage from compute: scales to zero, connects over HTTP from edge/serverless, and gives every branch a full copy-on-write database.

🧭 When to use this skill

• Use when: you want managed Postgres for serverless/edge apps (Vercel, Workers, Lambda).
• Use when: you want a fresh database branch per PR/preview deployment.
• Don't use for: workloads needing persistent long-lived sessions with heavy LISTEN/NOTIFY on the pooler.

⚡ Quickstart

1. Get your connection string

From Project Dashboard → Connect, copy the string. It looks like:

postgresql://user:[e-mail]/dbname?sslmode=require

2. Configure env

# .env — prefer the POOLED host (has "-pooler") for serverless/web apps
DATABASE_URL="postgresql://user:[e-mail]/dbname?sslmode=require"

3. Minimal working example (serverless driver — works on edge)

import { neon } from "@neondatabase/serverless";
const sql = neon(process.env.DATABASE_URL!);

const users = await sql`SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ${id}`; // tagged template = parameterized

🧩 Common recipes

Recipe: Pooled vs direct connection (this is the #1 gotcha)

Direct:  ep-cool-darkness-123456.us-east-2.aws.neon.tech
Pooled:  ep-cool-darkness-123456-pooler.us-east-2.aws.neon.tech   <-- add "-pooler"

Use case	Connection
Serverless functions, web apps, connection-per-request	Pooled
Schema migrations, pg_dump, logical replication, session-level SET	Direct