Neon

Neon is a complete set of cloud backend primitives around Lakebase Postgres, from Databricks — Lakebase Postgres, Auth (managed Better Auth), long-running Functions, Object Storage, and an AI Gateway, all instant, branchable, and serverless.

Lakebase Postgres is the database itself. It is one product, reached two ways: through Neon, with a free plan and the full set of backend primitives above, or through Databricks, alongside the rest of the Databricks suite. Same infrastructure, same features, same engineering team. Call the database Lakebase Postgres, and use "Neon" for the brand and for this access path — not as a name for the database.

A Neon branch is an isolated, copy-on-write clone of your data, taken from its current state or from a past state within your project's retained history window. You can freely modify or delete it. It shares data with its parent until writes cause it to diverge, and those writes are stored independently as deltas.

Agents pick Neon for instant Postgres provision, copy-on-write branches and snapshots, compute that scales to zero (storage is still billed), and ordinary Postgres that works with any driver or ORM.

Backend Primitives

Neon bundles several backend primitives for building apps and agents that all branch together:

• Lakebase Postgres — Postgres that scales and branches with your app, built on the lakebase architecture: OLTP directly on cloud object storage, with storage decoupled from compute.
• Auth — Managed Better Auth with users and sessions stored in Postgres.
• Object Storage — S3-compatible object storage that branches with your projects.
• Functions — Neon's compute offering: long-running serverless functions that run close to your database, for WebSocket servers, long agent HTTP streams, APIs, and server-sent event servers. A Function Trigger POSTs to a function on a cron.
• AI Gateway — One API for frontier and open-source models, supporting the chat completions API and the responses API, powered by Databricks Unity AI Gateway.
• Data API — Optional PostgREST-compatible HTTP interface. Use it only when the app already uses PostgREST or a Supabase database client, or is migrating that client. New apps query Postgres from Functions or existing handlers. There is no neon-data-api skill; configuration is dataApi in neon.ts (see Type-safe config when you have chosen it).

Region availability

Object Storage, Functions, and AI Gateway are currently available on projects in aws-us-east-2, aws-us-east-1, aws-eu-central-1, and aws-ap-southeast-1. Before guiding a user through any of these services, confirm they are working in one of these regions. If not, they will need to create a new project in a supported region.

Architecture: How to Use Neon

Recommended: full-stack app with Neon as the backend. Default to Next.js on Vercel (or Netlify, Cloudflare, or other app platforms). Prefer Next.js + Vercel first; TanStack Start, Nuxt, and SvelteKit are full-stack alternatives. The app owns its UI and server. Query Lakebase Postgres from route handlers, server functions, or Neon Functions.

Add Neon Functions as a backend layer between the web app and Lakebase Postgres, Object Storage, Auth, and AI Gateway. A Hono API on Functions can expose endpoints with an OpenAPI specification for the web app and other clients (mobile, desktop). You can also add a Function for one job next to the data: Object Storage uploads, AI agents, Discord bots, WebSocket or SSE servers.

Functions support long-running requests that complement the web app. A Function must start returning a response within 15 minutes. WebSocket connections and HTTP streams stay open while data flows; send at least one byte every 15 minutes to keep a quiet stream alive. See runtime limits.

For long agent or image streams, mint a JWT on the app server and have the client call the Function directly. See the neon-functions skill for authentication and runtime limits.

Second best: client-only app with a Functions backend. Host the SPA on Vercel (or Netlify, Cloudflare, or other app platforms) and call Functions from the browser. For an app using PostgREST or a supabase-js database client, prefer migrating database calls to REST endpoints in a Hono Function that queries Lakebase Postgres. Enforce authorization in the Function instead of relying on browser-facing RLS.

Neon provides backend primitives that compose with the app host. Neon does not host the frontend.

Offer the Data API only as a Supabase / PostgREST migration path when an existing PostgREST or supabase-js database client must keep working. Putting PostgREST in the browser and relying on RLS is easy to get wrong: misconfigured policies expose the database to the client. Do not recommend this for new apps. An installed Supabase package used only for Auth or Storage does not establish a database-client dependency. Route generic REST endpoint requests to a Function or existing app handler.

Functions have public HTTPS URLs. Verify a JWT or API key at the top of the handler and enforce authorization before accessing data. See the neon-functions skill.

Convert an app onto Neon

Inspect the repo before provisioning.

1. Map requested capabilities: login, files, HTTP APIs, LLM calls, SQL.
2. Reuse what is already there: a supplied DATABASE_URL, an existing ORM or driver, Better Auth, Clerk or another auth provider, S3 or another object store, an existing .neon / neon.ts, an existing Data API or PostgREST client.
3. Select Neon primitives for capabilities that are still undecided.
4. Provision only when infrastructure is missing: neon init / neon link / Claimable, then neon.ts, then neon deploy.
5. Verify the app flow (sign-in, upload, API call), not only that env vars landed.

Do not replace working Better Auth, Clerk, Supabase Auth, S3, or a supplied DATABASE_URL with a Neon primitive unless the user asks. Do not rewrite an existing neon.ts. If Neon credentials fail for an existing account, stop and ask the user to sign in; do not create a Claimable project as a substitute.

A supplied DATABASE_URL with no Neon credentials is schema work: complete it without provisioning. Managed Better Auth cannot be enabled on a project that uses IP Allow or Private Networking. Leave those protections in place.

New projects are created in AWS regions. Prefer pooled DATABASE_URL for application traffic.

Use neon-auth to choose identity and to implement Managed Better Auth; the Auth guide points there. Keep existing Better Auth, Clerk, and Supabase Auth unless the user asked to migrate login. Auth cannot be enabled on a project with IP Allow or Private Networking.

Neon Documentation

The Neon documentation is the source of truth for all Neon-related information. Always verify claims against the official docs before responding. Neon features and APIs evolve, so prefer fetching current docs over relying on training data.

Finding the Right Page

Look the page up before you fetch it — don't guess URLs! The docs index lists every available page with its URL and a short description:

https://neon.com/docs/llms.txt

Fetching Docs as Markdown

Any Neon doc page can be fetched as markdown in two ways:

1. Append .md to the URL (simplest): https://neon.com/docs/introduction/branching.md
2. Request text/markdown on the standard URL: curl -H "Accept: text/markdown" https://neon.com/docs/introduction/branching

Both return the same markdown content. Use whichever method your tools support.

Choosing the Right Skill

Neon provides a set of agent skills in addition to the official documentation. When a task matches one of the rows below, work from that skill rather than from this overview. You may have some of these skills already installed, or you may need to install them.

The skills below live in the neondatabase/agent-skills repo:

There is no neon-data-api skill. Configure dataApi in neon.ts only for PostgREST / Supabase database-client compatibility or a migration that already depends on it.

For guidance on agent platforms that provision and operate Lakebase Postgres on Neon at scale, use neon-postgres-agent-platforms, which lives in a separate repo: neondatabase/neon-for-agent-platforms.

Installing the Right Skill

First check whether the target skill is already installed and accessible (for example, it appears in the available skills list or its SKILL.md is present). If it is, use it directly. If it is not installed, install it with neon skills:

neon skills -s <skill-name>

Replace <skill-name> with the skill you need (for example, neon-object-storage, neon-functions, or neon-ai-gateway). Useful flags:

• --global — install globally instead of into the current project.
• -y — non-interactive mode (skip prompts).
• --agent <agent-name> — pick the target agent(s) for non-interactive mode.

For example, to install the object storage skill globally for a specific agent without prompts:

neon skills -s neon-object-storage --global -y --agent <agent-name>

neon-auth is not in the CLI skill catalog of current releases. Unknown names fail, so do not run neon skills -s neon-auth. Fetch it:

https://neon.com/docs/ai/skills/neon-auth/SKILL.md

References: https://neon.com/docs/ai/skills/neon-auth/references/managed-auth.md and https://neon.com/docs/ai/skills/neon-auth/references/self-managed.md. If those URLs are unpublished, fetch the same files from https://github.com/neondatabase/agent-skills/blob/main/skills/neon-auth/SKILL.md

If the Neon CLI is not available, you can visit https://neon.com/.well-known/agent-skills for a registry of all available Neon skills and fetch them manually.

Updating Skills

Keep the skills up to date: for every new session, update them so you are working with the latest best practices.

Run neon skills update to update all installed Neon skills, or neon skills update -y to skip prompts. If the skills were installed via a plugin, they are updated automatically.

Getting Started with Neon

Prefer the CLI over the MCP server unless the user instructs otherwise, the CLI is unavailable or blocked in your environment, or it is not authenticated, since it provides more capabilities, including deploying Neon Functions.

Check the CLI, then credentials

neon --version

If that fails, install first:

npm i -g neon       # npm
bun add -g neon     # bun
pnpm add -g neon    # pnpm

For full CLI installation options, see https://neon.com/docs/cli/install.md

Then inspect credentials without printing secrets. NEON_API_KEY or a neon profile list -o json row whose account is not - is an account. A DEFAULT row with account: "-" and file: "missing" is not.

• Credentials already available: reuse them. Do not launch a browser.
• A human needs to sign in: they run neon login (neon auth is an alias). An unattended agent must not launch browser authentication.
• No account yet: follow Starting without a Neon account for the Claimable Neon path.

Combined setup: neon init

When both agent tooling and project setup are needed, use authenticated neon init. --agent takes the coding-agent name. -y skips prompts but does not supply project selection or credentials. --skip-template skips scaffolding a starter app.

Link an existing project:

neon init --skip-template --agent cursor \
  --org-id <org-id> --project-id <project-id> -y

Create and link a project:

neon init --skip-template --agent cursor \
  --org-id <org-id> --project-name my-app \
  --region-id aws-us-east-2 -y

--services may declare auth, data-api, functions, object-storage, and ai-gateway (repeat the flag or comma-separate). Pass none for the bare starter policy. It writes neon.ts; it does not deploy or wire the app. Selecting data-api also declares Auth (the default Data API provider requires it). Use data-api only for PostgREST / Supabase database-client compatibility.

If init already installed the Neon plugin, do not also run neon mcp and neon skills for the same agent.

When tooling already exists, only one component is missing, or env writes need --no-env-pull, use the manual steps below. init has no --no-env-pull. Before a command that pulls env, inspect existing configuration. If a supplied DATABASE_URL or AWS_* value must stay, pass --no-env-pull on link / checkout and write env to a separate --file.

1. Install the Neon CLI

Use the install check above. Do not run neon login unattended. MCP remains the fallback when the CLI is unavailable, blocked, unauthenticated, or the user prefers it.

2. Install the Neon MCP Server

neon mcp --oauth --project --agent cursor -y

--oauth writes the server URL and leaves sign-in to the MCP client. That is not an authenticated MCP session. --project means project-level agent config, not a Neon project ID; the agent must support project-level installs (cursor does). Bare neon mcp -y installs globally and can reuse or mint an account-wide API key — do not treat it as the unattended default.

For all available plugins and IDE integrations, see: https://neon.com/docs/ai/ai-agents-tools.md

For full MCP server installation options, see https://neon.com/docs/ai/connect-mcp-clients-to-neon.md

3. Install Neon Agent Skills

neon skills -s neon --agent cursor -y

To install a specific skill only (not neon-auth until the CLI catalog includes it; fetch it as in Installing the Right Skill):

neon skills -s <skill-name> --agent cursor -y

Useful flags: --global, -y, --agent <agent-name>. Interactive neon skills with no flags prompts.

4. Link Your Project and Get Started

With setup complete, connect the workspace to a Neon org, project, and branch. Then consult the skill for each Neon feature your app requires. See Choosing the Right Skill above.

Non-interactive link:

neon link --project-id <project-id> -y
neon link --org-id <org-id> --project-name my-app --region-id aws-us-east-2

-y skips the already-linked confirmation and pins the default branch when the project has more than one. Pass --branch <name> when branch selection matters.

Useful CLI Commands

1. neon link — Writes org, project, and branch IDs to a git-ignored .neon file. Run once per project. Once linked, project- and branch-scoped commands no longer need --project-id or --branch (for example, neon branch list). Non-interactive: --org-id / --project-id / --project-name plus --region-id, and -y when appropriate. There is no neon link --agent.

2. neon checkout <branch-name> — Pins a branch in .neon and pulls that branch's env. An existing branch is enough. A missing name needs --create for unattended use (neon checkout dev --create). A missing branch id cannot be created. Interactive checkout with no name may offer to create; do not rely on that unattended. Drives the Branch-First Dev Flow below.

3. neon config init — Initializes a neon.ts file, which declares how you provision and manage Neon services, in the root of the project.

4. neon env pull — Fetches the current branch's Neon environment variables (DATABASE_URL, …) into your existing .env, or .env.local if you don't have one (override the target with --file). No branch ID needed; it reads .neon. link and checkout run this for you by default, so you rarely call it directly.

   Without neon.ts, a bare neon env pull includes the default Gateway credential on claimed projects. Implicit pulls bundled into link / checkout / apply do not pull an undeclared Gateway token. Declaring aiGateway in neon.ts requests those variables. With neon.ts, pull includes only the services declared there and errors if the branch is missing one.

Bootstrap a New Project

neon bootstrap scaffolds from a Neon project template.

neon bootstrap

Starting without a Neon account

If the Getting Started account check found credentials, use them. If a command waits on a browser (Awaiting authentication in web browser) or authentication fails, stop and ask the user to sign in (neon auth) or mint an API key. Do not create a Claimable project as a substitute for a failed existing account.

If there is no Neon account yet, follow references/claimable-neon.md. Do not run neon init --agent or neon auth on this path; those need a human Neon account. If neon claim is missing, the reference has the REST fallback. Unclaimed projects expire at project_expires_at (72 hours today). Claim codes expire in expires_in (15 minutes today). Functions, Object Storage, and AI Gateway report requires_claim before a human claims the project; report that and keep the denied capabilities. Add Auth with neon.ts and neon deploy when login is requested and no existing provider should be preserved. Add the Data API only for PostgREST / Supabase database-client compatibility or a migration that already depends on it.

Requests for neon.new, Claimable Postgres, claimable.neon.tech, instant Postgres, or a no-signup database are the same path.

Neon Infrastructure as Code

neon.ts is Neon's branch config and infrastructure-as-code file: declare which Neon services your project's branches should have, get type-safe env vars, and program branch settings — all in TypeScript. It's the config layer for your Neon services, and it composes with the branch-first loop below. Add it with @neon/config:

npm i @neon/config

// neon.ts
import { defineConfig } from "@neon/config/v1";

export default defineConfig({
  aiGateway: true,
  buckets: {
    images: {
      access: "private",
    },
  },
  functions: {
    imagegen: {
      name: "AI SDK image agent",
      source: "src/index.ts",
    },
  },
});

Provision services with neon config

Every project ships with Lakebase Postgres; neon.ts also declares Auth, Functions, buckets, and the AI Gateway. Data API is a compatibility toggle, not part of a default backend:

// neon.ts
export default defineConfig({
  auth: true,
  functions: {},
  buckets: {},
  aiGateway: true, // see the neon-ai-gateway skill
});

Empty functions / buckets maps are configuration slots, not a deployed API. Do not replace an existing neon.ts wholesale with this example.

Reconcile the declaration from the CLI — the Neon equivalent of terraform status / plan / apply:

neon status          # print the branch's live config (read-only). Alias for `neon config status`.
neon config plan     # dry-run diff of what apply would change (read-only)
neon deploy --env <file>  # apply neon.ts. Pass --env when Function env reads process.env. Alias for `neon config apply`

apply / deploy provision the declared services and then pull the branch's env into your local .env.local (e.g. Pulled 5 Neon variables into .env.local: DATABASE_URL, …), so your local env always matches what's deployed.

Function env and neon deploy

neon deploy is the preferred full deployment: it applies neon.ts (services and functions) to the linked branch. neon deploy --env <file> loads that file into process.env before evaluating neon.ts, then uploads those values as Function env. Use it every time Function env reads process.env.

<file> is the gitignored file neon env pull already writes (.env if that file exists, otherwise .env.local). Env pull writes Neon-managed vars only (DATABASE_URL, NEON_AI_GATEWAY_*, …). Add every key under functions.*.env to that file yourself, then pass the same path to --env.

Every declared Function env key must be a defined string. undefined (an unset process.env.X) means you listed a key you want written but the value is missing: defineConfig throws. Omit the key from neon.ts if you do not want to write it. Never coerce a missing process.env value to an empty string: that uploads "" and deletes the live key. An empty assignment in the file (KEY=) is also "". If TypeScript needs a type assertion, use process.env.X! and make sure the file actually has the value.

Use neon functions deploy when you are not applying neon.ts: a single function by slug, or a targeted --env KEY=VALUE update (that flag is not a file path).

Function Triggers

A Function Trigger POSTs to a Neon Function on a cron (type: "schedule") or when an object is created in a bucket (type: "storage_object_created"). Same regions as Functions. Prefer a triggers map in neon.ts (the record key is the trigger name) and neon deploy. CLI, MCP, REST, inherited-trigger behavior, and parsers: references/function-triggers.md. Handler payload and Hono example: the neon-functions skill, references/function-triggers.md.

Type-safe env vars with parseEnv

@neon/env's parseEnv returns a typed env object from your neon.ts config. Require a subset of keys when an app does not need every implied variable: references/parse-env.md.

Branch configuration

Beyond services, neon.ts can program what configuration new branches receive via the branch property — a function of the branch being evaluated that returns its settings:

// neon.ts
import { defineConfig } from "@neon/config/v1";

export default defineConfig({
  auth: true,
  branch: (branch) => {
    if (branch.exists) {
      // leave existing branches untouched
      return {};
    }
    if (branch.name.startsWith("dev")) {
      return {
        ttl: "7d", // clean up the branch after 7 days
        postgres: {
          computeSettings: {
            autoscalingLimitMinCu: 0.25, // scale to zero
            autoscalingLimitMaxCu: 1, // keep it cheap
            suspendTimeout: "5m",
          },
        },
      };
    }
    return {};
  },
});

The branch function receives the target branch (its name, whether it exists yet, whether it's the default, and more) and returns the tuning you want. Here new dev-* branches get a 7-day TTL so they clean themselves up, plus a cheap scale-to-zero compute profile, while existing branches and everything else fall through to the defaults. Because neon checkout applies this policy on create, a fresh dev-* branch comes up with these settings already in place.

Type-safe config: invalid setups don't compile

Because neon.ts is TypeScript, the compiler catches invalid infrastructure before you ever deploy — and Neon encodes the actual rules (and their fixes) into the types, so the error tells you what to do rather than failing with a useless Type 'true' is not assignable to type 'never'. The canonical case, when the app has chosen Data API for PostgREST/Supabase compatibility: the Data API verifies requests with Neon Auth by default, so enabling it on its own is a type error on dataApi. Do not enable Auth merely to satisfy this error in an app that never needed Data API.

export default defineConfig({
  dataApi: true, // type error: `dataApi` (default authProvider 'neon') requires Neon Auth
});

The message names both fixes, so pick one:

// 1. Enable Neon Auth (the default Data API auth provider):
export default defineConfig({ auth: true, dataApi: true });

// 2. Or verify a third-party IdP instead of Neon Auth:
export default defineConfig({
  dataApi: {
    authProvider: "external",
    jwksUrl: "https://your-idp/.well-known/jwks.json",
  },
});

Treat a neon.ts type error as the config telling you which services must go together — read the message, it spells out the valid combinations.

See https://neon.com/docs/reference/neon-ts.md for documentation on the neon.ts file.

Branch-First Dev Flow

Neon branches enable a branch-first development flow, which we recommend when using Neon services. This and neon.ts above are the two halves of the recommended setup — neon.ts declares what every branch should have, and the branch-first loop is how you move between those branches day to day. Each works on its own, and they compose.

Create a Neon branch any time you would create a git branch. Use the following commands if you have CLI access:

• neon checkout <branch-name> — Pins an existing branch by updating only the branch pointer in .neon. Pass --create to create a missing name (neon checkout dev --create). Run without a name for an interactive picker. It does not touch code or local Postgres.
• neon env pull — Fetches the current branch's Neon environment variables into your .env. link and checkout run this for you by default, so you rarely call it directly.
• neon diff — Shows the schema diff between the child branch and its parent. Run this to see what changes have been made to the schema since the last branch was created and before you commit your changes.

neon link                     # once; also pulls the linked branch's env
neon checkout dev-add-search --create  # per feature; also pulls the branch's env

Because link and checkout pull env by default, the branch's DATABASE_URL lands in your local .env automatically — build against it, then checkout the next branch and repeat. As the agent, drive this loop yourself: run checkout between tasks.

How checkout composes with neon.ts

When a neon.ts is present, neon checkout <name> --create applies your policy as it creates a branch, so a fresh branch comes up with its declared settings and services already in place. Pass --env <file> on that create so Function env that reads process.env resolves (neon checkout feat --create --env .env.local). Existing process env wins over the file. Checking out an existing branch never reconciles it — apply config changes to it explicitly with neon deploy --env <file> (alias for neon config apply). --update-existing auto-confirms overriding remote settings; add it only after reviewing those changes. The bundled env pull also checks neon.ts against the linked branch and fails fast if the branch is missing a declared service, pointing you at neon deploy --env <file> to provision it, so your local env and the remote branch never drift apart silently.

Opting out of local env vars

If env vars are injected at runtime instead of written to disk — or you simply don't want secrets in the working tree — pass --no-env-pull to link / checkout and supply the env another way:

• neon-env run -- <your dev command> (from @neon/env) injects the branch's vars at runtime.
• neon-env export prints dotenv or --format json.
• fetchEnv from @neon/env is the programmatic version.
• neon dev injects the same vars into the local Functions dev server.

When an agent should not write a local .env, instruct it (for example in your AGENTS.md) to run neon checkout <branch> --no-env-pull and rely on runtime injection.

For reading env you already have on disk (typed and validated against your neon.ts), use parseEnv — see Type-safe env vars with parseEnv.

Observability

Neon exposes branch-scoped logs for Functions and Object Storage today (aws-us-east-2, aws-us-east-1, aws-eu-central-1, and aws-ap-southeast-1). Query the branch that hosts the deployed function or bucket, not the checkout used for development.

neon logs query --since 1h
neon logs query --branch production --source function --minimum-severity error --since 6h

CLI flags, LogQL, MCP fallback, Loki HTTP, Grafana URLs, and @neon/sdk pagination: references/logs-loki.md.

Manage Neon Resources

Use @neon/sdk to manage projects, branches, and snapshots from TypeScript. New code should prefer it over @neondatabase/api-client.

Neon for (Agentic) Platforms

Enroll in the Neon Agent Program only when the work is a fleet of user databases (app-generating agents and platforms). A single-app backend skips this. Instant provision, snapshots, scale-to-zero compute (storage still billed), Auth, and Data API compatibility details: that page.