Connect to a database

Copy the connection details of a database into your app, a terminal, or a database tool. The portal gives them as a URL, as separate fields, and as ready-made commands and code for common languages and frameworks.

Before you begin

• A database in the Running state. See Create a database.

• The password of the user you connect as. The portal shows <password> in its place, so keep your own copy, or set a new one with Reset a user’s password.

• Network access to the database:

  • Over the internet, the address you connect from must be in the database’s IP allowlist.
  • From a VM or service in a VPC, the database must be attached to that VPC.

  To change either, see Control network access.

How connections are secured

Every connection from outside the database must use SSL and a password. Over the network, the database accepts only encrypted logins. The URL the portal gives you ends in sslmode=require, and SSL mode reads require. If you build your own connection settings, set the SSL mode to require as well.

Get the details from the Connect tab

Open the database’s page and select the Connect tab. The details load once the database is Running.

1. What is this connection for? offers Applications & psql, a direct connection for reads and writes. Use it for your apps and agents, and for psql, migrations, and bulk loads from a terminal.
2. Where will it connect from? appears only when the database is attached to a VPC. Choose Public internet to connect through the public endpoint from an address in the allowlist, or Inside the VPC to connect from VMs and services in the VPC through the database’s private address.
3. Under Connect as, choose the login to connect as, including users you created with SQL. Every string and snippet on the tab follows your choice. Reset Password beside it sets a new password for the chosen user, if you have permission to update the database.
4. Under Copy it into your app, copy the details your app needs.

With Public internet chosen, the tab tells you who can reach the public endpoint: only the ranges in the allowlist, any IPv4 address, or nobody yet. To change who can connect, select Edit allowlist, or Add an IP range when the list is empty.

Connection details

You get the full URL, and its Host, Port, Database, and SSL mode on their own. The URL has this form:

postgresql://<user>:<password>@<host>:5432/defaultdb?sslmode=require

• <user> is the user chosen under Connect as.
• <password> is that user’s password. The connection details never include the password, so put it in yourself.
• <host> is the public endpoint, or the primary’s VPC address when Inside the VPC is chosen.
• The port is 5432, and the database is defaultdb, the database every new TIR database starts with.

A password made with Suggest uses only letters, digits, hyphens, underscores, full stops, and tildes, which can go into a URL as they are. If your password has other symbols, such as @, #, or /, percent-encode them in the URL, for example @ as %40.

Copy a command or a snippet

To copy the details in another form:

• Copy .env copies two lines for an environment file: one with the URL, and one with the password.
• Copy psql copies a psql command that connects to the database.
• Copy JDBC copies the connection in JDBC form, for Java applications.

Frameworks & snippets has ready-made code for Node.js, Python, Django, Prisma, SQLAlchemy, Spring, Drizzle, LangChain, Go, Rails, Laravel, .NET, and Rust. A snippet that takes the password directly carries <password>; replace it with the real password, or read it from your own secret store.

If your browser blocks copying, select the text and copy it yourself.

Use the Connect button for a quick copy

To copy a connection string in one step, select Connect at the top of the database’s page while it is Running. It always gives the read-write Applications & psql connection.

1. For a database attached to a VPC, choose Public internet or Inside the VPC in Connect from.
2. In Connect as, choose the user.
3. In Format, choose the URL, .env, psql, or JDBC form, or any framework snippet from the Connect tab.
4. Select Copy.

Reset password here also sets a new password for the chosen user, if you have permission to update the database.

Check the connection

Run the command from Copy psql, with your password in place of <password>. Its prompt starts with defaultdb, and the line SSL connection above it confirms that the connection is encrypted.

If psql fails to connect from the internet, check that the address you connect from is in the IP allowlist. For other messages, see Troubleshooting TIR DBaaS. To let more people and apps in, create their users with SQL and give each one its own password; see Reset a user’s password.