Connect to Neon, Supabase, RDS and other managed Postgres

Hosted databases differ from a local Postgres in three ways that matter here: they need SSL, many of them sit behind a connection pooler, and none of them give you a superuser. NexQL has a platform preset for each common provider that fills in the port and SSL mode. You end up with a saved connection that passed Test Connection, shown in the Connections view with a platform badge once you connect.

This guide covers Neon, Supabase, AWS RDS and Aurora, Google Cloud SQL and AlloyDB, and Azure. For SSH bastions and client certificates, see Connect through an SSH tunnel or with SSL certificates.

Before you start

• NexQL installed and a PostgreSQL 12 or newer server. Test Connection warns on older versions.
• The connection string or host details from your provider’s dashboard, including the database user and password.
• A network path to the database. Hosted databases are often limited to an allow-list of IP addresses or a private VPC; that is set up at the provider, not in NexQL.

Add the connection

1. Run Add PostgreSQL Connection from the Command Palette, or press Ctrl+Alt+A (Cmd+Alt+A on macOS). The command opens the New Connection form.
2. Under Database platform, pick your provider: Neon, Supabase, TimescaleDB, AWS RDS PostgreSQL, AWS Aurora PostgreSQL, Google Cloud SQL, Google AlloyDB or Azure Database for PostgreSQL. The preset sets Port and SSL Mode and shows a hint for that provider.
3. Paste the provider’s postgresql:// URL into Connection URL and press Apply URL, or type Host, Port, Database, Username and Password yourself.
4. Open Advanced Options and check Port and SSL Mode against the section for your provider below. The platform preset fills these in, so check them after Apply URL too.
5. Give the connection a Connection Name and set Environment if it is production (see Set up production guardrails).
6. Press Test Connection. On success the form shows “Connected” with the PostgreSQL version, and Add Connection replaces the test button. Press it to save.

You can also paste a URL straight from the clipboard with Add Connection from Clipboard URL, or read one from a workspace .env file with Import Connection from DATABASE_URL (.env). Both save with a development environment tag and an auto-generated name, so open the connection in Manage Connections afterwards to rename it and set the environment.

Neon

Neon’s dashboard gives you a URL ending in ?sslmode=require. Use the direct endpoint, the host without -pooler, on port 5432 with SSL Mode require. The pooled endpoint runs in transaction mode, which breaks transactions that span notebook cells, SET, LISTEN/NOTIFY and temporary tables.

Neon suspends idle computes. The first query after a long pause can take a few seconds or drop a stale connection; run it again.

Supabase

Supabase offers three paths under Project Settings, then Database:

Path	Port	Use it for NexQL
Direct connection	5432	Yes. Can be IPv6-only on some plans.
Session pooler	5432	Yes. Works over IPv4.
Transaction pooler	6543	Avoid.

Set SSL Mode to require. If you must use a pooler host, make sure Port is 5432 after you apply the URL.

AWS RDS and Aurora

Use the instance endpoint from the RDS console (the cluster writer endpoint for Aurora) and SSL Mode require. If the instance is in a private VPC, go through a bastion with an SSH tunnel.

Google Cloud SQL and AlloyDB

Use the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy, with the proxy’s local address (often 127.0.0.1) as Host, or SSL client certificates. Set SSL Mode to require when you connect over the network. For AlloyDB use the instance IP or the Auth Proxy.

Azure Database for PostgreSQL

Use the Flexible Server host from the Azure portal (myserver.postgres.database.azure.com) and SSL Mode require.

If something goes wrong

• “Cannot reach host:port.” The TCP connection failed before login. Check the host, the port, and the provider’s firewall or IP allow-list.
• “Connection timeout after 17s reaching host:port.” Nothing answered. The number is your connection timeout plus two seconds; raise Connection Timeout in Advanced Options for a slow cold start.
• A warning after “Connected”: “Transaction-mode pooler detected” means the host or port looks like a transaction pooler. Switch to the direct or session endpoint.
• “Server reports PostgreSQL N. NexQL supports PostgreSQL 12 and newer.” The connection works, but expect missing features.
• “No password found for this connection.” Enter a password in the form, or add a matching line to your .pgpass file; the message shows the path and format.
• Production connection failed … blocked automatic SSL downgrade. See Set up production guardrails.
• Connected to the wrong database. If the Database you typed doesn’t exist, Test Connection retries against postgres and appends “(connected to postgres database)” to the version. Fix the name before saving.
• Features fail with “permission denied”. Hosted platforms never grant superuser, so event triggers, some extension installs and tablespace changes fail on the server regardless of the client.