postgres how-to

Connect to Postgres as a personal user

Use this how-to to connect to a Postgres database with your personal user, for ad-hoc queries and inspection.

Prerequisites

  • You're a member of the Nais team that owns the database
  • You have the Nais CLI installed and are logged in with nais login --nais
  • psql on PATH

The CLI grants temporary personal access: read-only access to the active branch for 30 minutes by default. For access levels, lifetime and branch selection, see Postgres personal access.

Open psql

Connect to the active branch:

bash

This opens psql against the app database with TLS verification.

Use another PostgreSQL client

Start a local proxy:

bash

Keep the proxy running while your client is connected. The command prints the local listen address, database user, TLS server name and CA certificate path. Configure your client with:

  • host: the printed TLS server name
  • host address: the loopback IP address from the printed listen address
  • port: the port from the printed listen address
  • database: app, unless you use another database
  • user: the printed database user
  • SSL mode: verify-full
  • root certificate: the printed CA certificate path

If your client requires a password, start the proxy with --print-password and use the printed password. Only print the password when you need it.