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Managed PostgreSQL database instances, powered by Neon in production. One line in specific.hcl gives you a local database during specific dev and a managed production database on deploy.
specific.hcl
service "api" {
  build = build.api
  command = "./api"

  endpoint {
    public = true
  }

  env = {
    DATABASE_URL = postgres.main.url
  }
}

postgres "main" {}

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Connection attributes

Reference these in env blocks:
AttributeDescription
urlFull connection string (for example, postgres://user:pass@host:5432/dbname).
hostDatabase host.
portDatabase port.
userDatabase user.
passwordDatabase password.
nameDatabase name.
direct_urlNon-pooled connection string, bypassing the connection pooler. Use when you need a direct connection (for example, Prisma’s directUrl).
direct_hostNon-pooled database host.

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Extensions

The following PostgreSQL extensions are available in both development and production. Enable each with CREATE EXTENSION in a migration:
ExtensionEnable withUse for
pgvectorCREATE EXTENSION vector;Vector similarity search.
pg_searchCREATE EXTENSION pg_search;Full-text search with BM25 ranking, powered by ParadeDB.
PostGISCREATE EXTENSION postgis;Geospatial queries and indexing.
pg_trgmCREATE EXTENSION pg_trgm;Trigram-based fuzzy text matching and LIKE/ILIKE indexes.
ltreeCREATE EXTENSION ltree;Hierarchical structures: categories, org charts, taxonomies.
pgRoutingCREATE EXTENSION pgrouting CASCADE;Routing and network analysis (requires PostGIS, installed by CASCADE).
For graph-shaped workloads, use ltree for hierarchies and pgrouting for weighted networks and shortest-path queries. Apache AGE and Cypher queries are not supported.

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Querying the database

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Local development

Use specific psql to connect to a development database. The database is started automatically if it isn’t running. 
# Interactive session
specific psql main

# Run a single query
specific psql main -- -c "SELECT * FROM users LIMIT 5"

# List tables
specific psql main -- -c "\dt"

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Production

Use specific query --db <name> to run read-only Postgres SQL against a deployed environment’s database: 
# Query the production "main" database
specific query --db main "SELECT * FROM users LIMIT 5"

# Target a specific environment with machine-readable output
specific query --db main --environment staging --format jsonl \
  "SELECT id, email FROM users ORDER BY created_at DESC LIMIT 20"
Production queries are read-only: INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and DDL are rejected (the query runs inside a read-only transaction). Without --db, specific query targets observability data instead. You can also browse data and manage the database from the dashboard.

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Schema migrations

For zero-downtime schema migrations, enable Reshape:
specific.hcl
postgres "main" {
  reshape {
    enabled = true
  }
}
See Reshape migrations for how migrations are written and managed. If you prefer your ORM’s migration tooling instead, run it via a pre_deploy hook; run specific docs integrations/prisma or specific docs integrations/drizzle for setup guidance.

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Real-time sync

Postgres changes can be streamed to clients in real time. See Real-time sync.

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Preview environments

In preview environments, databases are branched copy-on-write from the parent environment, so previews start with real data instantly.