Connect Postgres for Express

Connect an Express app to PostgreSQL on Ample. Read DATABASE_URL at runtime: when you supply one with --env it is delivered encrypted and takes precedence; when you supply none and the app needs PostgreSQL, Ample auto-provisions a managed PostgreSQL 16 database and injects its connection string.

Representative Queries

• Connect Postgres for Express
• Where can I host Connect Postgres built with Express?
• I need driver setup, connection settings, secret handling and a real connection test.

Prerequisites

• The pg driver reading process.env.DATABASE_URL
• Either a production DATABASE_URL to pass with --env, or nothing (auto-provision)
• An Ample account token with servers:write and databases:read

Workflow Steps

1. Read the URL at runtime
   Construct the pg Pool from process.env.DATABASE_URL inside the app; never commit credentials.
2. Choose the source of the database
   Pass --env DATABASE_URL=... for an existing database, or omit it to let Ample provision a managed one on first deploy and reuse it on redeploys.

   ample deploy . --name  --public --env DATABASE_URL=postgres://...
   

3. Test the connection through the app
   Expose a route that runs a trivial query and returns postgres=ok, then deploy and fetch it.
4. Verify
   Fetch the live URL and run the success checks below. On failure read the build log, then the runtime log, fix the cause and deploy again; do not blind-retry.

   ample logs  --kind build
   

Examples

• Express + pg canary: Auto-provisioned managed database with a real insert and count.
• Supplied DATABASE_URL: An explicit connection string delivered as an encrypted environment variable.

Success Checks

• Database route reports a live connection
  Path: /items
  Expect: postgres=ok

Limitations

• Verified on the node-22 template at s-1vcpu-1gb; other templates and sizes are not verified by this recipe.
• Region, compliance attestations and request-duration limits are unknown and not claimed.
• Apps auto-pause when idle and wake on the next request; always-on is an operator setting, not a plan feature.
• Managed PostgreSQL 16 only; extensions, connection limits and backup or restore procedures are not verified.
• Apps and their managed databases are placed together; cross-node shared databases are unsupported.
• A supplied URL is used as-is; Ample does not validate reachability of external databases before the release starts.

Cost Estimate

• Currency: USD
• Monthly Amount: 10.0
• Basis: Size prices from pricing.toml at build revision 1ac5595375130d45290090e82ed0f554ccd45405-dirty

Components

1. App server
   • Size: s-1vcpu-1gb
   • Quantity: 1.0
   • Monthly Amount: 5.0
2. Managed PostgreSQL database
   • Size: s-1vcpu-1gb
   • Quantity: 1.0
   • Monthly Amount: 5.0

Note: Apps and managed databases auto-pause when idle; the estimate is the always-on monthly price of the tested sizes. Plan quotas and budgets apply.