Passwordless Connect

SerenDB's psql passwordless auth feature helps you quickly authenticate a connection to SerenDB without providing a password.

The following instructions require a working installation of psql, an interactive terminal for working with Postgres. For information about psql, refer to the psql reference, in the PostgreSQL Documentation.

To connect using SerenDB's psql passwordless auth feature:

1. In your terminal, run the following command:

   psql -h pg.serendb.com

   A response similar to the following is displayed:

   NOTICE:  Welcome to SerenDB!
   Authenticate by visiting (will expire in 2m):
    https://console.serendb.com/psql_session/cd6aebdc9fda9928

2. In your browser, navigate to the provided link. Log in to SerenDB if you are not already logged in. You are asked to select a SerenDB account and project (if you have multiple). If your project has more than one compute, you are also asked to select one.

   After confirming your selections, you are advised that you can return to your terminal or command window where information similar to the following is displayed:

   NOTICE:  Connecting to database.
   psql (17.2)
   SSL connection (protocol: TLSv1.3, cipher: TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, compression: off, ALPN: postgresql)
   Type "help" for help.
   
   casey=>

   The passwordless auth feature connects to the first database created in the branch. To check the database you are connected to, issue this query:

   SELECT current_database();
    current_database
   ------------------
    neondb

   Switching databases from the psql prompt (using \c <database_name>, for example) after you have authenticated restarts the passwordless auth authentication process to authenticate a connection to the new database.

Running queries

After establishing a connection, try running the following queries to validate your database connection:

CREATE TABLE my_table AS SELECT now();
SELECT * FROM my_table;

The following result set is returned:

SELECT 1
              now
-------------------------------
 2022-09-11 23:12:15.083565+00
(1 row)