---
title: Database quickstart
description: Create a Postgres database, wait for it to be ready, and bind it to an environment so your app receives its connection.
type: tutorial
product: database
summary: A managed Postgres database, bound to your app as DATABASE_URL.
updated: 2026-10-01
order: 1
---
A database in Sylphx is a managed resource of your organization. You create it,
wait until it is ready, and bind it to an environment; from then on, your
services in that environment receive its connection as an environment
variable. Credentials are never copied by hand.
Databases are provisioned with the managed-resources calls on this page, which is also what the console uses. The `databases` collection of the [API reference](/docs/api/databases) serves reads at api.sylphx.com; its `create`, `delete`, `restore` and `connect` are not served.
## 1. Create the database
`kind` is `database`. `tier` sets its size (`hobby` is the smallest), and
`projectId` ties it to the project it serves:
The call answers `202` with an operation: provisioning continues in the
background. Optional fields are `storageGb` and, for a database you want to
retry safely, a caller-chosen `requestId`.
## 2. Wait until it is ready
```bash
sylphx api GET /v1/resources
```
Find the resource by `name`. Its `id` starts with `res_`, and its `status` is
`ready` once the database serves. Read one by id with
`GET /v1/resources/$RESOURCE_ID`.
## 3. Bind it to an environment
A binding gives an environment's services the database's connection:
```bash
sylphx api POST /v1/resources/$RESOURCE_ID/bindings -d '{"projectId":"'$PROJECT_ID'","environmentId":"production"}'
```
`environmentId` takes an `env_…` id, or `production`, `staging` or
`development` together with `projectId`. `role` defaults to `primary`.
The services in that environment now receive `DATABASE_URL`, the pooled
connection for application queries, and `DATABASE_URL_UNPOOLED`, the direct
one for migrations and anything that needs a session of its own. The URLs
carry the credentials, so they stay in the environment and never enter your
repository.
Application queries go through the pooled `DATABASE_URL`, which survives a
serverless app opening many connections at once. Schema changes and anything
that needs a session of its own — `SET`, `LISTEN`, an advisory lock held across
statements — go through `DATABASE_URL_UNPOOLED`.
## 4. Use it
Redeploy the environment so running services pick the variables up
(`POST /v1/projects/$PROJECT_ID/environments/$ENV_ID/deployments/redeploy`),
then connect from your app with any Postgres client:
```ts
import postgres from 'postgres'
const sql = postgres(process.env.DATABASE_URL!)
const [row] = await sql`select version()`
```
## Delete it
```bash
sylphx api DELETE /v1/resources/$RESOURCE_ID
```
A database with active bindings is refused, so remove the binding first with
`sylphx api POST /v1/resources/$RESOURCE_ID:unbind -d '{"environmentId":"$ENV_ID"}'`.
## Next