Connect a Hono application to Neon

Hono is a lightweight, multi runtime web framework for the Edge, Node.js, Deno, Bun, and other runtimes. This topic describes how to create a Neon project and access it from a Hono application. To cre...

Pre-built prompt for connecting Hono applications to Lakebase Postgres

Hono is a lightweight, multi-runtime web framework for the Edge, Node.js, Deno, Bun, and other runtimes. This topic describes how to create a Neon project and access it from a Hono application.

To create a Neon project and access it from a Hono application:

Create a Neon project
If you do not have one already, create a Neon project. Save your connection details including your password. They are required when defining connection settings.
1. Navigate to the Projects page in the Neon Console.
2. Click New Project.
3. Specify your project settings and click Create Project.
Create a Hono project and add dependencies
1. Create a Hono project if you do not have one. For instructions, see Quick Start, in the Hono documentation.
2. Add project dependencies using one of the following commands:
- Neon serverless driver
- postgres.js
- node-postgres
Neon serverless driver
npm install @neondatabase/serverless
postgres.js
npm install postgres
node-postgres
npm install pg
Store your Neon credentials
Add a .env file to your project directory and add your Neon connection string to it. You can find your connection details by clicking Connect in the Console nav. For more information, see Connect from any application.
Bash
```
DATABASE_URL="postgresql://<user>:<password>@<endpoint_hostname>.neon.tech:<port>/<dbname>?sslmode=require&channel_binding=require"
```

Configure the Postgres client

In your Hono application (for example, in src/index.ts or a specific route file), import the driver and use it within your route handlers.

Here's how you can set up a simple route to query the database:

Neon serverless driver

import { Hono } from 'hono';
import { serve } from '@hono/node-server';
import { neon } from '@neondatabase/serverless';

const app = new Hono();

app.get('/', async (c) => {
  try {
    const sql = neon(process.env.DATABASE_URL);
    const response = await sql`SELECT version()`;
    return c.json({ version: response[0]?.version });
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Database query failed:', error);
    return c.text('Failed to connect to database', 500);
  }
});

serve(app);

postgres.js

import { Hono } from 'hono';
import postgres from 'postgres';
import { serve } from '@hono/node-server';

const app = new Hono();

app.get('/', async (c) => {
  try {
    const sql = postgres(process.env.DATABASE_URL, { ssl: 'require' });
    const response = await sql`SELECT version()`;
    return c.json({ version: response[0].version });
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Database query failed:', error);
    return c.text('Failed to connect to database', 500);
  }
});

serve(app);

node-postgres

import { Pool } from 'pg';
import { Hono } from 'hono';
import { serve } from '@hono/node-server';

const app = new Hono();
const pool = new Pool({
  connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
  ssl: true,
});

app.get('/', async (c) => {
  const client = await pool.connect();
  try {
    const { rows } = await client.query('SELECT version()');
    return c.json({ version: rows[0].version });
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Database query failed:', error);
    return c.text('Failed to connect to database', 500);
  } finally {
    client.release();
  }
});

serve(app);

5. Run the app
Start your Hono development server. You can use the following command:
Bash
```
npm run dev
```
Navigate to your application's URL (localhost:3000). You should see a JSON response with the PostgreSQL version:
JSON
```
{
  "version": "PostgreSQL 17.4 on x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by gcc (Debian 12.2.0-14) 12.2.0, 64-bit"
}
```
The specific version may vary depending on the PostgreSQL version you are using.

Next steps

Set up Managed Better Auth: Add managed authentication that branches with your database
Add Object Storage: S3-compatible file storage that branches with your database
Deploy a Function: Run backend compute next to your database, no separate hosting needed
Call an LLM with AI Gateway: Access foundation models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and more with one credential

Need help?

Join our Discord Server to ask questions or see what others are doing with Neon. For paid plan support options, see Support.

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Connect a Hono application to Neon

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