Credentials

Scoped credentials are branch-anchored tokens for workloads that can't use a user session, such as CI jobs, servers, and S3 clients. One credential API serves multiple Neon services, and the scopes you request determine what a credential can do. Each service documents its own scopes.

The create response returns api_token and s3_secret_access_key exactly once, and they can't be retrieved again; list responses return metadata only. To rotate, create a new credential, update your environment, then revoke the old one.

A credential is valid on the branch it was created on and any branch descended from it, but not on branches outside that lineage.

See Object Storage authentication and AI Gateway authentication for scope details and client setup.

API Reference / Credentials / Issue a scoped credential on the branch

Issues a new scoped service credential anchored to the specified branch. The response carries api_token and s3_secret_access_key exactly once — they are not stored server-side.

Note: This endpoint is currently in Beta.

• project_id (string, path, required) The Neon project ID
• branch_id (string, path, required) The Neon branch ID

• name (string, optional) Free-form customer label for the credential.

• scopes (array, required)

• principal_type (string, required) Principal type for the credential. Only user is customer-managed and accepted here. function and system credentials are platform-internal (e.g. function-serve auto-mint, presign signer) and are never issued through the customer-facing API.

  Possible values: user

{
  "token_id": "<token_id>",
  "token_id_short": "<token_id_short>",
  "name": "my-credential",
  "api_token": "<api_token>",
  "s3_secret_access_key": "<s3_secret_access_key>",
  "scopes": [
    "storage:read"
  ],
  "branch_id": "br-young-forest-a5b6c7d8",
  "created_at": "2025-01-15T10:30:00Z"
}

curl "https://console.neon.tech/api/v2/projects/$PROJECT_ID/branches/$BRANCH_ID/credentials" \
  -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NEON_API_KEY"

import { createNeonClient, raw } from '@neon/sdk';

const neon = createNeonClient({ apiKey: process.env.NEON_API_KEY });
const { data } = await raw.createCredential({
  client: neon.client,
  path: {
    project_id: process.env.PROJECT_ID,
    branch_id: process.env.BRANCH_ID
  }
});

default General Error.

The request may or may not be safe to retry, depending on the HTTP method, response status code, and whether a response was received.

• If no response is returned from the API, a network error or timeout likely occurred.
• In some cases, the request may have reached the server and been successfully processed, but the response failed to reach the client. As a result, retrying non-idempotent requests can lead to unintended results.

The following HTTP methods are considered non-idempotent: POST, PATCH, DELETE, and PUT. Retrying these methods is generally not safe. The following methods are considered idempotent: GET, HEAD, and OPTIONS. Retrying these methods is safe in the event of a network error or timeout.

Any request that returns a 503 Service Unavailable response is always safe to retry.

Any request that returns a 423 Locked response is safe to retry. 423 Locked indicates that the resource is temporarily locked, for example, due to another operation in progress.

• request_id (string, optional) Unique identifier for the request, useful for debugging. You can set this value manually by including an X-Request-ID header in the request. If not provided, the value will be generated automatically.

• code (string, required) Machine-readable code classifying the error type. See message for a human-readable explanation. Default: ``

• message (string, required) Error message

API Reference / Credentials / List credentials on the branch

Returns metadata for customer-issued credentials on the branch. Secrets are never included.

Note: This endpoint is currently in Beta.

• project_id (string, path, required) The Neon project ID
• branch_id (string, path, required) The Neon branch ID

{
  "credentials": [
    {
      "token_id": "<token_id>",
      "token_id_short": "<token_id_short>",
      "name": "ai-gateway-client",
      "scopes": [
        "ai_gateway:invoke"
      ],
      "principal_type": "user",
      "created_at": "2025-01-15T10:30:00Z"
    },
    {
      "token_id": "<token_id>",
      "token_id_short": "<token_id_short>",
      "name": "storage-writer",
      "scopes": [
        "storage:read",
        "storage:write"
      ],
      "principal_type": "user",
      "created_at": "2025-01-15T10:30:00Z"
    },
    {
      "token_id": "<token_id>",
      "token_id_short": "<token_id_short>",
      "name": "storage-reader",
      "scopes": [
        "storage:read"
      ],
      "principal_type": "user",
      "created_at": "2025-01-15T10:30:00Z"
    }
  ]
}

curl "https://console.neon.tech/api/v2/projects/$PROJECT_ID/branches/$BRANCH_ID/credentials" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NEON_API_KEY"

import { createNeonClient, raw } from '@neon/sdk';

const neon = createNeonClient({ apiKey: process.env.NEON_API_KEY });
const { data } = await raw.listCredentials({
  client: neon.client,
  path: {
    project_id: process.env.PROJECT_ID,
    branch_id: process.env.BRANCH_ID
  }
});

default General Error.

The request may or may not be safe to retry, depending on the HTTP method, response status code, and whether a response was received.

• If no response is returned from the API, a network error or timeout likely occurred.
• In some cases, the request may have reached the server and been successfully processed, but the response failed to reach the client. As a result, retrying non-idempotent requests can lead to unintended results.

The following HTTP methods are considered non-idempotent: POST, PATCH, DELETE, and PUT. Retrying these methods is generally not safe. The following methods are considered idempotent: GET, HEAD, and OPTIONS. Retrying these methods is safe in the event of a network error or timeout.

Any request that returns a 503 Service Unavailable response is always safe to retry.

Any request that returns a 423 Locked response is safe to retry. 423 Locked indicates that the resource is temporarily locked, for example, due to another operation in progress.

• request_id (string, optional) Unique identifier for the request, useful for debugging. You can set this value manually by including an X-Request-ID header in the request. If not provided, the value will be generated automatically.

• code (string, required) Machine-readable code classifying the error type. See message for a human-readable explanation. Default: ``

• message (string, required) Error message

API Reference / Credentials / Reveal a credential's secrets

Returns the live api_token and s3_secret_access_key of an existing credential, so a credential whose issuance response was lost can be recovered without minting a new one.

This is a POST with an explicit /reveal verb so the secrets never ride a GET, where they would land in access logs, browser history and proxy caches. Revoked and expired credentials return 404, as does a token_id that does not belong to this project.

A credential issued before secret retrieval was supported has no recoverable secret and returns 409 — rotate it to obtain one.

Note: This endpoint is currently in Beta.

• project_id (string, path, required) The Neon project ID
• branch_id (string, path, required) The Neon branch ID
• token_id (string, path, required) The opaque credential id (e.g. nak_live_<32hex>).

• token_id (string, optional) Opaque credential id (e.g. nak_live_<32hex>).
• api_token (string, optional) Bearer token.
• s3_secret_access_key (string, optional) nsk_live_<64 hex>; the AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY.

curl "https://console.neon.tech/api/v2/projects/$PROJECT_ID/branches/$BRANCH_ID/credentials/$TOKEN_ID/reveal" \
  -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NEON_API_KEY"

import { createNeonClient, raw } from '@neon/sdk';

const neon = createNeonClient({ apiKey: process.env.NEON_API_KEY });
const { data } = await raw.revealCredential({
  client: neon.client,
  path: {
    project_id: process.env.PROJECT_ID,
    branch_id: process.env.BRANCH_ID,
    token_id: process.env.TOKEN_ID
  }
});

404 Credential not found

• request_id (string, optional) Unique identifier for the request, useful for debugging. You can set this value manually by including an X-Request-ID header in the request. If not provided, the value will be generated automatically.

• code (string, required) Machine-readable code classifying the error type. See message for a human-readable explanation. Default: ``

• message (string, required) Error message

409 The credential exists but has no recoverable secret because it was issued before secret retrieval was supported. Rotate the credential to obtain a recoverable secret.

• request_id (string, optional) Unique identifier for the request, useful for debugging. You can set this value manually by including an X-Request-ID header in the request. If not provided, the value will be generated automatically.

• code (string, required) Machine-readable code classifying the error type. See message for a human-readable explanation. Default: ``

• message (string, required) Error message

default General Error.

The request may or may not be safe to retry, depending on the HTTP method, response status code, and whether a response was received.

• If no response is returned from the API, a network error or timeout likely occurred.
• In some cases, the request may have reached the server and been successfully processed, but the response failed to reach the client. As a result, retrying non-idempotent requests can lead to unintended results.

The following HTTP methods are considered non-idempotent: POST, PATCH, DELETE, and PUT. Retrying these methods is generally not safe. The following methods are considered idempotent: GET, HEAD, and OPTIONS. Retrying these methods is safe in the event of a network error or timeout.

Any request that returns a 503 Service Unavailable response is always safe to retry.

Any request that returns a 423 Locked response is safe to retry. 423 Locked indicates that the resource is temporarily locked, for example, due to another operation in progress.

• request_id (string, optional) Unique identifier for the request, useful for debugging. You can set this value manually by including an X-Request-ID header in the request. If not provided, the value will be generated automatically.

• code (string, required) Machine-readable code classifying the error type. See message for a human-readable explanation. Default: ``

• message (string, required) Error message

API Reference / Credentials / Revoke a credential

Soft-deletes the credential. Idempotent.

Note: This endpoint is currently in Beta.

• project_id (string, path, required) The Neon project ID
• branch_id (string, path, required) The Neon branch ID
• token_id (string, path, required) The opaque credential id (e.g. nak_live_<32hex>).

curl "https://console.neon.tech/api/v2/projects/$PROJECT_ID/branches/$BRANCH_ID/credentials/$TOKEN_ID" \
  -X DELETE \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NEON_API_KEY"

import { createNeonClient, raw } from '@neon/sdk';

const neon = createNeonClient({ apiKey: process.env.NEON_API_KEY });
const { data } = await raw.revokeCredential({
  client: neon.client,
  path: {
    project_id: process.env.PROJECT_ID,
    branch_id: process.env.BRANCH_ID,
    token_id: process.env.TOKEN_ID
  }
});

404 Credential not found

• request_id (string, optional) Unique identifier for the request, useful for debugging. You can set this value manually by including an X-Request-ID header in the request. If not provided, the value will be generated automatically.

• code (string, required) Machine-readable code classifying the error type. See message for a human-readable explanation. Default: ``

• message (string, required) Error message

default General Error.

The request may or may not be safe to retry, depending on the HTTP method, response status code, and whether a response was received.

• If no response is returned from the API, a network error or timeout likely occurred.
• In some cases, the request may have reached the server and been successfully processed, but the response failed to reach the client. As a result, retrying non-idempotent requests can lead to unintended results.

The following HTTP methods are considered non-idempotent: POST, PATCH, DELETE, and PUT. Retrying these methods is generally not safe. The following methods are considered idempotent: GET, HEAD, and OPTIONS. Retrying these methods is safe in the event of a network error or timeout.

Any request that returns a 503 Service Unavailable response is always safe to retry.

Any request that returns a 423 Locked response is safe to retry. 423 Locked indicates that the resource is temporarily locked, for example, due to another operation in progress.

• request_id (string, optional) Unique identifier for the request, useful for debugging. You can set this value manually by including an X-Request-ID header in the request. If not provided, the value will be generated automatically.

• code (string, required) Machine-readable code classifying the error type. See message for a human-readable explanation. Default: ``

• message (string, required) Error message

API Reference / Credentials / Rotate a credential's secrets

Replaces the secret material on an existing scoped credential in place. token_id is preserved — it is the AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID for S3-compatible clients, so the access key id your application already holds keeps working and only the secret changes. This is the analog of resetting a Postgres password, not of issuing a second credential.

The response carries the new api_token and s3_secret_access_key exactly once. Rotation is not idempotent: retrying after an ambiguous timeout mints another secret and supersedes the previous replacement, so a retry does not recover a lost response — it only invalidates the secret you did not receive. If you lose the response, issue a replacement credential and revoke this one.

The old secret stops authenticating as soon as the rotation commits. Where a region caches credentials on its data-plane verifiers, a replica may briefly keep accepting the old secret — and rejecting the new one — until its cache entry expires; where it does not, the cutover is immediate apart from requests already in flight. Either way the changeover is not atomic across replicas, so retry an unexpected authentication failure right after rotating rather than treating the new secret as bad. last_used_at continues to report the logical credential's prior usage and says nothing about whether the new secret has been used yet.

Only a live, unexpired, unrevoked customer-managed (user) credential on a live project and live branch is eligible. Anything else — including the platform-internal function and system credentials — is reported as not found, indistinguishable from an unknown token_id.

Note: This endpoint is currently in Beta.

• project_id (string, path, required) The Neon project ID
• branch_id (string, path, required) The Neon branch ID
• token_id (string, path, required) The opaque credential id (e.g. nak_live_<32hex>).

• token_id (string, optional) Opaque credential id (e.g. nak_live_<32hex>), unchanged by the rotation. Doubles as the AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID for SigV4.

• token_id_short (string, optional) First 12 hex chars of token_id; safe to log.

• name (string, optional) Customer-supplied label carried on the credential. Absent when none was set at issuance.

• api_token (string, optional) The new Bearer token; returned exactly once.

• s3_secret_access_key (string, optional) The new nsk_live_<64 hex> AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY; returned exactly once.

• scopes (array, optional)

• branch_id (string, optional)

• principal_type (string, optional) Always user: only customer-managed credentials are rotatable through this endpoint.

  Possible values: user

• created_at (string, optional, format: date-time) When the credential was originally issued. Rotation replaces the secrets in place and does not reset this.

• expires_at (string, optional, format: date-time) When the credential expires; absent means never expires. Rotation does not extend it.

curl "https://console.neon.tech/api/v2/projects/$PROJECT_ID/branches/$BRANCH_ID/credentials/$TOKEN_ID/rotate" \
  -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NEON_API_KEY"

import { createNeonClient, raw } from '@neon/sdk';

const neon = createNeonClient({ apiKey: process.env.NEON_API_KEY });
const { data } = await raw.rotateCredential({
  client: neon.client,
  path: {
    project_id: process.env.PROJECT_ID,
    branch_id: process.env.BRANCH_ID,
    token_id: process.env.TOKEN_ID
  }
});

default General Error.

The request may or may not be safe to retry, depending on the HTTP method, response status code, and whether a response was received.

• If no response is returned from the API, a network error or timeout likely occurred.
• In some cases, the request may have reached the server and been successfully processed, but the response failed to reach the client. As a result, retrying non-idempotent requests can lead to unintended results.

The following HTTP methods are considered non-idempotent: POST, PATCH, DELETE, and PUT. Retrying these methods is generally not safe. The following methods are considered idempotent: GET, HEAD, and OPTIONS. Retrying these methods is safe in the event of a network error or timeout.

Any request that returns a 503 Service Unavailable response is always safe to retry.

Any request that returns a 423 Locked response is safe to retry. 423 Locked indicates that the resource is temporarily locked, for example, due to another operation in progress.

• request_id (string, optional) Unique identifier for the request, useful for debugging. You can set this value manually by including an X-Request-ID header in the request. If not provided, the value will be generated automatically.

• code (string, required) Machine-readable code classifying the error type. See message for a human-readable explanation. Default: ``

• message (string, required) Error message