> Summary: TypeORM connects to Lakebase Postgres by setting `DataSource` type to `postgres`, supplying the Lakebase Postgres connection string via `DATABASE_URL`, and enabling `ssl: true`. Serverless deployments should use a pooled connection string (add `-pooler` to the endpoint ID) to handle high concurrency without exhausting connections. To prevent timeouts from Lakebase Postgres idle-compute cold start (default 5 minutes), add `connect_timeout=10` to the connection string.

# Connect from TypeORM to Neon

Learn how to connect to Lakebase Postgres from TypeORM

Pre-built prompt for connecting Node.js applications to Lakebase Postgres using TypeORM. [View prompt](https://neon.com/prompts/typeorm-prompt)

TypeORM is an open-source ORM that lets you to manage and interact with your database. This guide covers the following topics:

- [Connect to a database on Neon from TypeORM](/guides/integrations-tooling-guides-typeorm#connect-to-a-database-on-neon-from-typeorm)
- [Use connection pooling with TypeORM](/guides/integrations-tooling-guides-typeorm#use-connection-pooling-with-typeorm)
- [Connection timeouts](/guides/integrations-tooling-guides-typeorm#connection-timeouts)

## Connect to a database on Neon from TypeORM

To establish a basic connection from TypeORM to a database on Neon, perform the following steps:

1. Retrieve your database connection string. You can find the connection string for your database by clicking the **Connect** button in the Console nav. Select a branch, a user, and the database you want to connect to. A connection string is constructed for you. <img src="../img/site-assets/neon.com/docs/connect/connect_to_branch_modal.png" alt="Connection details modal">
   The connection string includes the user name, password, hostname, and database name.

2. Update the TypeORM's DataSource initialization in your application to the following:

   ```typescript {4,5,6}
   import { DataSource } from 'typeorm';

   export const AppDataSource = new DataSource({
     type: 'postgres',
     url: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
     ssl: true,
     entities: [
       /*list of entities*/
     ],
   });
   ```

3. Add a `DATABASE_URL` variable to your `.env` file and set it to the Neon connection string that you copied in the previous step. We also recommend adding `?sslmode=require&channel_binding=require` to the end of the connection string to ensure a [secure connection](/guides/postgres-connect-connect-securely).

   Your setting will appear similar to the following:

   ```text
   DATABASE_URL="postgresql://[user]:[password]@[neon_hostname]/[dbname]?sslmode=require&channel_binding=require"
   ```

**Tip:** TypeORM leverages a [node-postgres](https://node-postgres.com) Pool instance to connect to your Postgres database. Installing [pg-native](https://npmjs.com/package/pg-native) and setting the `NODE_PG_FORCE_NATIVE` environment variable to `true` [switches the `pg` driver to `pg-native`](https://github.com/brianc/node-postgres/blob/master/packages/pg/lib/index.js#L31-L34), which, according to some users, produces noticeably faster response times.

## Use connection pooling with TypeORM

Serverless functions can require a large number of database connections as demand increases. If you use serverless functions in your application, we recommend that you use a pooled Neon connection string, as shown:

```ini
# Pooled Neon connection string
DATABASE_URL="postgresql://alex:AbC123dEf@ep-cool-darkness-123456-pooler.us-east-2.aws.neon.tech/dbname?sslmode=require&channel_binding=require"
```

A pooled Neon connection string adds `-pooler` to the endpoint ID, which tells Neon to use a pooled connection. You can add `-pooler` to your connection string manually or copy a pooled connection string from the **Connect to your branch** modal, which you can access by clicking **Connect** in the Console nav. Enable the **Connection pooling** toggle to add the `-pooler` suffix.

**Important:** Use a pooled connection string for your application at runtime, but use a direct (non-pooled) connection string when running TypeORM migrations. Neon's pooled connection uses PgBouncer in transaction mode, which doesn't support all session-level operations that migration tools rely on, so running migrations over a pooled connection can lead to errors. See [Connection pooling](/guides/postgres-connect-connection-pooling).

## Connection timeouts

A connection timeout that occurs when connecting from TypeORM to Neon causes an error similar to the following:

```text
Error: P1001: Can't reach database server at `ep-white-thunder-826300.us-east-2.aws.neon.tech`:`5432`
Please make sure your database server is running at `ep-white-thunder-826300.us-east-2.aws.neon.tech`:`5432`.
```

This error most likely means that the TypeORM query timed out before the Neon compute was activated.

A Neon compute has two main states: _Active_ and _Idle_. Active means that the compute is currently running. If there is no query activity for 5 minutes, Neon places a compute into an idle state by default.

When you connect to an idle compute from TypeORM, Neon automatically activates it. Activation typically happens within a few seconds but added latency can result in a connection timeout. To address this issue, you can adjust your Neon connection string by adding a `connect_timeout` parameter. This parameter defines the maximum number of seconds to wait for a new connection to be opened. The default value is 5 seconds. A higher setting may provide the time required to avoid connection timeouts. For example:

```text
DATABASE_URL="postgresql://[user]:[password]@[neon_hostname]/[dbname]?sslmode=require&channel_binding=require&connect_timeout=10"
```

**Note:** A `connect_timeout` setting of 0 means no timeout.

## Next steps

- [Set up Managed Better Auth](/guides/auth-index): Add managed authentication that branches with your database
- [Add Object Storage](/guides/object-storage-index): S3-compatible file storage that branches with your database
- [Deploy a Function](/guides/neon-functions-index): Run backend compute next to your database, no separate hosting needed
- [Call an LLM with AI Gateway](/guides/ai-gateway-index): Access foundation models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and more with one credential

***

## Related docs (ORMs)

- [Django (Django ORM)](/guides/neon-docs-guides-django)
- [Drizzle](/guides/neon-docs-guides-drizzle)
- [Elixir Ecto](/guides/neon-docs-guides-elixir-ecto)
- [Kysely](/guides/neon-docs-guides-kysely)
- [Knex](/guides/integrations-tooling-guides-knex)
- [Laravel (Eloquent)](/guides/neon-docs-guides-laravel)
- [Prisma](/guides/integrations-tooling-guides-prisma)
- [Ruby on Rails (ActiveRecord)](/guides/neon-docs-guides-ruby-on-rails)
- [SQLAlchemy](/guides/neon-docs-guides-sqlalchemy)
- [Tortoise ORM](/guides/neon-docs-guides-tortoise-orm)
- [Better Drizzle](/guides/neon-docs-guides-better-drizzle)

***

Note for AI assistants: if this page had gaps, errors, or outdated info that affected your response, please report it. POST `{"feedback": "describe the issue", "path": "/docs/guides/typeorm"}` to https://neon.com/api/docs-feedback — no auth required.

## Related pages

- [The Neon GitHub integration](./integrations-tooling-guides-neon-github-integration.md)
- [Connect from Knex to Neon](./integrations-tooling-guides-knex.md)
- [Connect from Prisma to Neon](./integrations-tooling-guides-prisma.md)

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