Connect a Remix application to Neon

Remix is an open-source full stack JavaScript framework that lets you focus on building out the user interface using familiar web standards. This guide explains how to connect Remix with Lakebase Postgres using a secure server-side request.

To create a project on Neon and access it from a Remix application:

1. 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.

2. Create a Remix project and add dependencies

   1. Create a Remix project if you do not have one. For instructions, see Quick Start, in the Remix documentation.

   2. Add project dependencies using one of the following commands:

      Neon serverless driverpostgres.jsnode-postgres

      npm install @neondatabase/serverless

3. Store your Neon credentials

   Add a .env file to your project directory and add your Neon connection string to it. You can find the connection string for your database by clicking the Connect button on your Project Dashboard. For more information, see Connect from any application.

   DATABASE_URL="postgresql://<user>:<password>@<endpoint_hostname>.neon.tech:<port>/<dbname>?sslmode=require&channel_binding=require"

4. Configure the Postgres client

   There are two parts to connecting a Remix application to Neon. The first is db.server. Remix will ensure any code added to this file won't be included in the client bundle. The second is the route where the connection to the database will be used.

   db.server

   Create a db.server.ts file at the root of your /app directory and add the following code snippet to connect to your Neon database:

   Neon serverless driverpostgres.jsnode-postgres

   import { neon } from '@neondatabase/serverless';
   
   const sql = neon(process.env.DATABASE_URL);
   
   export { sql };

   route

   Create a new route in your app/routes directory and import the db.server file.

   Neon serverless driverpostgres.jsnode-postgres

   import { sql } from '~/db.server';
   import { json } from '@remix-run/node';
   import { useLoaderData } from '@remix-run/react';
   
   export const loader = async () => {
     const response = await sql`SELECT version()`;
     return response[0].version;
   };
   
   export default function Page() {
     const data = useLoaderData();
     return <>{data}</>;
   }

5. Run the app

   When you run npm run dev you can expect to see the following on localhost:3000:

   PostgreSQL 16.0 on x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by gcc (Debian 10.2.1-6) 10.2.1 20210110, 64-bit

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