Guides and best practices for working with Neon Serverless Postgres. Covers getting started, local development with Neon, choosing a connection method, Neon features, authentication (@neondatabase/auth), PostgREST-style data API (@neondatabase/neon-js), Neon CLI, and Neon's Platform API/SDKs. Use for any Neon-related questions.
Install with the open skills CLI (global, non-interactive — available in every Claude Code session):
npx skills add davila7/claude-code-templates --skill "using-neon" -g -a claude-code -yOr manually — clone and copy the skill directory (SKILL.md + companion files):
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/davila7/claude-code-templates /tmp/claude-code-templates && cp -r /tmp/claude-code-templates/cli-tool/components/skills/database/using-neon ~/.claude/skills/using-neon-davila7This skill is a directory: SKILL.md is the entry point; the files below ship with it.
---
name: using-neon
description: Guides and best practices for working with Neon Serverless Postgres. Covers getting started, local development with Neon, choosing a connection method, Neon features, authentication (@neondatabase/auth), PostgREST-style data API (@neondatabase/neon-js), Neon CLI, and Neon's Platform API/SDKs. Use for any Neon-related questions.
---
# Neon Serverless Postgres
Neon is a serverless Postgres platform that separates compute and storage to offer autoscaling, branching, instant restore, and scale-to-zero. It's fully compatible with Postgres and works with any language, framework, or ORM that supports Postgres.
## Neon Documentation
Always reference the Neon documentation before making Neon-related claims. The documentation is the source of truth for all Neon-related information.
Below you'll find a list of resources organized by area of concern. This is meant to support you find the right documentation pages to fetch and add a bit of additonal context.
You can use the `curl` commands to fetch the documentation page as markdown:
**Documentation:**
```bash
# Get list of all Neon docs
curl https://neon.tech/llms.txt
# Fetch any doc page as markdown
curl -H "Accept: text/markdown" https://neon.tech/docs/<path>
```
Don't guess docs pages. Use the `llms.txt` index to find the relevant URL or follow the links in the resources below.
## Overview of Resources
Reference the appropriate resource file based on the user's needs:
### Core Guides
| Area | Resource | When to Use |
| ------------------ | ---------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
| What is Neon | `references/what-is-neon.md` | Understanding Neon concepts, architecture, core resources |
| Referencing Docs | `references/referencing-docs.md` | Looking up official documentation, verifying information |
| Features | `references/features.md` | Branching, autoscaling, scale-to-zero, instant restore |
| Getting Started | `references/getting-started.md` | Setting up a project, connection strings, dependencies, schema |
| Connection Methods | `references/connection-methods.md` | Choosing drivers based on platform and runtime |
| Developer Tools | `references/devtools.md` | VSCode extension, MCP server, Neon CLI (`neon init`) |
### Database Drivers & ORMs
HTTP/WebSocket queries for serverless/edge functions.
| Area | Resource | When to Use |
| ----------------- | ------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- |
| Serverless Driver | `references/neon-serverless.md` | `@neondatabase/serverless` - HTTP/WebSocket queries |
| Drizzle ORM | `references/neon-drizzle.md` | Drizzle ORM integration with Neon |
### Auth & Data API SDKs
Authentication and PostgREST-style data API for Neon.
| Area | Resource | When to Use |
| ----------- | ------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Neon Auth | `references/neon-auth.md` | `@neondatabase/auth` - Authentication only |
| Neon JS SDK | `references/neon-js.md` | `@neondatabase/neon-js` - Auth + Data API (PostgREST-style queries) |
### Neon Platform API & CLI
Managing Neon resources programmatically via REST API, SDKs, or CLI.
| Area | Resource | When to Use |
| --------------------- | ----------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- |
| Platform API Overview | `references/neon-platform-api.md` | Managing Neon resources via REST API |
| Neon CLI | `references/neon-cli.md` | Terminal workflows, scripts, CI/CD pipelines |
| TypeScript SDK | `references/neon-typescript-sdk.md` | `@neondatabase/api-client` |
| Python SDK | `references/neon-python-sdk.md` | `neon-api` package |