Summary: Covers the usage of the link command in the Neon CLI to bind the current directory to a Neon project, including interactive and non-interactive workflows for CI, scripts, and AI agents.

Link a directory to a Neon project and write a .neon context file

The link command binds the current directory to a Neon project and writes a .neon context file. Once linked, commands you run here (or in any subdirectory) know which organization, project, and branch to use, so you don't repeat --org-id and --project-id every time.

link always pins a branch as part of that context. Pass --branch to choose one, or use checkout to switch it later.

Note: Behavior changed in Neon CLI 5.0.0

Before 5.0.0, link wrote orgId and projectId but pinned a branch only when you passed --branch, so a .neon file could be incomplete. From 5.0.0, link always pins a branch, and --no-checks also requires --branch. In non-interactive scripts, pass --branch (or -y for the default branch).

Tip: Prefer link over set-context

For most workflows, use neon link instead of manually running neon set-context --project-id .... The link command guides you through organization and project selection and ensures the context file is complete.

neon link [options]

By default, linking pulls the linked branch's environment variables (such as DATABASE_URL) into a local .env file. Use --no-env-pull to skip this step, for example when you inject environment variables at runtime instead.

After an interactive link, link also prompts you to create a neon.ts config when the directory doesn't already have one, so you can manage the project's Neon setup as code. Accept the prompt to write neon.ts, or pass --no-config to skip it. This applies to interactive linking only; non-interactive runs never prompt.

Run neon link with no flags for guided prompts:

neon link

? Which organization would you like to link? ' Personal Org (org-abc123)
? Which project would you like to link? ' + Create new project
? Name for the new project: ' my-app
? Which region should the new project run in? ' AWS US East (Ohio) (aws-us-east-2)
Created project polished-snowflake-12345678 ("my-app") in aws-us-east-2.
Linked .neon:
  orgId:     org-abc123
  projectId: polished-snowflake-12345678
  branch:    br-steep-math-aiu3vve7

Use flags or a --params JSON blob for scripts, CI, and AI agents:

# Link to an existing project (pin a branch, or pass -y for the default)
neon link --org-id org-abc123 --project-id polished-snowflake-12345678 --branch main

# Create a new project and link
neon link --org-id org-abc123 --project-name my-app --region-id aws-us-east-2

# Same payload, one JSON blob
neon link --params '{"orgId":"org-abc123","projectName":"my-app","regionId":"aws-us-east-2"}'

Flags take precedence over fields in --params.

Because link writes a complete context, a non-interactive run needs a branch: pass --branch (or --branch-id), or use -y to pin the project's default branch. link pins the only branch automatically when a project has just one.

Agents find the IDs with neon orgs list --output json and neon projects list --org-id <org-id> --output json, then link with --project-id (or create a project with --org-id, --project-name, and --region-id).

link is a thin wrapper around set-context: both write to the same .neon file, so anything link can write, set-context can write too. link writes the file into the current working directory by default. If an existing .neon is found in any parent directory, that file is reused, so commands run from a subdirectory of a linked project still pick up the project's context. To pin the location explicitly, pass the global --context-file <path> option. See Using a named context file.

Example .neon file:

{
  "orgId": "org-abc123",
  "projectId": "polished-snowflake-12345678",
  "branch": "br-steep-math-aiu3vve7"
}

The first time a .neon file is created, the CLI adds .neon to .gitignore in that folder so local project settings are not committed by accident. If you want to commit .neon and share context with your team, remove the entry from .gitignore. The CLI doesn't re-add it when updating an existing file.

Note: Neon does not save confidential information to the context file (for example, auth tokens). You can safely commit this file to your repository or share it with others.

Organization-scoped API keys (those created at the organization level rather than the user level) cannot list user organizations or call the regions endpoint. link handles this transparently:

• If the API key is org-scoped and at least one project already exists in the org, the CLI auto-detects the org_id from the first project.
• When the regions endpoint is not allowed, link falls back to a built-in static region list.

• login
• init
• ask
• mcp
• skills
• plugins
• claim
• bootstrap
• checkout
• git
• env
• set-context
• open
• me
• profile
• api-keys
• completion

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