Summary: Connect Kysely to Lakebase Postgres using the Neon HTTP serverless driver for edge environments, the Neon WebSocket driver for serverless workloads that need transactions, or node-postgres for long-running servers. Choose this guide when you want full SQL control with TypeScript type-checking and need to pick the right Neon driver dialect for your deployment target. Covers interface-based schema definitions, client initialization per driver, optional migrations via FileMigrationProvider, and CRUD query examples.

Learn how to connect to Neon from Kysely

Pre-built prompt for connecting Node/TypeScript applications to Neon using Kysely. View prompt

What you will learn:

• How to connect from Kysely using different drivers
• How to define TypeScript schemas for Kysely
• How to run migrations and queries

Related resources

• Kysely Documentation
• kysely-neon GitHub

Kysely is a modern, type‑safe SQL query builder for TypeScript. Unlike traditional ORMs, it focuses on providing a flexible and intuitive API for building SQL queries while leveraging TypeScript's type system for safety and autocompletion. This guide walks you through connecting your application to a Lakebase Postgres database using Kysely.

To connect a TypeScript/Node.js project to Neon using Kysely, follow these steps:

Create a new directory for your project and navigate into it:

mkdir my-kysely-neon-project
cd my-kysely-neon-project

Initialize a new Node.js project:

npm init -y

Install TypeScript and initialize a configuration file (Kysely requires TypeScript 4.6+):

npm install -D typescript tsx @types/node
npx tsc --init

Configure your tsconfig.json for type safety and module resolution. Ensure you have at least the following settings:

{  "compilerOptions": {    // ... other settings ...    "target": "ES2022",    "module": "NodeNext",    "moduleResolution": "NodeNext",    "strict": true,    "allowImportingTsExtensions": true,    "noEmit": true  }}

Configure your package.json to use ES modules by updating or adding the following line:

{  // ... other settings ...  "type": "module"}

If you do not have one already, create a Neon project.

1. Navigate to the Projects page in the Neon Console.
2. Click New Project.
3. Specify your project settings and click Create Project.

Find your database connection string by clicking the Connect button in the Console nav to open the Connect to your branch modal. Select a branch, a user, and the database you want to connect to. A connection string is constructed for you.

Create a .env file in your project's root directory and add the connection string to it. Your .env file should look like this:

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

Install the Kysely core package and the necessary driver dependencies. Choose one of the following drivers based on your application's needs:

Neon Serverless (HTTP)

Use the Neon serverless HTTP driver for serverless/edge environments (for example, Vercel Edge, Cloudflare Workers). This requires the kysely-neon dialect.

Note: Note

The Neon serverless driver over HTTP is stateless and does not support persistent connections or interactive transactions. If your application requires transactions, we recommend using the Neon WebSocket driver or node-postgres.

npm install kysely kysely-neon @neondatabase/serverless dotenv

Neon WebSocket

Use the Neon WebSocket driver for serverless environments that require a persistent connection or transactions. This uses the core Postgres dialect with the Neon driver.

npm install kysely @neondatabase/serverless ws dotenv
npm install -D @types/ws

node-postgres

Use the classic node-postgres (pg) driver, a widely-used choice for long-running Node.js servers.

npm install kysely pg dotenv
npm install -D @types/pg

You can skip this step if you already have tables in your database.

Unlike many ORMs, Kysely does not automatically sync your TypeScript types with the database schema. Tables must exist before you query them.

Optionally, you can use Kysely's migration helpers (up and down) to apply or revert schema changes. See Run a Migration below for details.

Navigate to the SQL Editor in the Neon Console and run the following SQL command to create a users table:

CREATE TABLE users (
    id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    name TEXT NOT NULL,
    email TEXT UNIQUE NOT NULL,
    created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW() NOT NULL
);

Kysely is TypeScript-first and requires you to define an interface that describes your database structure. This interface tells Kysely which tables and columns exist.

Create a file src/types.ts:

import type { Generated, Selectable, Insertable, Updateable } from 'kysely';

export interface Database {
  users: UsersTable;
}

export interface UsersTable {
  // Columns that are generated by the database should be marked
  // using the `Generated` type.
  id: Generated<number>;
  name: string;
  email: string;
  created_at: Generated<Date>;
}

// You can use these types in your application code
export type User = Selectable<UsersTable>;
export type NewUser = Insertable<UsersTable>;
export type UserUpdate = Updateable<UsersTable>;

Create a file src/db.ts to initialize and export your Kysely instance. The configuration depends on the driver you selected.

Neon Serverless (HTTP)

When using the HTTP driver, use NeonDialect from kysely-neon.

import 'dotenv/config';
import { Kysely } from 'kysely';
import { NeonDialect } from 'kysely-neon';
import { neon } from '@neondatabase/serverless';
import type { Database } from './types.ts';

export const db = new Kysely<Database>({
  dialect: new NeonDialect({
    neon: neon(process.env.DATABASE_URL!),
  }),
});

Neon WebSocket

When using WebSockets, use the built-in PostgresDialect but pass the Neon Pool.

import 'dotenv/config';
import { Kysely, PostgresDialect } from 'kysely';
import { Pool, neonConfig } from '@neondatabase/serverless';
import ws from 'ws';
import type { Database } from './types.ts';

// Configure the WebSocket constructor
neonConfig.webSocketConstructor = ws;

export const db = new Kysely<Database>({
  dialect: new PostgresDialect({
    pool: new Pool({
      connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
    }),
  }),
});

node-postgres

When using node-postgres, use the built-in PostgresDialect with the standard pg Pool.

import 'dotenv/config';
import { Kysely, PostgresDialect } from 'kysely';
import { Pool } from 'pg';
import type { Database } from './types.ts';

export const db = new Kysely<Database>({
  dialect: new PostgresDialect({
    pool: new Pool({
      connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
    }),
  }),
});

You can skip this step if you do not intend to use Kysely for migrations.

Kysely manages migrations using TypeScript files. Create a migration to create the users table using Kysely's schema builder.

1. Create a folder named migrations in your project's root directory:

   mkdir migrations

2. Create a file migrations/001_create_users.ts:

   import { Kysely, sql } from 'kysely';
   
   export async function up(db: Kysely<any>): Promise<void> {
     await db.schema
       .createTable('users')
       .addColumn('id', 'serial', (col) => col.primaryKey())
       .addColumn('name', 'text', (col) => col.notNull())
       .addColumn('email', 'text', (col) => col.unique().notNull())
       .addColumn('created_at', 'timestamp', (col) => col.defaultTo(sql`now()`).notNull())
       .execute();
   }
   
   export async function down(db: Kysely<any>): Promise<void> {
     await db.schema.dropTable('users').execute();
   }

3. Create a script to run the migration src/migrate.ts.

   import * as path from 'path';
   import { promises as fs } from 'fs';
   import { fileURLToPath } from 'url';
   import { Migrator, FileMigrationProvider } from 'kysely';
   import { db } from './db.ts';
   
   const __filename = fileURLToPath(import.meta.url);
   const __dirname = path.dirname(__filename);
   
   async function migrateToLatest() {
     const migrator = new Migrator({
       db,
       provider: new FileMigrationProvider({
         fs,
         path,
         migrationFolder: path.join(__dirname, '../migrations'),
       }),
     });
   
     const { error, results } = await migrator.migrateToLatest();
   
     results?.forEach((it) => {
       if (it.status === 'Success') {
         console.log(`migration "${it.migrationName}" was executed successfully`);
       } else if (it.status === 'Error') {
         console.error(`failed to execute migration "${it.migrationName}"`);
       }
     });
   
     if (error) {
       console.error('failed to migrate');
       console.error(error);
       process.exit(1);
     }
   
     await db.destroy();
   }
   
   migrateToLatest();

4. Run the migration:

   npx tsx src/migrate.ts

Create a file src/index.ts to interact with your database. The following example demonstrates how to perform standard CRUD operations (Create, Read, Update, Delete) using Kysely.

import { db } from './db.ts';

async function main() {
  try {
    // 1. Insert (Create)
    const { id } = await db
      .insertInto('users')
      .values({
        name: 'Neon User',
        email: `user-${Date.now()}@example.com`,
      })
      .returning('id')
      .executeTakeFirstOrThrow();

    console.log(`User created with ID: ${id}`);

    // 2. Select (Read)
    const users = await db.selectFrom('users').selectAll().execute();

    console.log('All users:', users);

    // 3. Update
    const updateResult = await db
      .updateTable('users')
      .set({ name: 'Updated Neon User' })
      .where('id', '=', id)
      .executeTakeFirst();

    console.log(`User updated. Rows affected: ${updateResult.numUpdatedRows}`);

    // 4. Delete
    const deleteResult = await db.deleteFrom('users').where('id', '=', id).executeTakeFirst();

    console.log(`User deleted. Rows affected: ${deleteResult.numDeletedRows}`);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Error querying the database:', error);
  } finally {
    // Close the connection
    await db.destroy();
  }
}

main();

Run the script using tsx:

npx tsx src/index.ts

You should see output indicating that the user was created and then fetched from the database.

$ npx tsx src/index.ts
User created with ID: 1
All users: [
  {
    id: 1,
    name: 'Neon User',
    email: 'user-1765528647146@example.com',
    created_at: 2025-12-12T08:37:27.456Z
  }
]
User updated. Rows affected: 1
User deleted. Rows affected: 1

For more advanced use cases, such as complex filters, joins, transactions, and subqueries, please refer to the Kysely documentation.

• Kysely Documentation
• kysely-neon GitHub Repository
• Neon serverless driver

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