Summary: Connect Nuxt (Vue meta-framework) to serverless Postgres on Neon: use the Neon CLI to create the project and pull DATABASE_URL into your .env, then run SQL from a Nitro server route with the Neon serverless driver. Choose this guide when building a full-stack Nuxt app that needs server-side Postgres queries, covering CLI setup, driver selection (Neon serverless driver, node-postgres, or postgres.js), and reading the connection string in server code.

Learn how to make server-side queries to Postgres using Nitro API routes

Pre-built prompt for connecting Nuxt applications to Neon. View prompt

Nuxt is an open-source full-stack meta framework that enables Vue-based web applications. This topic describes how to connect a Nuxt application to a Postgres database on Neon.

To create a Neon project and access it from a Nuxt.js application:

Create a Neon project with the Neon CLI or the Console.

Neon CLI

Install the CLI (npm i -g neon), then sign in and create the project:

neon login
neon projects create --name my-app

If you belong to more than one organization, the CLI prompts you to choose one. To skip the prompt, pass --org-id <id> (find it with neon orgs list).

You'll link this project and pull its credentials in a later step.

Console

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

1. Create a Nuxt project if you do not have one, then change into its directory. The scaffolder is interactive (it asks about the template, package manager, git, and modules); for CI or an AI agent, pass those as flags to run non-interactively. See Create a Nuxt Project for details. The CLI commands in the next step run from this directory.

   # Interactive (human):
   npm create nuxt@latest my-app && cd my-app
   
   # Non-interactive (CI / AI agents):
   npm create nuxt@latest my-app -- --template minimal --packageManager npm --no-gitInit --modules "" && cd my-app

2. Add a Postgres driver. This guide's examples use the Neon serverless driver, which suits serverless and edge deployments; for long-lived servers, pg or postgres.js are recommended. See Choosing your connection method.

   Neon serverless driver

   npm install @neondatabase/serverless

   postgres.js

   npm install postgres

   node-postgres

   npm install pg

Get your DATABASE_URL into a .env file the app can read.

Neon CLI

From your project directory, link the app to your Neon project and pull its connection string:

neon link                    # connects this directory to your project (writes .neon)
neon env pull --file .env    # writes DATABASE_URL from your default branch into .env

Notes:

• Not signed in yet? Run neon login first.
• neon link prompts for an org and project. To skip the prompts, pass --org-id <id> and --project-id <id> (find IDs with neon orgs list and neon projects list), plus --branch <name> to pin a branch, or -y to pin the default branch.
• For Nuxt, pass in --file .env to neon env pull as it writes to .env.local by default, and nuxt dev only reads .env by default.
• Which branch? neon env pull uses your project's default branch: main for CLI-created projects, production for Console-created ones (neon branches list shows yours). To use a different branch, run neon checkout <branch> first; it re-pins the branch in .neon so the next env pull reads from it.

Console

Add a .env file and paste your connection string, which you can copy from the Connect button in the Console nav. For more information, see Connect from any application.

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

The connection string is a server-side secret, so query it from Nitro server code, which reads process.env.DATABASE_URL directly (no runtimeConfig needed).

This example uses the Neon serverless driver (@neondatabase/serverless). Create a server utility that holds the database client:

import { neon } from '@neondatabase/serverless';

export const sql = neon(process.env.DATABASE_URL!);

Then use it in a server API route. Files in server/utils/ are auto-imported, so sql is available without an import:

export default defineEventHandler(async () => {
  const [row] = await sql`SELECT version()`;
  return row;
});

Note: Keep the database client in server/ only. Never import server/utils/db.ts from a Vue component or app/ code; the connection string must stay server-side.

Start the dev server:

npm run dev

Then open localhost:3000/api/version. The route returns your Postgres version, confirming the connection:

{ "version": "PostgreSQL 18.4 on aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu, compiled by gcc ..." }

• 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

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