Summary: Neon read replicas let you grant read-only database access to partners, third-party apps, or analysts by routing SELECT queries to an isolated compute that blocks all writes (SQLSTATE 25006). Use this approach when you need to share live data for reporting or audits without risking changes to production. Setup requires creating the replica in the Console and sharing its connection string.

Leverage read replicas to provide read-only access to your data

When you create a read replica in Neon, you gain the ability to provide read-only access to your data. Use it when you want to grant access to users, partners, or third-party applications that only need to run queries to analyze data, generate reports, or audit your database. Since no write operations are permitted on read replicas, it ensures the integrity of your data while allowing others to work with up-to-date information.

Suppose you need to give a partner read-only access to your sales data so they can generate custom reports for your business. Here's how you would go about doing that:

1. Create a read replica

   Note: The Free plan is limited to a maximum of 3 read replica computes per project.

   Follow these steps to create a read replica for your database branch:

   • In the Neon Console, go to Branches.
   • Select the branch that contains your data.
   • Click Add Read Replica to create a dedicated compute instance for read operations.

2. Provide the connection string

   Once the read replica is created, obtain the connection string from the Neon Console:

   • You can find the connection details for your database by clicking the Connect button in the Console nav. Select the branch, the database, and the role.

   • Choose Replica compute under the compute settings.

   • Copy the connection string and provide it to your partner. The connection string might look something like this:

     postgresql://partner:partner_password@ep-read-replica-12345.us-east-2.aws.neon.tech/sales_db?sslmode=require&channel_binding=require

3. Read-only access for the partner

   The partner can now use this connection string to connect to the read replica and run any SELECT queries they need for reporting purposes, such as:

   SELECT product_id, SUM(sale_amount) as total_sales
   FROM sales
   WHERE sale_date >= (CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '1 year')
   GROUP BY product_id;

   This query will run on the read replica without impacting the performance of your production database, since read replicas run on an isolated read-only compute.

4. Write operations are not permitted

   Since the connection is to a read replica, the partner will not be able to run any write operations. If they attempt to run a DELETE, INSERT, or UPDATE query, they will receive an error message like this:

   ERROR: cannot execute INSERT in a read-only transaction (SQLSTATE 25006)

• Ad-hoc queries
• Analytics queries
• Scale applications

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