Neon Instagres PHP SDK

A simple PHP SDK for creating instant claimable Neon PostgreSQL databases with zero configuration.

This SDK provides a PHP implementation of Neon's Instagres (formerly Launchpad) feature, allowing you to provision PostgreSQL databases instantly without account creation.

Features

• 🚀 Instant database provisioning (no account/auth needed)
• 🔗 Immediate connection string availability
• ⏱️ 72-hour database lifespan (claimable for permanent use)
• 🎯 Simple, clean implementation using industry-standard libraries
• 🐘 Requires PHP 8.1+

Installation

composer require philip/instagres

Usage

Basic usage

<?php

require_once 'vendor/autoload.php';

use Philip\Instagres\Client;

// Create a claimable database (uses default referrer: 'instagres-php')
$database = Client::createClaimableDatabase();

echo "Connection String: {$database['connection_string']}\n";
echo "Claim URL: {$database['claim_url']}\n";
echo "Expires At: {$database['expires_at']}\n";

Running the examples

If you've cloned the repository, you can run the included examples:

composer install
php examples/create-database.php

Database seeding example

Want to create a database with initial data? Seed with the included sample schema:

php examples/seed-database.php

This example demonstrates:

• Creating a database with Instagres
• Connecting using PDO
• Executing SQL from a file
• Verifying the seeded data
• Real-world database setup patterns

See examples/seed-database.php and examples/sample-schema.sql for the complete implementation.

Testing

# Run all tests
composer test

# Run tests with coverage report (generates HTML in coverage/ directory)
composer test:coverage

API reference

Client::createClaimableDatabase()

createClaimableDatabase(
    string  $referrer = 'instagres-php',
    ?string $dbId     = null
): array

Creates a claimable Neon database and returns connection information.

Parameters:

• $referrer (string, optional): An identifier for your application (default: 'instagres-php')
• $dbId (string|null, optional): Custom UUID for the database (auto-generated if not provided)

Returns: Array with keys:

• connection_string (string): PostgreSQL connection string
• claim_url (string): URL to claim the database to your Neon account
• expires_at (string): Expiration timestamp in ISO 8601 format (e.g., "2025-11-15T15:22:03Z")

Throws:

• NetworkException - If HTTP request fails or returns non-success status
• InvalidResponseException - If API response is invalid or missing required fields

Client::getClaimUrl()

getClaimUrl(string $dbId): string

Gets the claim URL for a database. This URL is used to claim the temporary database into a Neon account, otherwise it expires (is deleted) after 72 hours.

Parameters:

• $dbId (string, required): The database UUID

Returns: The claim URL

Client::parseConnectionString()

parseConnectionString(string $connectionString): array

Parses a PostgreSQL connection string into individual components and PDO-ready format.

Parameters:

• $connectionString (string, required): PostgreSQL connection string (e.g., postgresql://user:pass@host/db)

Returns: Array with keys:

• host (string): Database host
• port (string): Port number (defaults to 5432 if not specified)
• database (string): Database name
• user (string): Username
• password (string): Password (URL-decoded)
• dsn (string): PDO DSN string ready for use with new PDO()
• options (array): Query string options (e.g., ['sslmode' => 'require'])

Throws:

• InvalidResponseException - If connection string format is invalid

Example:

$database = Client::createClaimableDatabase();

// The returned connection string URI looks similar to:
// postgresql://user:pass@ep-jolly-fog.eu-central-1.aws.neon.tech/neondb?channel_binding=require&sslmode=require
$parsed = Client::parseConnectionString($database['connection_string']);

// Use with PDO
$pdo = new PDO($parsed['dsn'], $parsed['user'], $parsed['password']);

// Or access individual components
echo "Host: {$parsed['host']}\n";
echo "Port: {$parsed['port']}\n";
echo "Database: {$parsed['database']}\n";

Database details

Databases are provisioned on AWS (eu-central-1) running PostgreSQL 17 with Neon Free plan limits. They expire after 72 hours unless claimed.

Claiming a database

To persist your database beyond 72 hours:

1. Visit the claim URL
2. Sign in to your Neon account (or create one)
3. Follow the instructions to claim the database (click a button)

Use cases

• Development and testing environments
• Quick prototyping
• Evaluating Neon before committing to an account
• CI/CD pipelines requiring temporary databases
• Demo applications

Error handling

use Philip\Instagres\Client;
use Philip\Instagres\Exception\InstagresException;

try {
    $database = Client::createClaimableDatabase();
} catch (InstagresException $e) {
    echo "Error: {$e->getMessage()}\n";
}

Exception types: All extend InstagresException:

• NetworkException - HTTP/network failures
• InvalidResponseException - Invalid API responses

Resources

• Neon Instagres Documentation
• JavaScript Implementation

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.