Quickstart

Follow this guide to go from zero to a running Pixetric branch without writing any CLI commands.

1. Create a project

1. Sign in to the Pixetric dashboard and click New Project.
2. Choose a region, give the project a name, and optionally import an existing Postgres dump by uploading it during creation.
3. Once the project finishes provisioning you will land on the project overview page.

2. Launch the default branch

Every project includes a main branch backed by Pixetric's durable storage fabric. Attach compute by opening Branches → main → Attach compute and selecting the preset that matches your workload. Compute pools start in under a second and automatically suspend when idle so you only pay for the time queries run.

3. Connect from your application

Inside the branch drawer you will find a connection string and individual credentials. Copy the string into your application's .env file:

DATABASE_URL=postgres://app:<token>@connect.pixetric.com:5432/my-app

Pixetric speaks the native Postgres wire protocol, so you can use Prisma, pg, Sequelize, SQLAlchemy, pgx, etc. Set SSL Mode = require (this is the default) and run a quick smoke test in your app to confirm queries succeed.

4. Create a preview branch

Pixetric branches are copy-on-write snapshots, so you can create new environments without duplicating the entire dataset:

1. Navigate to Branches and click New branch.
2. Choose the source branch (main by default) and name the branch after your feature or pull request.
3. Attach a compute pool the same way you did for main.

Share the branch URL with QA or hook it up to your CI preview builds. When you're done testing, delete the branch from the same menu to free compute resources.

5. Next steps

• Invite teammates via Settings → Access and assign roles.
• Add read replicas from the Replicas tab to bring data closer to users in other regions.
• Review Operations & observability to set up monitoring before launch.