postgres

Postgres.js is a JavaScript library for connecting to and querying a PostgreSQL database from server-side JavaScript environments, specifically Node.js, Deno, Bun, and Cloudflare Workers. PostgreSQL is a popular open-source database, and a client library like this one is the piece of code that lets your JavaScript application send queries to it and receive results.

The library's distinguishing design choice is how it handles queries. Instead of passing query strings as plain text, you write them using a special JavaScript syntax called tagged template literals, where the SQL sits directly in your code with JavaScript variables embedded inline. The library automatically separates the variable values from the SQL text and sends them to the database separately, which prevents a common security problem called SQL injection where user-supplied data can accidentally change the meaning of a query.

The README covers a wide range of database operations: selecting rows, inserting single or multiple records, updating data, running transactions, listening for real-time database notifications, handling custom data types, and managing connection pools. For each topic there are short code examples showing exactly what the method call looks like and what result to expect. There is also TypeScript support described for teams that want type checking.

Performance is presented as a core motivation. The project links to benchmark results showing it ahead of other PostgreSQL clients for Node.js. The connection setup is minimal: you provide your database credentials either as a URL or a configuration object, and the library handles pooling connections for you by default.

The library is published on npm and installs with a single command. It targets JavaScript developers who are building backend applications or server-side scripts and need to read from or write to a PostgreSQL database. No prior experience with database drivers is required, but familiarity with async JavaScript and basic SQL is assumed. The full README is longer than what was shown.