Connect a database

Point Uptend at a PostgreSQL database using a connection string, and see what happens the moment you save it.

Connecting a database takes one connection string. Uptend tests it before saving, then masks it permanently.

Only workspace admins can connect a data source. You'll be asked to confirm your password first if you haven't signed in recently — connecting a database is treated as a sensitive action.

Connect your primary source

Open Settings → Data → Data sources.
In the Primary source section, click the PostgreSQL tile.
Enter a Name. This is just for you — "Production database" is a good one.
Paste the Connection string, in the form postgresql://user:password@host:5432/database.
Check it carefully. This is the only time it's shown in full.
Click Connect.

Missing screenshot: data-sources-connect-modal

The dialog restates the role the connection will take before you paste anything.

The dialog tells you which role the connection is about to take — primary or additional — based on the section you opened it from. There's no selector to change it; open the other section's tile instead.

Connect an additional source

Once a primary exists, the Additional sources section unlocks with its own PostgreSQL tile. The steps are identical. The only difference is what the new source is allowed to do: attach properties to profiles that already exist, never create one.

This is how you'd connect a read replica, a billing database, or a second service that knows something about the same users.

What happens when you save

Uptend connects to the database immediately and reports back:

Connected — the test succeeded and the source is live.
Connection failed — the source is still created, with the reason shown on its page. Fix the problem at your end and use Test connection, or replace the connection string. You don't have to retype everything.

While it's testing, Uptend also notes what the database told it: the server version, how many tables the credential can read, and how much permission that credential actually has. All of it shows on the source's page.

If the connection succeeded, Uptend also reads the database's schema right away — the tables, columns, keys and indexes the credential can see — so the next step has something to choose from. If the schema read fails on its own (a timeout, say), the source is still created and its page offers Read schema to try again.

What to do next

A connected source does nothing on its own. Go to Settings → Profiles and choose the backing table: which of its tables holds the thing you track, and which columns fill a profile's built-in fields. The source's page links there.

What happens to your connection string

The moment you save, the connection string is encrypted and masked. From then on, everywhere in Uptend — this page, the source's page, exports, logs — it appears as something like postgresql://an••••@db.example.com:5432/prod.

It can't be read back, by you or by us. If you need to change it, you paste a new one; see Manage a source.

Because the string is never shown again, check the host, port, and database name before you click Connect. A typo becomes a failed connection you have to replace rather than an editable field.

Before you connect

A few things worth knowing:

The database has to be reachable from the internet. A database that only accepts connections from inside your own network won't connect.
A connection pooler is fine — paste the pooled string if that's what you have.
You can give Uptend any role you like. It doesn't need write permission, and it can't use it if you grant it. See Read-only access.