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Connect to Timescale

Connect Hyperdrive to a Timescale time-series database.

This example shows you how to connect Hyperdrive to a Timescale ↗ time-series database. Timescale is built on PostgreSQL, and includes powerful time-series, event and analytics features.

You can learn more about Timescale by referring to their Timescale services documentation ↗.

1. Allow Hyperdrive access

You can connect Hyperdrive to any existing Timescale database by creating a new user and fetching your database connection string.

Timescale Dashboard

To retrieve your credentials and database endpoint in the Timescale Console ↗:

  1. Select the service (database) you want Hyperdrive to connect to.
  2. Expand Connection info.
  3. Copy the Service URL. The Service URL is the connection string that Hyperdrive will use to connect. This string includes the database hostname, port number and database name.

If you do not have your password stored, you will need to select Forgot your password? and set a new SCRAM password. Save this password, as Timescale will only display it once.

You will end up with a connection string resembling the below:

postgres://tsdbadmin:YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE@pn79dztyy0.xzhhbfensb.tsdb.cloud.timescale.com:31358/tsdb

With the connection string, you can now create a Hyperdrive database configuration.

2. Create a database configuration

To configure Hyperdrive, you will need:

  • The IP address (or hostname) and port of your database.
  • The database username (for example, hyperdrive-demo) you configured in a previous step.
  • The password associated with that username.
  • The name of the database you want Hyperdrive to connect to. For example, postgres.

Hyperdrive accepts the combination of these parameters in the common connection string format used by database drivers:

postgres://USERNAME:PASSWORD@HOSTNAME_OR_IP_ADDRESS:PORT/database_name

Most database providers will provide a connection string you can directly copy-and-paste directly into Hyperdrive.

To create a Hyperdrive configuration with the Wrangler CLI, open your terminal and run the following command. Replace <NAME_OF_HYPERDRIVE_CONFIG> with a name for your Hyperdrive configuration and paste the connection string provided from your database host, or replace user, password, HOSTNAME_OR_IP_ADDRESS, port, and database_name placeholders with those specific to your database:

Terminal window
npx wrangler hyperdrive create <NAME_OF_HYPERDRIVE_CONFIG> --connection-string="postgres://user:password@HOSTNAME_OR_IP_ADDRESS:PORT/database_name"

This command outputs a binding for the Wrangler configuration file:

{
  "name": "hyperdrive-example",
  "main": "src/index.ts",
  "compatibility_date": "2024-08-21",
  "compatibility_flags": [
    "nodejs_compat"
  ],
  "hyperdrive": [
    {
      "binding": "HYPERDRIVE",
      "id": "<ID OF THE CREATED HYPERDRIVE CONFIGURATION>"
    }
  ]
}

Install the driver:

Terminal window
npm install postgres

Copy the below Worker code, which passes the connection string generated from env.HYPERDRIVE.connectionString directly to the driver.

import postgres from "postgres";


export interface Env {
  // If you set another name in the Wrangler config file as the value for 'binding',
  // replace "HYPERDRIVE" with the variable name you defined.
  HYPERDRIVE: Hyperdrive;
}


export default {
  async fetch(request, env, ctx): Promise<Response> {
    // Create a database client that connects to our database via Hyperdrive
    // Hyperdrive generates a unique connection string you can pass to
    // supported drivers, including node-postgres, Postgres.js, and the many
    // ORMs and query builders that use these drivers.
    const sql = postgres(
            env.HYPERDRIVE.connectionString,
            {
                // Workers limit the number of concurrent external connections, so be sure to limit
                // the size of the local connection pool that postgres.js may establish.
                max: 5,


                // If you are using array types in your Postgres schema, it is necessary to fetch
                // type information to correctly de/serialize them. However, if you are not using
                // those, disabling this will save you an extra round-trip every time you connect.
                fetch_types: false,
            },
        );


    try {
      // Test query
      const result = await sql`SELECT * FROM pg_tables;`;


      // Returns result rows as JSON
      return Response.json({ result: result });
    } catch (e: any) {
      console.log(e);
      return Response.json({ error: e.message }, { status: 500 });
    }
  },
} satisfies ExportedHandler<Env>;

Next steps