pgx Documentation

PostgreSQL driver and toolkit for Go

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Technical Documentation: jackc/pgx

ℹ️ Provenance: Multi-Tier Ingestion · CodeWiki Reference

Overview (`README.md`)


pgx - PostgreSQL Driver and Toolkit

pgx is a pure Go driver and toolkit for PostgreSQL.

The pgx driver is a low-level, high performance interface that exposes PostgreSQL-specific features such as LISTEN /
NOTIFY and COPY. It also includes an adapter for the standard database/sql interface.

The toolkit component is a related set of packages that implement PostgreSQL functionality such as parsing the wire protocol
and type mapping between PostgreSQL and Go. These underlying packages can be used to implement alternative drivers,
proxies, load balancers, logical replication clients, etc.

Quick Start

Installation

bash
go get github.com/jackc/pgx/v5

Example Usage

go
package main

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"os"

	"github.com/jackc/pgx/v5"
)

func main() {
	// urlExample := "postgres://username:password@localhost:5432/database_name"
	conn, err := pgx.Connect(context.Background(), os.Getenv("DATABASE_URL"))
	if err != nil {
		fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "Unable to connect to database: %v\n", err)
		os.Exit(1)
	}
	defer conn.Close(context.Background())

	var name string
	var weight int64
	err = conn.QueryRow(context.Background(), "select name, weight from widgets where id=$1", 42).Scan(&name, &weight)
	if err != nil {
		fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "QueryRow failed: %v\n", err)
		os.Exit(1)
	}

	fmt.Println(name, weight)
}

Connection Configuration

pgx.Connect and pgxpool.New accept PostgreSQL connection URLs (such as postgres://user:pass@host:5432/db?sslmode=verify-full) as well as key=value strings. See pgconn.ParseConfig and the PostgreSQL connection string documentation for supported options and environment variables.

For a step-by-step walkthrough, see the getting started guide.

Documentation

Package documentation and API reference are available on pkg.go.dev:

  • pgx — base PostgreSQL driver
  • pgxpool — concurrency-safe connection pool
  • stdlib — database/sql compatibility adapter

Features

  • Support for approximately 70 different PostgreSQL types
  • Automatic statement preparation and caching
  • Batch queries
  • Single-round trip query mode
  • Full TLS connection control
  • Binary format support for custom types (allows for much quicker encoding/decoding)
  • COPY protocol support for faster bulk data loads
  • Tracing and logging support
  • Connection pool with after-connect hook for arbitrary connection setup
  • LISTEN / NOTIFY
  • Conversion of PostgreSQL arrays to Go slice mappings for integers, floats, and strings
  • hstore support
  • json and jsonb support
  • Maps inet and cidr PostgreSQL types to netip.Addr and netip.Prefix
  • Large object support
  • NULL mapping to pointer to pointer
  • Supports database/sql.Scanner and database/sql/driver.Valuer interfaces for custom types
  • Notice response handling
  • Simulated nested transactions with savepoints

Choosing Between the pgx and database/sql Interfaces

The pgx interface is faster. Many PostgreSQL specific features such as LISTEN / NOTIFY and COPY are not available
through the database/sql interface.

The pgx interface is recommended when:

  1. The application only targets PostgreSQL.
  2. No other libraries that require database/sql are in use.

It is also possible to use the database/sql interface and convert a connection to the lower-level pgx interface as needed.

Development and Testing

Each checkout has its own PostgreSQL 14-18 clusters and CockroachDB node, so the whole test matrix
is available locally on macOS, on Linux, or in the included devcontainer. Only PostgreSQL 18 stays
running by default; other targets start and stop around their tests:

sh
scripts/setup-host # native macOS (Homebrew required) or Ubuntu: host packages and mise
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH" # if mise was just installed
mise trust
mise install        # project tools
mise run dev:init   # checkout ports and certificates
mise run dev        # start PostgreSQL 18 and the on-demand database supervisor
./test.sh           # the suite against PostgreSQL 18
./test.sh all       # every target, starting and stopping each server as needed

Host setup installs PostgreSQL 14-18 and Ruby build dependencies. It does not install project
tools or initialize the checkout; those remain separate steps above. The devcontainer already
provides the host prerequisites.

See DEVELOPMENT.md for the full setup, and
CONTRIBUTING.md for how to contribute — including how to run the tests against
a PostgreSQL server you already have, without any of the above.

Architecture

See the presentation at Golang Estonia, PGX Top to Bottom for a description of pgx architecture.

Supported Go and PostgreSQL Versions

pgx supports the same versions of Go and PostgreSQL that are supported by their respective teams. For Go that is the two most recent major releases and for PostgreSQL the major releases in the last 5 years. This means pgx supports Go 1.25 and higher and PostgreSQL 14 and higher. pgx also is tested against the latest version of CockroachDB.

Version Policy

pgx follows semantic versioning for the documented public API on stable releases. v5 is the latest stable major version.

PGX Family Libraries

[github.com/jackc/pglogrepl](https://github.com/jackc/pglogrepl)

pglogrepl provides functionality to act as a client for PostgreSQL logical replication.

[github.com/jackc/pgmock](https://github.com/jackc/pgmock)

pgmock offers the ability to create a server that mocks the PostgreSQL wire protocol. This is used internally to test pgx by purposely inducing unusual errors. pgproto3 and pgmock together provide most of the foundational tooling required to implement a PostgreSQL proxy or MitM (such as for a custom connection pooler).

[github.com/jackc/tern](https://github.com/jackc/tern)

tern is a stand-alone SQL migration system.

[github.com/jackc/pgerrcode](https://github.com/jackc/pgerrcode)

pgerrcode contains constants for the PostgreSQL error codes.

Adapters for 3rd Party Types

Adapters for 3rd Party Tracers

Adapters for 3rd Party Loggers

These adapters can be used with the tracelog package.

3rd Party Libraries with PGX Support

[github.com/pashagolub/pgxmock](https://github.com/pashagolub/pgxmock)

pgxmock is a mock library implementing pgx interfaces.
pgxmock has one and only purpose - to simulate pgx behavior in tests, without needing a real database connection.

[github.com/georgysavva/scany](https://github.com/georgysavva/scany)

Library for scanning data from a database into Go structs and more.

[github.com/vingarcia/ksql](https://github.com/vingarcia/ksql)

A carefully designed SQL client for making using SQL easier,
more productive, and less error-prone on Golang.

[github.com/otan/gopgkrb5](https://github.com/otan/gopgkrb5)

Adds GSSAPI / Kerberos authentication support.

[github.com/wcamarao/pmx](https://github.com/wcamarao/pmx)

Explicit data mapping and scanning library for Go structs and slices.

[github.com/stephenafamo/scan](https://github.com/stephenafamo/scan)

Type safe and flexible package for scanning database data into Go types.
Supports, structs, maps, slices and custom mapping functions.

[github.com/z0ne-dev/mgx](https://github.com/z0ne-dev/mgx)

Code first migration library for native pgx (no database/sql abstraction).

[github.com/amirsalarsafaei/sqlc-pgx-monitoring](https://github.com/amirsalarsafaei/sqlc-pgx-monitoring)

A database monitoring/metrics library for pgx and sqlc. Trace, log and monitor your sqlc query performance using OpenTelemetry.

[https://github.com/nikolayk812/pgx-outbox](https://github.com/nikolayk812/pgx-outbox)

Simple Golang implementation for transactional outbox pattern for PostgreSQL using jackc/pgx driver.

[https://github.com/Arlandaren/pgxWrappy](https://github.com/Arlandaren/pgxWrappy)

Simplifies working with the pgx library, providing convenient scanning of nested structures.

[https://github.com/KoNekoD/pgx-colon-query-rewriter](https://github.com/KoNekoD/pgx-colon-query-rewriter)

Implementation of the pgx query rewriter to use ':' instead of '@' in named query parameters.

Overview (`examples/README.md`)

Examples

  • chat is a command line chat program using listen/notify.
  • todo is a command line todo list that demonstrates basic CRUD actions.
  • url_shortener contains a simple example of using pgx in a web context.
  • Tern is a migration tool that uses pgx.
  • The Pithy Reader is a RSS aggregator that uses pgx.

Overview (`pgconn/README.md`)

pgconn

Package pgconn is a low-level PostgreSQL database driver. It operates at nearly the same level as the C library libpq.
It is primarily intended to serve as the foundation for higher level libraries such as https://github.com/jackc/pgx.
Applications should handle normal queries with a higher level library and only use pgconn directly when required for
low-level access to PostgreSQL functionality.

Example Usage

go
pgConn, err := pgconn.Connect(context.Background(), os.Getenv("DATABASE_URL"))
if err != nil {
	log.Fatalln("pgconn failed to connect:", err)
}
defer pgConn.Close(context.Background())

result := pgConn.ExecParams(context.Background(), "SELECT email FROM users WHERE id=$1", [][]byte{[]byte("123")}, nil, nil, nil)
for result.NextRow() {
	fmt.Println("User 123 has email:", string(result.Values()[0]))
}
_, err = result.Close()
if err != nil {
	log.Fatalln("failed reading result:", err)
}

Testing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for setup instructions.

Overview (`pgproto3/README.md`)

pgproto3

Package pgproto3 is an encoder and decoder of the PostgreSQL wire protocol version 3.

pgproto3 can be used as a foundation for PostgreSQL drivers, proxies, mock servers, load balancers and more.

See example/pgfortune for a playful example of a fake PostgreSQL server.

Overview (`testsetup/README.md`)

Test Setup

This directory contains miscellaneous files used to setup a test database.

Overview (`examples/chat/README.md`)

Description

This is a sample chat program implemented using PostgreSQL's listen/notify
functionality with pgx.

Start multiple instances of this program connected to the same database to chat
between them.

Connection configuration

The database connection is configured via DATABASE_URL and standard PostgreSQL environment variables (PGHOST, PGUSER, etc.)

You can either export them then run chat:

text
export PGHOST=/private/tmp
./chat

Or you can prefix the chat execution with the environment variables:

text
PGHOST=/private/tmp ./chat

Overview (`examples/todo/README.md`)

Description

This is a sample todo list implemented using pgx as the connector to a
PostgreSQL data store.

Usage

Create a PostgreSQL database and run structure.sql into it to create the
necessary data schema.

Example:

text
createdb todo
psql todo < structure.sql

Build todo:

text
go build

Connection configuration

The database connection is configured via DATABASE_URL and standard PostgreSQL environment variables (PGHOST, PGUSER, etc.)

You can either export them then run todo:

text
export PGDATABASE=todo
./todo list

Or you can prefix the todo execution with the environment variables:

text
PGDATABASE=todo ./todo list

Add a todo item

text
./todo add 'Learn go'

List tasks

text
./todo list

Update a task

text
./todo update 1 'Learn more go'

Delete a task

text
./todo remove 1

Example Setup and Execution

text
jack@hk-47~/dev/go/src/github.com/jackc/pgx/examples/todo$ createdb todo
jack@hk-47~/dev/go/src/github.com/jackc/pgx/examples/todo$ psql todo < structure.sql
Expanded display is used automatically.
Timing is on.
CREATE TABLE
Time: 6.363 ms
jack@hk-47~/dev/go/src/github.com/jackc/pgx/examples/todo$ go build
jack@hk-47~/dev/go/src/github.com/jackc/pgx/examples/todo$ export PGDATABASE=todo
jack@hk-47~/dev/go/src/github.com/jackc/pgx/examples/todo$ ./todo list
jack@hk-47~/dev/go/src/github.com/jackc/pgx/examples/todo$ ./todo add 'Learn Go'
jack@hk-47~/dev/go/src/github.com/jackc/pgx/examples/todo$ ./todo list
1. Learn Go
jack@hk-47~/dev/go/src/github.com/jackc/pgx/examples/todo$ ./todo update 1 'Learn more Go'
jack@hk-47~/dev/go/src/github.com/jackc/pgx/examples/todo$ ./todo list
1. Learn more Go
jack@hk-47~/dev/go/src/github.com/jackc/pgx/examples/todo$ ./todo remove 1
jack@hk-47~/dev/go/src/github.com/jackc/pgx/examples/todo$ ./todo list

Overview (`examples/url_shortener/README.md`)

Description

This is a sample REST URL shortener service implemented using pgx as the connector to a PostgreSQL data store.

Usage

Create a PostgreSQL database and run structure.sql into it to create the necessary data schema.

Configure the database connection with DATABASE_URL or standard PostgreSQL (PG*) environment variables or

Run main.go:

text
go run main.go

Create or Update a Shortened URL

text
curl -X PUT -d 'http://www.google.com' http://localhost:8080/google

Get a Shortened URL

text
curl http://localhost:8080/google

Delete a Shortened URL

text
curl -X DELETE http://localhost:8080/google

Overview (`internal/pgio/README.md`)

pgio

Package pgio is a low-level toolkit building messages in the PostgreSQL wire protocol.

pgio provides functions for appending integers to a []byte while doing byte
order conversion.

Overview (`pgproto3/example/pgfortune/README.md`)

pgfortune

pgfortune is a mock PostgreSQL server that responds to every query with a fortune.

Installation

Install fortune and cowsay. They should be available in any Unix package manager (apt, yum, brew, etc.)

text
go get -u github.com/jackc/pgproto3/example/pgfortune

Usage

text
$ pgfortune

By default pgfortune listens on 127.0.0.1:15432 and responds to queries with fortune | cowsay -f elephant. These are
configurable with the listen and response-command arguments respectively.

While pgfortune is running connect to it with psql.

text
$ psql -h 127.0.0.1 -p 15432
Timing is on.
Null display is "∅".
Line style is unicode.
psql (11.5, server 0.0.0)
Type "help" for help.

[email protected]:15432 jack=# select foo;
                   fortune
─────────────────────────────────────────────
  _________________________________________ ↵
 / Ships are safe in harbor, but they were \↵
 \ never meant to stay there.              /↵
  ----------------------------------------- ↵
  \     /\  ___  /\                         ↵
   \   // \/   \/ \\                        ↵
      ((    O O    ))                       ↵
       \\ /     \ //                        ↵
        \/  | |  \/                         ↵
         |  | |  |                          ↵
         |  | |  |                          ↵
         |   o   |                          ↵
         | |   | |                          ↵
         |m|   |m|                          ↵

(1 row)

Time: 28.161 ms

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