Just landed in the Neon CLI Neon, the serverless Postgres provider, has renamed its CLI from neonctl to neon and introduced new commands for agent tooling, branch-first workflows, and diagnostics. The CLI now supports one-shot setup via `neon init`, MCP server and skills configuration, branch linking with `neon link`, `neon checkout`, and `neon env pull`, as well as `neon inspect db` for Postgres diagnostics, `neon open`, `neon status`, `neon api-keys`, `neon profile`, and `neon diff`. These updates aim to streamline local and agent-based development workflows. The Neon CLI https://neon.com/docs/cli moved fast over the last couple of months. It is a key tool for agents, who do all the work without ever opening the Console - let’s take a look at some of recent changes: The CLI is now neon First things first, the npm package and docs use neon instead of neonctl. Same binary, shorter name. So, to install it https://neon.com/docs/cli/install , For agents, set up skills and the MCP server in one shot: neonctl still works as an alias - no re-auth is required if you already used the old name. Agent tooling: neon init, mcp, and skills If you're wiring up a coding agent, you have three focused entry points: - full onboarding: OAuth, API key, MCP server, editor extension, and agent skills neon init - MCP server only neon mcp - agent skills only neon skills neon init is the one-shot setup. Use mcp or skills when you only need one piece. To refresh skills you've already installed, run neon skills update . New commands for branch-first workflows: link, checkout, env pull These three commands are the core loop for local and agent development https://neon.com/blog/branch-first-dev-loop : neon link https://neon.com/docs/cli/link writes a local .neon context orgId, projectId, branchId . You can use --agent for non-interactive JSON mode. Once linked, you can drop --project-id / --branch on most commands. The CLI walks up parent folders to find .neon, and adds it to .gitignore on first write. neon checkout https://neon.com/docs/cli/checkout pins the active branch in that context, the same way you'd switch a git branch. neon env pull https://neon.com/docs/cli/env writes branch-scoped Neon variables DATABASE URL, unpooled URL, and credentials for enabled services . Only Neon-managed keys are rewritten; the rest of your env https://neon.com/docs/cli/env file is left alone. A recent refinement - pull only the services you name postgres, auth, data-api, object-storage, or ai-gateway : Debug Postgres via neon inspect db This diagnostics tool https://neon.com/docs/cli/inspect bundles read-only diagnostics against Postgres stats and catalogs, with connection resolution handled by the CLI: Examples of what you get: - table/index sizes - bloat estimates - unused indexes - sequential scans - long-running and stalled queries - locks - pg stat statements outliers/calls - vacuum stats - replication slots/subscriptions - and Neon Local File Cache hit rate / working set inspect https://neon.com/docs/cli/inspect , deep dive https://neon.com/blog/neon-inspect-db , changelog https://neon.com/docs/changelog/2026-07-24 debug-postgres-from-the-terminal-with-neon-inspect-db . Omit the database name to inspect every database on the branch the output adds a database column . It works against a linked branch, or any Postgres URL via --db-url. Same checks are also available on the Neon MCP server as inspect database . Jump to the Console: neon open A cool trick: run To open https://neon.com/docs/cli/open the linked project's dashboard in your browser. See the pinned branch: neon status This command prints the branch https://neon.com/docs/cli/config current-branch in .neon with no network call, so it's safe for shell prompts: Credentials: api-keys and profile We shipped these two command groups together, useful for CI and multi-account work: Mint scoped keys with neon api-keys A project-scoped key https://neon.com/docs/cli/api-keys cannot create projects, mint more keys, or see other projects i.e. what you’d want for an agent or a CI job . Switch accounts with neon profile A profile is a named credentials set. Select it per command with --profile https://neon.com/docs/cli/profile : --mint signs in once, stores only the minted key, and leaves no browser session behind. Print schema diffs with neon diff neon diff https://neon.com/docs/cli/diff prints a git-style unified schema diff between the branch under review and a compare branch by default, the reviewed branch's parent - For a machine-readable output, run --output json or --output yaml - For a historical point in time timestamp or LSN , use neon branches schema-diff instead Call any Neon API route with neon api agent fallback Most humans will never need this - this is a fallback for agent automation. Coding agents can now reach for neon api https://neon.com/docs/cli/api when they need an API route that doesn't have a dedicated CLI command yet. It uses your existing CLI login: Snapshots from the terminal: neon snapshots Point-in-time branch backups https://neon.com/docs/cli/snapshots are now first-class in the CLI: You can restore un-finalized inspect first , then neon snapshots finalize, or pass --finalize to swap immediately. For schedules: neon snapshots schedule get / set. What’s new in Auth, Data API, and psql Enable Managed Better Auth via neon neon-auth You can now directly enable Auth, configure OAuth providers and domains, tweak email/webhook settings, and manage users from the terminal https://neon.com/docs/cli/neon-auth : Manage the Data API via neon data-api You can also provision and manage https://neon.com/docs/cli/data-api the Data API create, get, update, refresh-schema, delete . neon psql without a local psql install neon psql https://neon.com/docs/cli/psql connects as a top-level command. If no native psql is on $PATH, the CLI falls back to a built-in client. Project create flags and declarative config neon projects create https://neon.com/docs/cli/projects now accepts more up-front control - e.g. you can specify Postgres version, protected branches, logical replication: For declarative branch policy, neon config init scaffolds a starter neon.ts https://neon.com/docs/reference/neon-ts and installs @neon/config / @neon/env. neon link can offer this as a final step. Backend service commands https://neon.com/docs/cli such as neon functions and neon buckets are part of the same CLI surface as Object Storage, Functions, and AI Gateway roll out. The latest commands at a glance | Goal | Command | Docs | |---|---|---| | Install / upgrade | npm i -g neon@latest | | neon auth auth https://neon.com/docs/cli/auth neon init init https://neon.com/docs/cli/init neon mcp mcp https://neon.com/docs/cli/mcp neon skills skills https://neon.com/docs/cli/skills neon link link https://neon.com/docs/cli/link neon checkout