# PGX

A lightweight Postgres-compatible runtime that spins up thousands of disposable, isolated databases for agents and CI.

HTML: https://softbests.com/software/pgx
Markdown: https://softbests.com/software/pgx.md
Website: https://pgx.dev

- Category: [Database clients](https://softbests.com/category/database-clients)
- Pricing: Open source
- Platforms: macOS, Linux
- Underrated

## Best for

Agent builders and platform teams that need a fresh Postgres per test run, pull request, or sandbox without Docker.

## Why it deserves attention

PGX speaks the Postgres wire protocol and SQL dialect, so Rails, Django, Prisma, SQLAlchemy, and node-postgres run their normal migrate-and-test loops unchanged. A single Rust process holds many databases; each starts from a sealed template in milliseconds, idles in tens of kilobytes, and can be branched copy-on-write for near-instant copies. It is built for disposable environments rather than production data, has passed 219 of 231 Postgres regression tests byte-exact, and is free under AGPL-3.0 with roughly 650 GitHub stars. It is still v0.1 and native to macOS and Linux only, so treat it as promising infrastructure rather than a settled production choice.

## Can replace

- Docker Postgres
- Supabase Branches

## Related and alternatives

- [TablePlus](https://softbests.com/software/tableplus)
- [Postico](https://softbests.com/software/postico)
- [DBX](https://softbests.com/software/dbx)