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A Neki branch is an isolated database environment with its own routers, Postgres instances, data, configuration, backups, and billing. Use production branches for serving workloads and development branches for disposable testing.

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Development branches start empty

Creating a Neki development branch provisions a new, isolated environment. It does not copy the parent branch’s schema or data. Apply your schema migrations to the new branch and load only the test data you need. To create a branch containing existing data, restore a backup to a new branch instead of creating an ordinary development branch.

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Create a development branch

1
From the PlanetScale dashboard, select your Neki database.
2
Open the branch menu and select New branch.
3
Choose Development, enter a branch name, and review the selected region and estimated price.
4
Select Create branch and wait for the branch to become ready.
5
Apply your application’s schema migrations and seed data.
The new branch uses development shard and router SKUs. Its infrastructure and usage are billed independently from the parent. See Neki pricing.

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Work with an isolated branch

Connections, roles, configuration profiles, parameters, extensions, and data topology are branch-scoped. Verify the selected branch before changing its configuration or running DDL. An empty development branch is useful for testing schema setup from scratch. See Development environments for a repeatable setup and guidance for production-like data.

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Move development data to production

To keep the data from a development branch, create a backup and restore it to a new branch with production configuration. See Restore a backup for the required configuration-profile and router sizes.

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Delete a branch

Deleting a branch removes its database infrastructure and data. The default branch cannot be deleted while other branches remain. Confirm that any backup or export you need has completed before deletion.

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Need help?

Get help from the PlanetScale Support team, or join our Discord community to see how others are using PlanetScale.