PostgreSQL is the most popular choice for production OpenClaw apps. This guide covers setup, connection pooling, migrations, and backups.

Why PostgreSQL

ACID compliance — reliable transactions
JSON support — flexible schema when you need it
Full-text search — built into the database
Replication — scale reads with replicas
Mature ecosystem — great client libraries

Option 1: Managed PostgreSQL

Use a managed provider for zero maintenance:

Neon

Serverless Postgres with auto-scaling. Scales to zero when idle. Best for: production apps with variable traffic.

openclaw db create neon mydb

Supabase

Postgres + auth + storage. Best for: SaaS apps that need user auth built-in.

Railway

Managed Postgres with a generous free tier. Best for: small to medium production apps.

Option 2: Self-Hosted on OpenClaw

openclaw db create postgres mydb

This spins up a Postgres container on your VPS. Good for:

Development and staging
Small production apps
Teams that want full control

Connection Strings

OpenClaw provides a DATABASE_URL environment variable:

postgres://user:password@host:5432/database

Or for pooling:

postgres://user:password@host:5432/database?sslmode=require&pool_max_conns=10

Connection Pooling

Never connect directly from your app to Postgres without a pool. Use PgBouncer:

openclaw db pooling enable mydb --pool_mode=transaction

This reduces connection overhead and prevents "too many connections" errors.

Migrations

Use node-pg-migrate or Drizzle for schema migrations:

npm install node-pg-migrate

// migrations/001_create_users.js
exports.shorthands = undefined;

exports.up = pgm => {
  pgm.createTable('users', {
    id: 'id',
    email: { type: 'varchar(255)', notNull: true, unique: true },
    created_at: { type: 'timestamp', notNull: true, default: pgm.func('current_timestamp') }
  })
};

exports.down = pgm => {
  pgm.dropTable('users')
};

Run with:

node-pg-migrate up

Backups

Automated Backups (Neon, Supabase)

Managed providers handle backups automatically. Neon retains 7 days of point-in-time recovery.

Self-Hosted Backups

openclaw db backup mydb --schedule "0 2 * * *"

This runs daily at 2 AM and retains 7 backups.

Monitoring

Monitor your database with:

Better Stack — query performance monitoring
pg_stat_statements — slow query analysis
OpenClaw dashboard — connection count, size, cache hit rate

Common Issues

Connection Timeout

Increase connect_timeout in your connection string:

...?connect_timeout=10

Too Many Connections

Enable connection pooling (see above). Also check for connection leaks in your app.

Slow Queries

Enable pg_stat_statements and look for queries with high total_exec_time.

PostgreSQL Integration with OpenClaw: Setup and Best Practices