Instant database clones with PostgreSQL 18
11 comments
·December 23, 2025BenjaminFaal
For anyone looking for a simple GUI for local testing/development of Postgres based applications. I built a tool a few years ago that simplifies the process: https://github.com/BenjaminFaal/pgtt
okigan
Would love to see a snapshot of the GUI as part of the README.md.
Also docker link seems to be broken.
TimH
Looks like it would probably be quite useful when setting up git worktrees, to get multiple claude code instances spun up a bit more easily.
1f97
aws supports this as well: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/AuroraUserGuide...
mvcosta91
It looks very interesting for integration tests
radimm
OP here - yes, this is my use case too: integration and regression testing, as well as providing learning environments. It makes working with larger datasets a breeze.
presentation
We do this, preview deploys, and migration dry runs using Neon Postgres’s branching functionality - seems one benefit of that vs this is that it works even with active connections which is good for doing these things on live databases.
1a527dd5
Many thanks, this solves integration tests for us!
In theory, a database that uses immutable data structures (the hash array mapped trie popularized by Clojure) could allow instant clones on any filesystem, not just ZFS/XFS, and allow instant clones of any subset of the data, not just the entire db. I say "in theory" but I actually built this already so it's not just a theory. I never understood why there aren't more HAMT based databases.