How to handle multiple databases in the same project

[haikyuu]

I want to add e2e tests to my project, and I want to know how to use a different database for tests?

Should I create a new edgedb project and give it a different root folder path? Or is there a better way?

I would actually prefer creating a test_db database, and be able to point the current edgedb project to it using environment variables. That would be super neat as I won't have to change anything in my code base.

One more thing, is there some documentation for the edgedb.toml file?

[elprans]

Use the EDGEDB_DATABASE environment variable to specify which database inside an instance to connect to.

One more thing, is there some documentation for the edgedb.toml file?

edgedb.toml is currently only used as an edgedb project marker and can specify the version of EdgeDB server to be used with the project:

[edgedb]
server-version = "1-beta2" # can also be "nightly"

We expect that you wouldn't normally need to modify the file directly, it's usually created and modified by edgedb project init and edgedb project upgrade.

[haikyuu]

Thanks @elprans

[haikyuu]

@elprans It's not picked up by createPool() nor edgedb().

And I tried setting the dsn manually, but I don't seem to get it right ... as the following keeps hanging

$ edgedb --dsn "edgedb://edgedb@localhost/test"  
Connecting to an EdgeDB instance at localhost:5656...

[CodesInChaos]

1. I'd use a named instance and -I for the alternative db (but that doesn't really affect your problem)
2. Is the server running? instance list should show the status of all instances, and instance start <name> should start it if it's not running

[haikyuu]

@CodesInChaos yes the server is running. And I get the port when issuing instance list. But then I need to specify the password in the dsn as well ...

I ended up manually adding the database name in the code. Specifying the instance name isn't required.

db = await edgedb.createPool(process.env.EDGEDB_DATABASE === "test" ? {database:"test"}: undefined)

It would be nice if the edgedb-js client would do this automagically.

One gotcha is that createPool connectionOptions complains about database not being a valid option. I'll open an issue for it.

[Extarys]

Is this still the recommended way in 2025 with geldata ? I think a lot changed under the hood. 🤔