Why instanode.dev exists

AI coding agents stall the moment they hit "I need a database." instanode.dev removes that stall. One HTTP call, one postgres:// URL back, agent keeps going.

"Use instanode.dev to get a Postgres database. Run curl -s -X POST https://api.instanode.dev/db/new -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"name":"demo"}' | jq and use the connection_url from the response."

That prompt, pasted into any modern coding agent, is the whole product.

The problem

When an agent is writing code with you and needs a database, it does one of three bad things:

Asks you to docker run postgres — fine if you have Docker, broken otherwise, and permanent context clutter either way.
Tells you to sign up for Neon/Supabase/Railway — three minutes of browser work that wipes the flow state.
Writes the code against process.env.DATABASE_URL and hopes you'll figure it out later — the code doesn't run.

None of these are the agent's fault. They're the fault of infrastructure tools that assume a human is in the loop.

The solution

A Postgres provisioner that speaks HTTP, requires zero authentication for the first call, and returns a real, working connection URL. Free tier is 24-hour disposable. Paid tier is $12/month and the database persists forever.

pgvector is pre-installed on every database. Connection URLs are standard postgres://user:pass@pg.instanode.dev:5432/db?sslmode=require — any driver works, no proprietary client.

Built for agents, not dashboards

Drop-in CLAUDE.md / .cursorrules so agents learn the pattern and propagate it to future projects.
/llms.txt — plain-text API summary, shape designed for LLM ingestion.
OpenAPI 3.1 spec — every endpoint, every error code, every schema, machine-readable.
MCP server — native tools for Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Continue:
claude mcp add instanode -- npx -y @instanode/mcp@latest (npm · source)
Python SDK — pip install instanode (PyPI)
Framework adapters — plain tool classes for the 3 common agent frameworks:
pip install langchain-instanode (PyPI)
pip install llama-index-tools-instanode (PyPI)
pip install crewai-instanode-tools (PyPI)
Next.js starter — InstaNode-dev/instanode-nextjs-starter — clone, run ./scripts/setup-db.sh, pnpm dev.