How to Configure JetBrains Space and PostgreSQL for Secure, Repeatable Access

You can feel it coming. The familiar request: “Can you spin up a quick environment for this feature branch?” Then comes the paperwork of credentials, grants, and database clones. What should take minutes turns into a scavenger hunt through tokens and environment variables. The magic disappears. This is where pairing JetBrains Space with PostgreSQL can bring sanity back to your workflow.

JetBrains Space is the all-in-one collaboration and DevOps platform that handles source code, automation, and deployments. PostgreSQL is the workhorse database that powers most of your production apps. When you combine them properly, you get a closed loop between your development pipeline and data storage, grounded in versioned configuration and traceable access.

In Space, each project has automation scripts that can spin up ephemeral environments. Connecting PostgreSQL lets those environments provision databases automatically, run migrations, and archive the results on teardown. No manual credential wrangling. Access is handled through service accounts or OIDC identities, tied to commit metadata and review approvals.

Here’s the logic that makes it work. You define database provisioning rules as part of your Space automation config. Those rules communicate with PostgreSQL using a secure connection string stored in Space’s secrets storage. Space runs tasks with least-privilege credentials, performing migrations through CI jobs or ephemeral runners. When the job finishes, its token expires, leaving no persistent secret in your repo or CI logs. Clean, auditable, and much less terrifying for anyone tasked with compliance.

To keep it safe and predictable:

• Rotate service credentials on a schedule shorter than your average sprint.
• Map Space roles to PostgreSQL roles through a central identity provider like Okta using OIDC or JWT tokens.
• Log query activity back to Space project reports for context when debugging pipeline failures.
• Use parameterized connections instead of raw connection strings to avoid accidental environment leaks.

The main benefits of combining JetBrains Space and PostgreSQL are simple:

• Automated provisioning and teardown of databases per branch or review.
• Audit trails that show who touched database state during a deployment.
• Lightweight credentials with strictly scoped lifetimes.
• Faster onboarding because reviewers and CI pipelines already have pre-granted access paths.
• Reduced toil for DBAs who no longer babysit test schemas.

For developers, this integration feels almost invisible. Pushing code triggers automation that spins up a matching database. Reviewing a merge request includes seeing related schema changes. The loop closes without extra tools or context switching. Developer velocity improves, not from more caffeine, but from fewer approvals to chase.

AI-assisted operations are now part of this loop too. Agents can monitor schema drift, propose migration scripts, or flag risky query patterns, but those capabilities depend entirely on having clear identity boundaries. Secure integration between Space and PostgreSQL keeps machine helpers effective without giving them the keys to production.

Platforms like hoop.dev turn those access rules into guardrails that enforce policy automatically. Instead of writing brittle IAM glue, you define intent once and let the proxy handle identity-aware access across environments.

How do I connect JetBrains Space to PostgreSQL?

Create a Space automation secret containing your database credentials, link it within your CI job, and restrict its access to the automation user only. Use OIDC-based authentication when possible to eliminate long-lived passwords. This provides both simplicity and security in one clean step.

In short, pairing JetBrains Space and PostgreSQL gives teams a consistent way to control database access, track changes, and reduce setup waste. Less configuration ping-pong, more focused engineering.

See an Environment Agnostic Identity-Aware Proxy in action with hoop.dev. Deploy it, connect your identity provider, and watch it protect your endpoints everywhere—live in minutes.