Quickstart for Managed Postgres

You can follow this path yourself, script it, or hand it to an AI agent. Switch to the Cloud UI view for the console version.This page covers provisioning ClickHouse Managed Postgres, loading data, replicating it to ClickHouse, and querying it, all from the command line with the ClickHouse CLI (clickhousectl) and psql. Commands are non-interactive; clickhousectl emits JSON with --json.

Prerequisites

Install the ClickHouse CLI:

curl https://clickhouse.com/cli | sh

You also need psql (PostgreSQL client tools; on macOS, brew install libpq) and jq.Write operations (create, delete) require API key authentication; OAuth login is read-only:

clickhousectl cloud auth login --api-key <YOUR_KEY> --api-secret <YOUR_SECRET>

Alternatively, set the CLICKHOUSE_CLOUD_API_KEY and CLICKHOUSE_CLOUD_API_SECRET environment variables. Verify with clickhousectl cloud auth status; expect an entry with scope read/write.

Part 1: Create Postgres and load data

Create a Postgres service

Create the service and save the response; the password is shown only once:

clickhousectl cloud postgres create \
  --name quickstart-pg \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --size c6gd.large \
  --pg-version 18 \
  --json > pg.json

The response includes the service ID, hostname, and a ready-to-use connection string:

{
  "id": "3b5a3112-bf02-82d0-bd02-fbe67d5caa7a",
  "name": "quickstart-pg",
  "provider": "aws",
  "region": "us-east-1",
  "postgresVersion": "18",
  "size": "c6gd.large",
  "storageSize": 118,
  "haType": "none",
  "state": "creating",
  "createdAt": "2026-07-22T13:21:22Z",
  "hostname": "quickstart-pg-c1406b50.pg7dd324nz0a1qm1fqskxbjn7m.c0.us-east-1.aws.pg.clickhouse.cloud",
  "username": "postgres",
  "password": "vV6cfEr2p_-TzkCDrZOx",
  "connectionString": "postgres://postgres:vV6cfEr2p_-TzkCDrZOx@quickstart-pg-c1406b50.pg7dd324nz0a1qm1fqskxbjn7m.c0.us-east-1.aws.pg.clickhouse.cloud:5432/postgres?channel_binding=require",
  "isPrimary": true,
  "tags": []
}

Extract what the rest of this guide needs:

PG_ID=$(jq -r .id pg.json)
PG_URL=$(jq -r .connectionString pg.json)

If the password is lost, generate a new one with clickhousectl cloud postgres reset-password $PG_ID --generate.

Wait for the service to provision

Provisioning takes a few minutes. Poll until the state is running:

while [ "$(clickhousectl cloud postgres get "$PG_ID" --json | jq -r .state)" != "running" ]; do
  sleep 15
done

Load sample data

Create two tables and insert 1 million events over psql:

psql "$PG_URL" <<'SQL'
\timing
CREATE TABLE events (
   event_id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
   event_name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
   event_type VARCHAR(100),
   event_timestamp TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
   event_data JSONB,
   user_id INT,
   user_ip INET,
   is_active BOOLEAN DEFAULT TRUE,
   created_at TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
   updated_at TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
);

CREATE TABLE users (
   user_id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
   name VARCHAR(100),
   country VARCHAR(50),
   platform VARCHAR(50)
);

INSERT INTO events (event_name, event_type, event_timestamp, event_data, user_id, user_ip)
SELECT
   'Event ' || gs::text AS event_name,
   CASE
       WHEN random() < 0.5 THEN 'click'
       WHEN random() < 0.75 THEN 'view'
       WHEN random() < 0.9 THEN 'purchase'
       WHEN random() < 0.98 THEN 'signup'
       ELSE 'logout'
   END AS event_type,
   NOW() - INTERVAL '1 day' * (gs % 365) AS event_timestamp,
   jsonb_build_object('key', 'value' || gs::text, 'additional_info', 'info_' || (gs % 100)::text) AS event_data,
   GREATEST(1, LEAST(1000, FLOOR(POWER(random(), 2) * 1000) + 1)) AS user_id,
   ('192.168.1.' || ((gs % 254) + 1))::inet AS user_ip
FROM
   generate_series(1, 1000000) gs;

INSERT INTO users (name, country, platform)
SELECT
    first_names[first_idx] || ' ' || last_names[last_idx] AS name,
    CASE
        WHEN random() < 0.25 THEN 'India'
        WHEN random() < 0.5 THEN 'USA'
        WHEN random() < 0.7 THEN 'Germany'
        WHEN random() < 0.85 THEN 'China'
        ELSE 'Other'
    END AS country,
    CASE
        WHEN random() < 0.2 THEN 'iOS'
        WHEN random() < 0.4 THEN 'Android'
        WHEN random() < 0.6 THEN 'Web'
        WHEN random() < 0.75 THEN 'Windows'
        WHEN random() < 0.9 THEN 'MacOS'
        ELSE 'Linux'
    END AS platform
FROM
    generate_series(1, 1000) AS seq
    CROSS JOIN LATERAL (
        SELECT
            array['Alice', 'Bob', 'Charlie', 'Diana', 'Eve', 'Frank', 'Grace', 'Hank', 'Ivy', 'Jack', 'Liam', 'Olivia', 'Noah', 'Emma', 'Sophia', 'Benjamin', 'Isabella', 'Lucas', 'Mia', 'Amelia', 'Aarav', 'Riya', 'Arjun', 'Ananya', 'Wei', 'Li', 'Huan', 'Mei', 'Hans', 'Klaus', 'Greta', 'Sofia'] AS first_names,
            array['Smith', 'Johnson', 'Williams', 'Brown', 'Jones', 'Garcia', 'Miller', 'Davis', 'Martinez', 'Taylor', 'Anderson', 'Thomas', 'Jackson', 'White', 'Harris', 'Martin', 'Thompson', 'Moore', 'Lee', 'Perez', 'Sharma', 'Patel', 'Gupta', 'Reddy', 'Zhang', 'Wang', 'Chen', 'Liu', 'Schmidt', 'Müller', 'Weber', 'Fischer'] AS last_names,
            1 + (seq % 32) AS first_idx,
            1 + ((seq / 32)::int % 32) AS last_idx
    ) AS names;
SQL

Timing is on.
CREATE TABLE
Time: 86.029 ms
CREATE TABLE
Time: 80.962 ms
INSERT 0 1000000
Time: 7120.357 ms (00:07.120)
INSERT 0 1000
Time: 84.807 ms

The 1M-row insert completes in about 7 seconds on c6gd.large (the smallest size) thanks to NVMe storage. Verify with a query; row counts vary between runs because the data is generated with random():

psql "$PG_URL" -c "SELECT event_type, COUNT(*) FROM events GROUP BY event_type ORDER BY 2 DESC;"

Part 2: Replicate to ClickHouse

Create a ClickHouse service

Create a service in the same region and save the response; the password appears only in the create response:

clickhousectl cloud service create \
  --name quickstart-ch \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --json > ch.json

CH_ID=$(jq -r .service.id ch.json)
CH_PASSWORD=$(jq -r .password ch.json)

Wait until it’s running; the ClickPipe requires a running destination:

while [ "$(clickhousectl cloud service get "$CH_ID" --json | jq -r .state)" != "running" ]; do
  sleep 15
done

To use an existing service instead, set CH_ID from clickhousectl cloud service list and CH_PASSWORD to its default user password, which the pg_clickhouse step needs.

Replicate the tables to ClickHouse

Create a Postgres CDC ClickPipe on the ClickHouse service, pointing at the Managed Postgres hostname. The pipe copies the existing rows, then keeps ClickHouse in sync with ongoing changes:

PG_HOST=$(jq -r .hostname pg.json)
PG_PASSWORD=$(jq -r .password pg.json)

clickhousectl cloud clickpipe create postgres "$CH_ID" \
  --name quickstart-sync \
  --host "$PG_HOST" \
  --pg-database postgres \
  --username postgres \
  --password "$PG_PASSWORD" \
  --table-mapping public.events:public_events \
  --table-mapping public.users:public_users \
  --json > pipe.json

PIPE_ID=$(jq -r .id pipe.json)

Notes:

The replicated tables land in the default database on the ClickHouse service, named by the --table-mapping targets
The publication and replication slot are created automatically, with the publication scoped to the mapped tables; pass --publication-name to use one you manage yourself
Use the direct Postgres hostname; replication isn’t supported via PgBouncer

Wait for the pipe to reach Running

The pipe moves through Provisioning, Setup, and (for larger tables) Snapshot before reaching Running, which takes about 4 minutes for the first pipe on a service. Failed and InternalError are terminal:

while :; do
  STATE=$(clickhousectl cloud clickpipe get "$CH_ID" "$PIPE_ID" --json | jq -r .state)
  case "$STATE" in
    Running) break ;;
    Failed|InternalError) echo "ClickPipe entered terminal state: $STATE" >&2; exit 1 ;;
  esac
  sleep 15
done

Query the replicated data in ClickHouse

Run SQL against the ClickHouse service directly from the CLI. The first call provisions a Query API endpoint and a service-scoped API key automatically:

clickhousectl cloud service query --id "$CH_ID" \
  --query "SELECT count() FROM public_events"

Provisioning Query API endpoint + key for service 'quickstart-ch'...
1000000

New writes to Postgres replicate continuously. Insert a row and poll until the count reaches 1,000,001 (typically under a minute):

psql "$PG_URL" -c "INSERT INTO events (event_name, event_type, user_id, user_ip) VALUES ('cdc-test', 'click', 42, '10.0.0.1');"

while [ "$(clickhousectl cloud service query --id "$CH_ID" \
  --query "SELECT count() FROM public_events")" != "1000001" ]; do
  sleep 10
done

Query ClickHouse from Postgres

The pg_clickhouse extension lets Postgres act as a unified query layer for both transactional and analytical data. Grab the ClickHouse HTTPS hostname, then set up the extension over psql:

CH_HOST=$(clickhousectl cloud service get "$CH_ID" --json \
  | jq -r '.endpoints[] | select(.protocol=="https") | .host')

psql "$PG_URL" <<SQL
CREATE EXTENSION pg_clickhouse;
CREATE SERVER ch FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER clickhouse_fdw
       OPTIONS(driver 'http', host '$CH_HOST', dbname 'default', port '8443');
CREATE USER MAPPING FOR CURRENT_USER SERVER ch
       OPTIONS (user 'default', password '$CH_PASSWORD');
CREATE SCHEMA organization;
IMPORT FOREIGN SCHEMA "default" FROM SERVER ch INTO organization;
SQL

The heredoc is unquoted on purpose, so the shell substitutes $CH_HOST and $CH_PASSWORD before the SQL reaches Postgres. The replicated tables are now visible as foreign tables in the organization schema; queries against them execute in ClickHouse.Measured on c6gd.large with this dataset, analytical queries run 6-9x faster through the foreign tables (for example, a 5-aggregation GROUP BY: 176 ms via ClickHouse vs 1,133 ms locally; a JOIN with aggregations: 298 ms vs 2,764 ms).

Cleanup

Delete the ClickPipe first, then the Postgres service. Deleting a service removes all of its data permanently:

clickhousectl cloud clickpipe delete "$CH_ID" "$PIPE_ID"
clickhousectl cloud postgres delete "$PG_ID"

A running ClickHouse service can’t be deleted directly. Stop it, wait for stopped, then delete:

clickhousectl cloud service stop "$CH_ID"

while [ "$(clickhousectl cloud service get "$CH_ID" --json | jq -r .state)" != "stopped" ]; do
  sleep 10
done

clickhousectl cloud service delete "$CH_ID"

Get started

Features

Benchmarks

Pricing

ClickHouse Integration

Migrations

Monitoring

FAQ

Prerequisites

Part 1: Create Postgres and load data

Create a Postgres service

Wait for the service to provision

Load sample data

Part 2: Replicate to ClickHouse

Create a ClickHouse service

Replicate the tables to ClickHouse

Wait for the pipe to reach Running

Query the replicated data in ClickHouse

Query ClickHouse from Postgres

Cleanup

​Prerequisites

​Part 1: Create Postgres and load data

​Create a Postgres service

​Wait for the service to provision

​Load sample data

​Part 2: Replicate to ClickHouse

​Create a ClickHouse service

​Replicate the tables to ClickHouse

​Wait for the pipe to reach Running

​Query the replicated data in ClickHouse

​Query ClickHouse from Postgres

​Cleanup

Prerequisites

Part 1: Create Postgres and load data

Create a Postgres service

Wait for the service to provision

Load sample data

Part 2: Replicate to ClickHouse

Create a ClickHouse service

Replicate the tables to ClickHouse

Wait for the pipe to reach Running

Query the replicated data in ClickHouse

Query ClickHouse from Postgres

Cleanup