Neon Postgres Egress Optimizer

Diagnose and fix excessive Postgres egress (network data transfer) in a codebase. Use when a user mentions high database bills, unexpected data transfer costs, network transfer charges, egress spikes, "why is my Neon bill so high", "database costs jumped", SELECT * optimization, query overfetching, reduce Neon costs, optimize database usage, or wants to reduce data sent from their database to their application. Also use when reviewing query patterns for cost efficiency, even if the user doesn't explicitly mention egress or data transfer.

108 stars 23 forksDatabasesOfficial

Install

skills CLI (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and more)

npx skills add neondatabase/agent-skills --skill neon-postgres-egress-optimizer

Manual install

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/neondatabase/agent-skills.git /tmp/agent-skills
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -r /tmp/agent-skills/skills/neon-postgres-egress-optimizer ~/.claude/skills/neon-postgres-egress-optimizer

Personal skills live in ~/.claude/skills. Use .claude/skills in a project folder to share a skill with your team.

From the SKILL.md

**FIRST**: Use the parent `neon` skill for a Neon overview, getting started with Neon, Neon development best practices, and more.

If the `neon` skill is not installed, fetch it from https://neon.com/docs/ai/skills/neon/SKILL.md or install it with:

```bash
neon skills -s neon -y
```

# Postgres Egress Optimizer

Guide the user through diagnosing and fixing application-side query patterns that cause excessive data transfer (egress) from their Postgres database. Most high egress bills come from the application fetching more data than it uses.

Work the four steps in order: **diagnose** which queries transfer the most data, **analyze** the codebase behind them, **fix** the anti-patterns, then **verify** nothing broke and the transfer actually dropped.

## Step 1: Diagnose

Identify which queries transfer the most data. The primary tool is the `pg_stat_statements` extension.

### Check if pg_stat_statements is available

```sql
SELECT 1 FROM pg_stat_statements LIMIT 1;
```

If this errors, the extension needs to be created:

```sql
CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS pg_stat_statements;
```

On Neon the extension is available by default, but it may still need this CREATE EXTENSION step.

### Handle empty stats

Stats are cleared when a Neon compute scales to zero and restarts. If the stats are empty or the compute recently woke up:

1. Reset the stats to start a clean measurement window: `SELECT pg_stat_statements_reset();`

Read the full skill on GitHub

Details

Skill name: neon-postgres-egress-optimizer
Repository: neondatabase/agent-skills
Path: skills/neon-postgres-egress-optimizer/SKILL.md
License: Apache-2.0
Repo updated: 30 October 2026
Listed in: heilcheng/awesome-agent-skills

FAQ

What does the Neon Postgres Egress Optimizer skill do?

How do I install the Neon Postgres Egress Optimizer skill?

skills CLI (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and more): npx skills add neondatabase/agent-skills --skill neon-postgres-egress-optimizer. Skills go in ~/.claude/skills (personal) or .claude/skills (project), and Claude loads them automatically when a task matches the description.

Is Neon Postgres Egress Optimizer popular?

It lives in neondatabase/agent-skills, which has 108 GitHub stars and 23 forks, and is included in 1 curated skill list.

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