> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.yaeris.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.yaeris.com/software/yaeris-launchpad/environment-variables-and-your-database.md).

# Environment Variables & Your Database

How to connect your own Postgres database (BYODB) to a Launchpad project, set encrypted environment variables, and configure preview databases.

## Bring your own database (BYODB)

Launchpad is built around BYODB: your CMS's actual content always lives in a database you control -- Supabase, Neon, a self-hosted Postgres, or anything else that speaks Postgres. Launchpad never stores, backs up, or has standing access to your content; it only runs your application container against the connection string you provide.

This keeps you in full control of your data and means there's no migration or lock-in risk if you ever decide to leave.

## Setting your database connection

From your project's Environment Variables tab, add a DATABASE\_URL variable pointing at your own database. This is used for your production environment.

For preview deployments (PRs and, if enabled, branch deploys), set a separate PREVIEW\_DATABASE\_URL -- switch to the preview kind at the top of the Environment Variables tab to set this. One preview database is shared across all of a project's previews/branch deploys; it is never the same database as production.

## How env vars are stored

Every environment variable value is encrypted at rest (AES-256-GCM) and only decrypted at deploy time, when it's injected into your running container. Values are never shown back to you after being set -- only the variable's key name is visible in the dashboard, the same way most platforms handle secrets.

## Database region

Under your project's Settings, you can tell Launchpad where your database is actually hosted (e.g. AP-Southeast, US-East). This is purely informational -- it doesn't provision or move anything -- but if your database is far from Singapore (where Launchpad's infrastructure runs), you'll see a latency warning so you know what to expect.