Nhost’s cloud development workflow allows you to develop against a cloud-hosted project while maintaining a minimal local environment. This approach combines the benefits of cloud infrastructure with local development tools, enabling seamless collaboration and deployment workflows.

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Benefits of Cloud Development

Cloud development with Nhost offers several key advantages:
  • Minimal local setup: Run only essential development tools locally while leveraging cloud infrastructure
  • Automatic tracking: Database migrations and metadata changes are automatically captured in your local repository
  • Git-based deployments: Connect your repository to staging and production environments for streamlined deployments
  • Simplified testing: Connect your frontend directly to cloud services, making remote testing and third-party integrations straightforward

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Create a Cloud Project

First, let’s set up a new project in the Nhost Cloud Console.
  1. Create a new project in the Nhost Cloud Console
  2. Note your project details from the overview page:
    • Project subdomain
    • Region
  3. Enable database public access:
    • Navigate to Settings → Database
    • Enable Public Access
    • Click Save
  4. Configure database password:
    • In the same Database settings section, locate Reset Password
    • Set a new password for your database
    • Click Save
    • Note the connection string displayed below
Your final PostgreSQL URL will be the connection string with [YOUR-PASSWORD] replaced by the password you just set.

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Initialize Your Local Repository

Now let’s connect your local development environment to the cloud project. 
nhost init --remote
This command will:
  • Prompt you to sign in to your Nhost account
  • Display a list of your cloud projects
  • Allow you to select the project you want to work with
  • Create the necessary configuration files in your local directory

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Start the Local Development Environment

With your repository initialized, you can now start the local development environment connected to your cloud project. 
export SUBDOMAIN=your-project-subdomain
export POSTGRES_URL=your-complete-postgres-url
nhost up cloud --subdomain $SUBDOMAIN --postgres-url $POSTGRES_URL
Replace the placeholder values with:
  • your-project-subdomain: The subdomain noted in step 2
  • your-complete-postgres-url: The connection string with your password from step 4
This command starts a local development environment that connects to your cloud infrastructure while providing local access to the Nhost dashboard and console.

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Making Changes to Your Project

With your local development environment running, always use the local interfaces to make changes to your project.

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Development Interfaces

Access your local development tools at:

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How Changes Are Tracked

When you make changes through the local interfaces:
  • Database changes automatically generate migration files in your local repository
  • Metadata changes are saved locally and tracked in Git
  • Configuration changes made to nhost.toml or via the local dashboard can be synchronized with your cloud project

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Synchronizing Changes

To sync local configuration changes with your cloud project: 
nhost up cloud --subdomain $SUBDOMAIN --postgres-url $POSTGRES_URL

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Applying Database Seeds

If you have database seeds that you want to apply to your cloud project: 
nhost up cloud --subdomain $SUBDOMAIN --postgres-url $POSTGRES_URL --apply-seeds
Always make changes through the local console or dashboard. Changes made directly in the cloud console will not be tracked locally and may be lost.

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Next Steps

Once you’ve developed and tested your changes locally against your cloud project:
  1. Commit your changes to Git to track migrations and metadata
  2. Connect your repository to staging and production environments
  3. Deploy your changes using Git-based deployments
This workflow ensures that all your database schema changes and configuration updates are properly versioned and can be reliably deployed across environments.

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Multiple Development Environments

The nhost up cloud command always re-applies your complete project state, including:
  • Configuration from nhost.toml
  • Database migrations from your local repository
  • Metadata changes tracked locally
  • Seeds (when using --apply-seeds)
This behavior enables you to create multiple cloud development environments as needed:
  1. Create additional cloud projects following the “Create a Cloud Project” steps
  2. Connect to different projects by changing the SUBDOMAIN and POSTGRES_URL variables
  3. Switch between environments instantly using the same local repository
Each time you run the command, your target cloud project will be synchronized to match your local development state, making it easy to spin up fresh environments for testing, feature branches, or team collaboration.