MySQL

Versions

8.0 and 5.7 are available when you create a database.

Connection string

Injected into your app automatically when you attach the database to a project:

mysql://<user>:<password>@<host>:3306/<database>

Works directly with mysql2 (Node), PyMySQL/mysqlclient (Python), go-sql-driver/mysql (Go), Laravel's Eloquent, and any client that accepts a standard MySQL DSN.

Connecting locally

Off by default — see Connect from your computer to turn on public access. Once on:

mysql -h <host> -P <port> -u <user> -p <database>

Character set

New databases default to utf8mb4 — the correct choice for full Unicode support (including emoji) rather than the older utf8 alias, which is actually a 3-byte-max subset in MySQL and will reject some valid Unicode input.

Backups

Automatic, plus on-demand — see Backups. A downloaded backup is a standard mysqldump-compatible file.