Connect to the cluster

After creating a free cluster, the easiest way to connect to it is to use Cloud Shell.

Using Cloud Shell, you can connect to your Yugabyte Cloud cluster from your browser, and interact with it using distributed SQL.

The shell has a 15 minute connection limit. If your session expires, close your browser tab and connect again.

Connect to your cluster using Cloud Shell

To connect to your cluster, do the following:

1. On the Clusters page, ensure your cluster is selected.

2. Click Connect to display the Connect to Cluster dialog.

3. Under Cloud Shell, click Launch Cloud Shell.

4. Enter the database name (yugabyte), the user name (admin), select the YSQL API type, and click Confirm.

   Cloud Shell opens in a separate browser window. Cloud Shell can take up to 30 seconds to be ready.

   Password for user admin:
   

5. Enter the password for the admin user credentials that you saved when you created the cluster.
   
   The shell prompt appears and is ready to use.

   ysqlsh (11.2-YB-2.2.0.0-b0)
   SSL connection (protocol: TLSv1.2, cipher: ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384, bits: 256, compression: off)
   Type "help" for help.
   
   yugabyte=#
   

The command line interface (CLI) being used is called ysqlsh. ysqlsh is the CLI for interacting with YugabyteDB using the PostgreSQL-compatible YSQL API.

Cloud Shell also supports ycqlsh, a CLI for the YCQL API.

Learn more

For more information on the ysqlsh and ycqlsh CLIs, refer to ysqlsh and ycqlsh.

For more information on the YSQL and YCQL APIs, refer to YSQL API and YCQL API.

For information on other ways to connect to your cluster, refer to Connect to clusters.

Next step

Create a database and load data