--- title: "Neon Twin: Move Dev/Test/Staging to Neon, Keep Production on RDS" url: https://daily.dev/posts/neon-twin-move-dev-test-staging-to-neon-keep-production-on-rds-sfzswlftq source_url: https://neon.com/blog/optimizing-dev-environments-in-aws-rds-with-neon-postgres-part-ii-using-github-actions-to-mirror-rds-in-neon type: article source: "Neon" published: 2026-07-09T06:58:01.855Z updated: 2026-07-09T07:03:02.237Z tags: ["database", "postgresql", "github-actions", "aws-rds"] reading_time: 7 upvotes: 0 comments: 0 language: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Neon Twin: Move Dev/Test/Staging to Neon, Keep Production on RDS **[Neon](https://daily.dev/sources/neontech)** · 7 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A practical guide for teams using AWS RDS in production who want to move their dev, test, and staging databases to Neon Postgres without a full migration. The approach uses a 'Neon Twin' — a nightly synchronized copy of the RDS database created via pg_dump/restore automated through GitHub Actions. The post covers prerequisites, workflow file setup, key pg_dump/pg_restore flags, storing secrets in GitHub, known limitations (6-hour job limits, IP restrictions, SSL), and Neon's branching model for parallel developer environments. A companion tool called Twin Thing is also mentioned to help generate the GitHub Actions workflow. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: --- Tags: [#database](https://daily.dev/tags/database), [#postgresql](https://daily.dev/tags/postgresql), [#github-actions](https://daily.dev/tags/github-actions), [#aws-rds](https://daily.dev/tags/aws-rds) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/neon-twin-move-dev-test-staging-to-neon-keep-production-on-rds-sfzswlftq)