Free tools Windows power users keep installed
One-click scans. No signup required.
iTechGuides is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Learn more
You can deploy a working AI-assisted incident-search backend on one disposable Neon child branch by keeping its database, authentication, report files, Function code, and AI Gateway configuration together. The tutorial’s React interface runs locally; Neon Functions provide backend routes, not website hosting.
What the Incident Atlas demo deploys
The example combines five backend pieces on one Neon branch: Lakebase Postgres for incident metadata and search, Neon Auth (Managed Better Auth) for operator sign-in, a private Object Storage bucket for source reports, a Neon Function for API routes, and Neon AI Gateway for model calls. The UI stays local while you exercise the workflow against a postmortem.
The service is named “Incident Atlas” in the tutorial; “One Function” is not a separate Neon product. Its Function exposes seven routes. /health is public for release checks; the other six require a valid JWT.
Recommended Free Tools
Prepare the branch and deploy the backend
The tutorial creates a timestamped child branch named like incident-atlas-demo-... and gives it a six-hour expiry. Its validated setup ran in AWS US East (Ohio), region ID aws-us-east-2; the tutorial said Frankfurt also supported the complete backend when it was published on September 24, 2026. That is a publication-time report, not a guarantee of current regional availability.
#1 Best Overall
The project uses neon.ts to declare the services, with the CLI workflow planning before applying changes. Since Functions, Object Storage, and AI Gateway had reached general availability by the tutorial’s publication, their declarations are top-level; the older preview configuration shape is described as a deprecated compatibility path.
-
Run
npm run demo:up. The script creates the child branch, applies Auth, creates a private bucket and Function, configures AI Gateway, registers localhost as an Auth domain, then installs Lakebase Search’slakebase_textextension and creates the table and BM25 index. -
Run
npm run demo:testto exercise the deployed workflow. The tutorial reports checking protected access, JWT verification, private upload behavior, idempotent confirmation, model enrichment, search excerpts, cited answers, and removal of both the database row and stored object.Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy. -
Run
npm run demo:opento open the local UI and walk through the incident workflow against a postmortem. -
Run
npm run demo:downwhen finished to remove the temporary branch.
The tutorial reports a live smoke test against a deployed temporary branch; its results are evidence about that implementation, not an independent benchmark or a general guarantee of performance.
Understand what a child branch inherits
A normal Neon child branch exposes the parent’s schema and rows immediately through copy-on-write storage. Writes made in the child are isolated from the parent, but inherited data can still be visible in the preview. If sensitive production rows must not appear there, use schema-only branching instead. See Neon’s branching documentation for the branch behavior.
Outdated Drivers Are Slowing You Down
One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchWindows Errors? Fix Them Before They Spread
Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallAligning branch-dependent services makes the preview easier to create and discard as one unit, but it does not by itself make the environment safe. Review inherited data, permissions, secrets, retention, and workload requirements before using the pattern with real information.
How authentication, uploads, and ownership work
The browser obtains a bearer token from Neon Auth for protected routes. The Function verifies its signature and issuer against the branch’s Auth JWKS. The example derives ownership from the verified JWT subject rather than trusting an owner identifier supplied by the client.
Report uploads go directly from the browser to private Object Storage using a short-lived signed URL. Before creating a queued database record, the Function checks the authenticated user’s object namespace, expected byte count, and allowed content type. The sample accepts Markdown, plain text, or JSON reports up to 32 KiB.
For database access, the example sets the verified owner identity transaction-locally and enables forced row-level security with an owner policy. Object paths also include the owner namespace. These are tutorial-specific controls, not automatic protections for every Neon deployment; adapt and review them for your application.
How incident search and the model answer work
The demo installs Lakebase Search’s lakebase_text extension and uses the lakebase_bm25 index access method. A generated text column combines the incident title, AI-generated summary, and original report so search can return ranked, relevant excerpts rather than simply taking the first characters of a report. These implementation details do not establish comparative search quality.
The /ask route passes at most four ranked reports to the model and requires inline citations in the answer. The prompt treats report text as untrusted input and instructs the model to answer only from the supplied evidence. AI Gateway credentials and raw model requests remain behind the Function rather than being sent to the browser.
Know where Neon Functions fit—and where they do not
Neon’s documentation updated October 2, 2026 says Functions run JavaScript or TypeScript on Node.js 24, in the same region as their branch. At that update, the listed regions were AWS US East (Ohio), AWS US East (N. Virginia), AWS Europe (Frankfurt), and AWS Asia Pacific (Singapore); availability can change, so check the current Functions documentation before choosing a region.
Functions handle requests and can return JSON, streams, server-sent events, or WebSocket upgrades. They can also run on cron or object-upload triggers, but Neon says they are not a general-purpose queue for independently retryable work; use a queue or workflow engine when that lifecycle is required. They do not host a website, so deploy the UI separately. See Neon Functions: overview and Functions limits.
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Check current plan allowances before scaling
Neon’s September 17, 2026 GA announcement listed these Free Plan allowances. They are dated vendor-published figures, not a promise that the current plan still has the same limits; verify Neon pricing before planning a production workload.
| Free Plan item | Allowance listed by Neon on September 17, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Projects | 100 projects |
| Lakebase Postgres | 100 CU-hours and 0.5 GB database storage per project; 10 branches per project |
| Object Storage | 5 GB per project |
| Functions | 10 active Capacity-Hours, 400 waiting Capacity-Hours, and 1 million invocations per project per month |
| Managed Better Auth | Up to 60,000 monthly active users |
Neon describes its backend as composable primitives rather than a bundled backend-as-a-service. As VP Product Bryan Clark put it in the September 17, 2026 announcement: “When we say ‘we’re building backends’, we think of ‘backend’ as a set of solid primitives an agent can call, not a bundle of managed services behind one bill. The distinction is deliberate.”
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
