Create a database from a URI
Enterprise Edition

This method seeds all databases with an identical seed from an external source, specified by a URI.

You specify the seed URI as an argument of the CREATE DATABASE command:

Introduced in 2025.06
CREATE DATABASE foo OPTIONS { seedURI:'s3://myBucket/myBackup.backup' }
CREATE DATABASE foo OPTIONS { existingData: 'use', seedURI:'s3://myBucket/myBackup.backup' }

The existingData option is required in Cypher 5 and deprecated in Cypher 25.

Download and validation of the seed is only performed as the new database is started. If it fails, the database is not available and it has the statusMessage: Unable to start database of the SHOW DATABASES command.

Example failure output for SHOW DATABASES
| name    | type       | aliases | access       | address          | role      | writer | requestedStatus | currentStatus | statusMessage                                            | default | home  | constituents |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "seed3" | "standard" | []      | "read-write" | "localhost:7682" | "unknown" | FALSE  | "online"        | "offline"     | "Unable to start database `DatabaseId{3fe1a59b[seed3]}`" | FALSE   | FALSE | []           |

To determine the cause of the problem, check the debug.log file.

Starting from Neo4j 2025.01, seed from URI can also be used in combination with CREATE OR REPLACE DATABASE.

Seed providers in Neo4j

The seed can be a full backup, a differential backup (see CloudSeedProvider), or a dump from an existing database. When using CloudSeedProvider, the URI can point also to a folder which contains a backup chain. The sources of seeds are called seed providers.

Backups have a .backup extension, while the dump file can have whatever extension the user chooses. For example, the backup file can be called myBackup.backup, while the dump can be called myDump.dump or also myBackup.backup, or any other name.

The mechanism is pluggable, allowing new sources of seeds to be supported (see Java Reference → Implement custom seed providers for more information).

The product has built-in support for seed from a mounted file system (file), FTP server, HTTP/HTTPS server, Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, and Azure Cloud Storage.

Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, and Azure Cloud Storage are supported by default, but the other providers require configuration of dbms.databases.seed_from_uri_providers.

ServerSeedProvider
Introduced in 2026.04

The ServerSeedProvider supports:

  • server:

The server:// scheme allows you to seed a database from a backup artifact located on a server in the cluster’s file system. This can be either a directory or a specific artifact within this directory.

Artifact(s) have to be placed in the seeds directory on a server, which is configured via the server.directories.seeds setting.

This seeding mechanism is intended only for database (re)creation. It is not recommended to use production servers as long-term backup storage. Backup artifacts placed in the seeds directory should be removed after the database has been (re)created.

The URI must identify:

  • A server: The URI begins with the server scheme and identifier: server://<server-id-or-name>.
    <server-id-or-name> can be the server ID or its human-readable name.

  • An artifact (optional): You can specify an artifact: server://<server-id-or-name>/<artifact-name>.
    .backup or .dump file types are supported. For example, server://server-id/foo-2026-01-01.backup.

If no artifact is specified, the system automatically looks for the most recent backup chain with the target database name defined in the CREATE DATABASE part of the command.

If seedSourceDatabase is specified, then this value is used instead of the target database name. Note that seedSourceDatabase is available only with Cypher 25. See Example 3 for details.

ServerSeedProvider can also be used with the dbms.recreateDatabase procedure.

Example 1: Using a specific artifact

Create database foo from seed called foo.backup that exists in the seed directory on server server-id:

Introduced in 2025.06
CREATE DATABASE foo
OPTIONS { seedURI: 'server://server-id/foo.backup' };
CREATE DATABASE foo
OPTIONS { existingData: 'use', seedURI: 'server://server-id/foo.backup' };

If foo.backup is a differential backup, the system attempts to find a valid backup chain in the seed directory and download this chain.

Dumps are also supported, e.g., foo.dump.

Example 2: Using a directory

Create database foo from the most recent backup chain found in the seed directory on the server server-id:

Introduced in 2025.06
CREATE DATABASE foo
OPTIONS { seedURI: 'server://server-id/' };
CREATE DATABASE foo
OPTIONS { existingData: 'use', seedURI: 'server://server-id/' };

Fails if no valid backup chain can be found for foo.

Note that if a directory is specified, only backup chains are used. To use a .dump file, you must reference it explicitly.

Cypher 25
Example 3: Using a directory and seedSourceDatabase

Create database foo from the most recent backup chain found for database bar in the seed directory on the server server-id:

CREATE DATABASE foo OPTIONS {
    seedURI: 'server://server-id/',
    seedSourceDatabase: 'bar'
};

FileSeedProvider

The FileSeedProvider supports:

  • file:

Local file paths must be absolute paths.

URLConnectionSeedProvider

The URLConnectionSeedProvider supports the following:

  • ftp:

  • http:

  • https:

Starting from Neo4j 2025.01, the URLConnectionSeedProvider does not support file. This is true for both Cypher 5 and Cypher 25.

CloudSeedProvider

The CloudSeedProvider supports:

  • s3:

  • gs:

  • azb:

The CloudSeedProvider supports using differential backup files as seeds. With the provided differential backup file, the CloudSeedProvider searches the directory containing differential backup files for a backup chain ending at the specified differential backup, and then seeds using this backup chain.

Neo4j uses the AWS SDK v2 to call the APIs on AWS using AWS URLs. Alternatively, you can override the endpoints so that the AWS SDK can communicate with alternative storage systems, such as Ceph, Minio, or LocalStack, using the system variables aws.endpointUrls3, aws.endpointUrlS3, or aws.endpointUrl, or the environments variables AWS_ENDPOINT_URL_S3 or AWS_ENDPOINT_URL.

  1. Install the AWS CLI by following the instructions in the AWS official documentation — Install the AWS CLI version 2.

  2. Create an S3 bucket and a directory to store the backup files using the AWS CLI:

    aws s3 mb --region=us-east-1 s3://myBucket
aws s3api put-object --bucket myBucket --key myDirectory/

    For more information on how to create a bucket and use the AWS CLI, see the AWS official documentation — Use Amazon S3 with the AWS CLI and Use high-level (s3) commands with the AWS CLI.

  3. Verify that the ~/.aws/config file is correct by running the following command:

    cat ~/.aws/config

    The output should look like this:

    [default]
region=us-east-1

  4. Configure the access to your AWS S3 bucket by setting the aws_access_key_id and aws_secret_access_key in the ~/.aws/credentials file and, if needed, using a bucket policy. For example:

    1. Use aws configure set aws_access_key_id aws_secret_access_key command to set your IAM credentials from AWS and verify that the ~/.aws/credentials is correct:

      cat ~/.aws/credentials

      The output should look like this:

      [default]
aws_access_key_id=this.is.secret
aws_secret_access_key=this.is.super.secret

    2. Additionally, you can use a resource-based policy to grant access permissions to your S3 bucket and the objects in it. Create a policy document with the following content and attach it to the bucket. Note that both resource entries are important to be able to download and upload files.

      {
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Id": "Neo4jBackupAggregatePolicy",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "Neo4jBackupAggregateStatement",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "s3:ListBucket",
                "s3:GetObject",
                "s3:PutObject",
                "s3:DeleteObject"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws:s3:::myBucket/*",
                "arn:aws:s3:::myBucket"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

  5. Create database from myBackup.backup. This backup can be a full backup, a differential backup, or a dump file.

    Using Cypher 5:

    CREATE DATABASE foo OPTIONS { existingData: 'use', seedURI: 's3://myBucket/myBackup.backup' }

    Using Cypher 25 Introduced in 2025.06:

    CREATE DATABASE foo OPTIONS { seedURI: 's3://myBucket/myBackup.backup' }

  1. Ensure you have a Google account and a project created in the Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

    1. Install the gcloud CLI by following the instructions in the Google official documentation — Install the gcloud CLI.

    2. Create a service account and a service account key using Google official documentation — Create service accounts and Creating and managing service account keys.

    3. Download the JSON key file for the service account.

    4. Set the GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS and GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT environment variables to the path of the JSON key file and the project ID, respectively:

      export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="/path/to/keyfile.json"
export GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT=YOUR_PROJECT_ID

    5. Authenticate the gcloud CLI with the e-mail address of the service account you have created, the path to the JSON key file, and the project ID:

      gcloud auth activate-service-account [email protected] --key-file=$GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS --project=$GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT

      For more information, see the Google official documentation — gcloud auth activate-service-account.

    6. Create a bucket in the Google Cloud Storage using Google official documentation — Create buckets.

    7. Verify that the bucket is created by running the following command:

      gcloud storage ls

      The output should list the created bucket.

  2. Create database from myBackup.backup. This backup can be a full backup, a differential backup, or a dump file.

    Using Cypher 5:

    CREATE DATABASE foo OPTIONS { existingData: 'use', seedURI: 'gs://myBucket/myBackup.backup' }

    Using Cypher 25 Introduced in 2025.06:

    CREATE DATABASE foo OPTIONS { seedURI: 'gs://myBucket/myBackup.backup' }

  1. Ensure you have an Azure account, an Azure storage account, and a blob container.

    1. You can create a storage account using the Azure portal.
      For more information, see the Azure official documentation on Create a storage account.

    2. Create a blob container in the Azure portal.
      For more information, see the Azure official documentation on Quickstart: Upload, download, and list blobs with the Azure portal.

  2. Install the Azure CLI by following the instructions in the Azure official documentation — Azure official documentation.

  3. Authenticate the neo4j or neo4j-admin process against Azure using the default Azure credentials.
    See the Azure official documentation on default Azure credentials for more information.

    az login

    Then you should be ready to use Azure URLs in either neo4j or neo4j-admin.

  4. To validate that you have access to the container with your login credentials, run the following commands:

    # Upload a file:
az storage blob upload --file someLocalFile  --account-name accountName - --container someContainer --name remoteFileName  --auth-mode login

# Download the file
az storage blob download  --account-name accountName --container someContainer --name remoteFileName --file downloadedFile --auth-mode login

# List container files
az storage blob list  --account-name someContainer --container someContainer  --auth-mode login

  5. Create database from myBackup.backup. This backup can be a full backup, a differential backup, or a dump file.

    Using Cypher 5:

    CREATE DATABASE foo OPTIONS { existingData: 'use', seedURI: 'azb://myStorageAccount/myContainer/myBackup.backup' }

    Using Cypher 25 Introduced in 2025.06:

    CREATE DATABASE foo OPTIONS { seedURI: 'azb://myStorageAccount/myContainer/myBackup.backup' }

S3SeedProvider
Cypher 5Deprecated in 5.26

The S3SeedProvider supports:

  • s3:

Neo4j comes bundled with necessary libraries for AWS S3 connectivity. Therefore, if you use S3SeedProvider, aws cli is not required as it is for CloudSeedProvider.

The S3SeedProvider requires additional configuration. This is specified with the seedConfig option, which expects a comma-separated list of configurations. Each configuration entry is specified in the format key=value, as such:

CREATE DATABASE foo OPTIONS {
    existingData: 'use',
    seedURI: 's3://myBucket/myBackup.backup',
    seedConfig: 'region=eu-west-1'
}

S3SeedProvider also requires passing in credentials. These are specified with the seedCredentials option. Seed credentials are securely passed from the Cypher command to each server hosting the database. For this to work, Neo4j on each server in the cluster must be configured with identical keystores. This is identical to the configuration required by remote aliases, see Configuration of DBMS with remote database alias. Without this configuration, the seedCredentials option fails.

CREATE DATABASE foo OPTIONS {
    existingData: 'use',
    seedURI: 's3://myBucket/myBackup.backup',
    seedConfig: 'region=eu-west-1',
    seedCredentials: <accessKey>;<secretKey>
}

Where <accessKey> and <secretKey> are provided by AWS.

Seed provider reference

URL scheme Seed provider URI example

server:

Introduced in 2026.04 ServerSeedProvider

server://server-id/backup1.backup
server://server-name/

file:

FileSeedProvider

file:/tmp/backup1.backup file:/tmp/backup1.dump

ftp:

URLConnectionSeedProvider

ftp://myftp.com/backups/backup1.backup ftp://myftp.com/backups/backup1.dump

http:

URLConnectionSeedProvider

http://myhttp.com/backups/backup1.backup http://myhttp.com/backups/backup1.dump

https:

URLConnectionSeedProvider

https://myhttp.com/backups/backup1.backup https://myhttp.com/backups/backup1.dump

s3:

Deprecated in 5.26 S3SeedProvider,
CloudSeedProvider

s3://mybucket/backups/backup1.backup s3://mybucket/backups/backup1.dump s3://mybucket/backups/ (folder containing a backup chain, only used by CloudSeedProvider)

gs:

CloudSeedProvider

gs://mybucket/backups/backup1.backup gs://mybucket/backups/backup1.dump gs://mybucket/backups/ (folder containing a backup chain)

azb:

CloudSeedProvider

azb://mystorageaccount.blob/backupscontainer/backup1.backup azb://mystorageaccount.blob/backupscontainer/backup1.dump azb://mystorageaccount.blob/backupscontainer/ (folder containing a backup chain)

Support for seeding up to a date or a transaction ID
Introduced in 2025.01

When creating a database you can seed up to a specific date or transaction ID via the seedRestoreUntil option.

The seedRestoreUntil option is supported by the CloudSeedProvider and the FileSeedProvider.

Seed up to a specific date

To seed up to a specific date, provide the differential backup containing the data up to that date.

Introduced in 2025.06
CREATE DATABASE foo OPTIONS {
    seedURI: 's3://myBucket/myBackup.backup',
    seedRestoreUntil: datetime('2019-06-01T18:40:32.142+0100')
}
CREATE DATABASE foo OPTIONS {
    existingData: 'use',
    seedURI: 's3://myBucket/myBackup.backup',
    seedRestoreUntil: datetime('2019-06-01T18:40:32.142+0100')
}

This will seed the database with transactions committed before the provided timestamp.

Seed up to a specific transaction ID

To seed up to a specific transaction ID, provide the differential backup containing the data up to that transaction ID.

Introduced in 2025.06
CREATE DATABASE foo OPTIONS {
    seedURI: 's3://myBucket/myBackup.backup',
    seedRestoreUntil: 123
}
CREATE DATABASE foo OPTIONS {
    existingData: 'use',
    seedURI: 's3://myBucket/myBackup.backup',
    seedRestoreUntil: 123
}

This will seed the database with transactions up to (but not including) transaction 123.

Glossary

allocator

A component in the cluster that allocates databases to servers according to the topology constraints specified and an allocation strategy.

asynchronous replication

Asynchronous replication is used by secondary copies to poll for new transactions, which means they cannot be guaranteed to have received the most recent transactions. This enables efficient scale-out of read-performance.

Aura instance

A fully-managed DBMS represented by a single instance ID, that is running in the Neo4j Aura cloud.

auto-commit transaction

An automatically committed transaction that contains a single query.

Bolt protocol

Bolt is a protocol used for interaction between Neo4j instances and drivers.

bookmark

A marker the client can request from the cluster to ensure that it is able to read its own writes so that the application’s state is consistent and only databases that have a copy of the bookmark are permitted to respond.

category (Bloom)

A category is based on a node label and is defined in a Perspective as a way of visually distinguishing nodes with the same label(s).

causal consistency

All servers in a cluster agree on the order in which transactions take place. The position of a server on the causal chain can be guaranteed using a bookmark.

cluster

A Neo4j DBMS that spans multiple servers working together to increase fault tolerance and/or read scalability. Databases on a cluster may be configured to replicate across servers in the cluster thus achieving read scalability or high availability.

client application

Software that interacts with a Neo4j server.

commit

A commit is the successful completion of a transaction, which ensures durability of any changes made. For more details, visit Operations Manual → Transaction management.

composite database

Composite databases are the means to access partitioned graph data with a single Cypher query.

constraint

Constraints are sets of data modeling rules that ensure the data is consistent and reliable.

Cypher®

Neo4j’s graph query language.

data model

A data model defines how information is organized in a database. A good data model will make querying and understanding your data easier. In Neo4j, the data models have a graph structure.

database

A database is a container used by the DBMS to manage and store graph data. The physical structure of data is controlled by the database.

database vs graph

Databases are the physical containers of graph data. Graphs are the logical structure of data in Neo4j.

Database Management System

Database Management System, or DBMS, capable of managing multiple databases. A DBMS may run on a single server, or span several servers configured as a cluster.

database schema

The prescribed property existence and datatypes for nodes and relationships.

deallocate

An act of removing a database from a server or a server from a cluster without loss of data or reduced fault tolerance.

degree (of a node)

The number of relationships of a specific node; loops are counted twice.

disaster recovery

A manual intervention to restore availability of a cluster, or databases within a cluster.

driver

A software library that provides access to Neo4j from a particular programming language.

election

In the event that the Raft leader becomes unresponsive, followers automatically trigger an election and vote for a new leader.

entity

A node or a relationship.

expression (Cypher)

A component of a Cypher query which produces values. It may be used in projections, as a predicate, or when setting properties on graph elements.

fabric

Fabric is the architectural design of a unified system that provides a single access point to local or distributed graph data.

fault tolerance

A guarantee that a cluster can maintain a database’s persistence and availability in the event of one or more servers failing.

follower

A primary copy of a database acting as a follower, receives and acknowledges synchronous writes from the leader.

Generative AI (GenAI)

A type of artificial intelligence (AI) system that generates text, images, or other media in response to prompts.

graph

A logical representation of a set of nodes where some pairs are connected by relationships.

index

Data structure that improves read performance of a database.

knowledge graph

A specific type of graph that has an organizing principle so that a user (or a computer system) can reason about the underlying data. The organizing principle provides an additional layer of structure that adds context to support knowledge discovery.

label

Marks a node as a member of a named and indexed subset. A node may be assigned zero or more labels.

leader

A single primary copy of a database is designated as the leader. It receives all write transactions from clients and replicates writes synchronously to followers and asynchronously to secondary copies of the database.

main database

In terms of Neo4j Enterprise Studio, the database(s) containing the user’s data. Can exist in the same Neo4j deployment as the tool asset database.

motif

A description of a specific pattern within a graph.

node

A node represents an entity or discrete object in your graph data model. Nodes can be connected by relationships, hold data in properties, and are classified by labels.

operator

A symbol representing a mathematical or logical operation.

parameter

Named value provided when running a Cypher statement.

path

A sequence of nodes and the relationships connecting them, that does not contain duplicate relationships. Several paths can match a pattern.

pattern

A specific arrangement of nodes and relationships that can be matched in a graph. A pattern follows a motif.

perspective (Bloom)

A Perspective defines a certain business view or domain that can be found in the target Neo4j graph. A single Neo4j graph can be viewed through different Perspectives, each tailored for a different business purpose.

primary

A copy of the database that is able to process write transactions and is eligible to be elected as a leader. It participates in fault tolerant writes as it is part of the majority required to acknowledge and commit write transactions.

primary vs secondary

In a cluster, databases can operate in either primary or secondary mode. Primary databases are able to process write and read transactions, ensuring fault tolerance. Secondary databases are replicated asynchronously from primaries, and their main purpose is to provide read scaling within the cluster.

project (Aura)

An isolated environment in the unified Aura console that contains its own database instances, configurations, and resources. Preceded by tenant in the classic Aura console.

property

Properties are key-value pairs that are used for storing data on nodes and relationships.

query (Cypher)

A statement that retrieves or writes information to a database.

Raft group

A group of servers that are participating in hosting a particular database in primary mode.

Raft group member

A server that is participating in a Raft group. A server can be a member of one or more groups.

Raft log

A shared log between all Raft group members that is guaranteed to be consistently updated and viewed by those members. The log contains both database data and operational state of the Raft group.

Raft protocol

The networking mechanism that enables a database to replicate its data across multiple servers to give high availability for accessing the data and high durability to the data stored.

read scaling

Distributing query load by creating additional database copies hosted in secondary mode (read-only).

relationship

A relationship represents a connection between nodes in your graph data model. Relationships connect a source node to a target node, hold data in properties, and are classified by type.

secondary

An asynchronously replicated copy of the database that provides read scaling within the cluster.

seed

A seed is a database dump or a full backup used to create a database on a cluster. This is sometimes called seeding.

server

A physical machine, a virtual machine, or a container running an instance of Neo4j. Servers can be standalone or part of a cluster.

session

A causally linked sequence of transactions.

session consistency

An alternative name for Neo4j’s causal consistency.

standalone

A single server running Neo4j and not part of a cluster.

synchronous replication

Synchronous replication requires the leader primary to replicate a transaction and block the commit until a quorum of the follower primaries acknowledges that the transaction is successfully replicated. Once the transaction is replicated, the commit is allowed to proceed. This ensures data durability and consistency within the cluster.

system database

A database used by Neo4j to store system information.

tenant (Aura)

An isolated environment in the classic Aura console that contains its own database instances, configurations, and resources. Replaced by project in the unified Aura console.

tool asset database

In terms of Neo4j Enterprise Studio, the database where tools' assets are stored. This can be in the same Neo4j deployment as the main database(s) or in a separate deployment.

topology

A configuration that describes how the copies of a database should be spread across the servers in a cluster, see primary mode and secondary mode.

transaction

A transaction comprises a unit of work performed against a database. It is treated in a coherent and reliable way, independent of other transactions. Transactions comply with the ACID consistency model (atomic, consistent, isolated, and durable).