BranchesAll sections
Branches
BetaBranches give your agent its own copy of your backend’s schema to build against, the way a pull request lets you try code before merging it. Production keeps serving while the branch changes, and merging replays the changes onto production.
In the console: Operate › BranchesUpdated October 12, 2026
Why you need it
Changing a live backend is risky: a new column or table can break the app your users have open right now. A branch lets your agent try the change somewhere that cannot affect them, test it against its own preview endpoint, and show you the difference before anything reaches production.
For example
- Your agent builds a coupons feature on a branch and tests it before it touches the live shop.
- You compare a branch with production to see exactly which tables and columns changed.
- An experiment did not work out. You discard the branch and production never saw it.
- A preview build of your frontend talks to the branch through a key bound to that branch.
How it works
Create a branch
Backenly copies your schema into its own isolated space, with the same row-level security and its own id sequences. It starts empty unless you choose to copy the data too.
Your agent changes the branch
It passes the branch id to
apply_migrationand tests against the branch’s preview endpoint while production keeps serving.Review the difference
The branch shows a schema diff against production, and warns you if production has changed since the branch was created.
Merge or discard
New tables merge back through the governed path, and anything else comes back for review. Discarding drops the copy and leaves production untouched.
Try it
Once your coding agent is connected, ask it:
Create a preview branch called coupons, add a coupons table on it, and show me the diff against production.Good to know
- Branches are in beta and available on Backenly Cloud.
- Discarding a branch deletes its copy and every row in it. It cannot be undone.