- Boot Sequin
- Connect to a sample playground database
- Configure an SQS queue to receive database changes
- See your changes flow in real-time
This is the quickstart for streaming Postgres to SQS. See the how-to guide for an explanation of how to use the SQS sink or the reference for details on all configuration options.
Prerequisites
- An AWS account with an SQS queue
- IAM credentials with SQS access
Required IAM Policy
Required IAM Policy
<your-queue-arn>
with your queue’s ARN (e.g., arn:aws:sqs:us-east-1:123456789012:my-queue
).Run Sequin
The easiest way to get started with Sequin is with our Docker Compose file. This file starts a Postgres database, Redis instance, and Sequin server.
1
Create directory and start services
- Download sequin-docker-compose.zip.
- Unzip the file.
- Navigate to the unzipped directory and start the services:
Alternative: Download with curl
Alternative: Download with curl
Alternative: Clone the repository
Alternative: Clone the repository
2
Verify services are running
Check that Sequin is running using You should see output like the following:
docker ps
:Sequin, Postgres, Redis, Prometheus, and Grafana should be up and running (status:
Up
).Login
The Docker Compose file automatically configures Sequin with an admin user and a playground database.Let’s log in to the Sequin web console:
1
Open the web console
After starting the Docker Compose services, open the Sequin web console at http://localhost:7376:

2
Login with default credentials
Use the following default credentials to login:
- Email:
- Password:
View the playground database
To get you started quickly, Sequin’s Docker Compose file creates a logical database called
sequin_playground
with a sample dataset in the public.products
table.Let’s take a look:1
Navigate to Databases
In the Sequin web console, click Databases in the sidebar.
2
Select playground database
Click on the pre-configured 
sequin-playground
database:
The database “Health” should be green.
3
View contents of the products table
Let’s get a sense of what’s in the You should see a list of the rows in the We’ll make modifications to this table in a bit.
products
table. Run the following command:This command connects to the running Postgres container and runs a
psql
command.products
table:Create an SQS Sink
With the playground database connected, you can create a sink. This sink will send changes to the
products
table to your SQS queue:1
Navigate to Sinks
Click “Sinks” in the sidebar navigation, then click “Create Sink”.
2
Select sink type
Select “Amazon SQS” as the sink type and click “Continue”.
3
Note "Source" configuration
In the “Source” card, note that the 
sequin-playground
database is selected and all schemas and tables are included. Leave these defaults:
4
Setup a backfill
In the 
Inital backfill
card, select the public.products
table to initate a backfill when the sink is created.
5
Configure "SQS Queue"
In the “SQS Configuration” card, enter your queue details:
- Queue URL: The full URL of your SQS queue (e.g.,
https://sqs.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/123456789012/my-queue
) - AWS Access Key ID: An AWS access key with SQS permissions
- AWS Secret Access Key: The corresponding AWS secret key

6
Test the connection
At the bottom of the form, click the “Test Connection” button. If you provided proper credentials, it should succeed.
Sequin can connect to your SQS queue.
7
Create the sink
You can leave the rest of the defaults. As configured, the SQS queue will first receive a backfill of all rows currently in the
products
table. Then, it will receive all changes to the products
table in real-time.Click “Create Sink” to finish setting up your SQS sink.See changes flow to your SQS queue
On the new sink’s overview page, you should see the “Health” status turn green, indicating data is flowing to your SQS queue.Let’s confirm messages are flowing:
1
Messages tab
Click the “Messages” tab. You’ll see a list of the recently delivered messages:

Sequin indicates it backfilled the
products
table to your SQS queue.2
View in SQS Console
Open the AWS Console and navigate to your SQS queue. Click “Send and receive messages” then “Poll for messages”. You should see the messages have arrived from Sequin:
Click on a message to view its contents. The messages are

read
events from the initial backfill of the products
table.Messages are flowing from Sequin to your SQS queue.
3
Make some changes
Let’s make some changes to the In the “Poll for messages” widget in the SQS Console, you should see the new message appear.Feel free to try other changes:
Each change will appear in your SQS queue within a few seconds.
products
table and see them flow to your queue.In your terminal, run the following command to insert a new row into the products
table:Update a product's price
Update a product's price
Change a product's name
Change a product's name
Delete a product
Delete a product
Great work!
- Set up a complete Postgres change data capture pipeline
- Loaded existing data through a backfill
- Made changes to the
products
table - Verified changes are flowing to your SQS queue