Strapi 5 RC w/ PostgreSQL - Strapi DOA

Discord Q&A strapi-questions
1

So, as the title suggests, I’m trying out Strapi 5 RC and I just finished the installation. Here’s my options:

? Please log in or sign up. Skip
? Do you want to use the default database (sqlite) ? No
? Choose your default database client postgres
? Database name: strapi
? Host: 127.0.0.1
? Port: 5432
? Username: username
? Password: ********
? Enable SSL connection: No
? Start with an example structure & data? No
? Start with Typescript? Yes
? Install dependencies with npm? Yes
? Initialize a git repository? No

SO, what’s up is, once i cd b* npm run develop I get the following error:

⠋ Loading Strapi⠋ Building build context
[INFO] Including the following ENV variables as part of the JS bundle:
    - ADMIN_PATH
    - STRAPI_ADMIN_BACKEND_URL
    - STRAPI_TELEMETRY_DISABLED
✔ Building build context (130ms)
✔ Creating admin (303ms)
⠏ Loading Strapi[ERROR]  There seems to be an unexpected error, try again with --debug for more information

┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                                                           │
│   Error: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:5432                              │
│       at TCPConnectWrap.afterConnect [as oncomplete] (node:net:1605:16)   │
│                                                                           │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

A little Googling later and I found out (according to this SO post: postgresql - Strapi instalation has error: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:5432 - Stack Overflow) that I need to already have a PG database setup.
This led me to the following (obvious, in retrospect) realisation: in setup, I wasnt entering the credentials I wished to use for Strapi, I was entering my (supposedly existing) pg db credentials. Yes I’m dumb at times :slightly_smiling_face:

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2

SO, my question now is: I have a PG database set up for auth using next_auth v5, and I’m using PostgreSQL. Can I (pretty please :pleading_face: ) somehow use that db for strapi too?

My plan was to migrate from using that database to strapi for my project, but now I’m not sure what’s the best approach:

  1. Just install strapi like I always do, with its default sqlite database, and try my best to change my frontend’s logic to use strapi instead of my pg database for user auth.
  2. Use strapi with my existing pg database and not have to do that whole migration thing

Would I even be able to access my already existing tables from strapi and modify them like usual from the UI?