i’m building an e-commerce app with Next.js + Node, and I’m using PostgreSQL with the pg package.
I created my database/table through the PostgreSQL CLI, but I’m having trouble connecting to the database from my app.

Current setup:

* Next.js frontend / API routes
* Node backend
* PostgreSQL database installed using CLI - no password auth
* pg package for DB connection

What I’ve done so far:

* Installed pg
* Created the DB/table in PostgreSQL via CLI and verified table public.products
* Set up a connection string / DB config in my app

Issue:
When I try to connect or run a query from Node, it fails with this error:

GET /api/products 500 in 238ms (compile: 53ms, render: 185ms) Failed to fetch products error: relation "public.products" does not exist

Postgres snapshot:
<postgres=# SELECT * FROM public.products
postgres-# ;
id | name | sku | price_cents | created_at
----+-----------------+----------+-------------+-------------------------------
1 | Oatmilk & Honey | SOAP-001 | 1200 | 2026-04-02 18:39:11.324039-04
2 | Lavender | SOAP-002 | 1200 | 2026-04-02 18:39:11.324039-04
3 | Unscented | SOAP-003 | 1100 | 2026-04-02 18:39:11.324039-04>

Code snippet:

import { Client, Pool } from 'pg';

export function getClient(): Client {
    const client = new Client(
        {
            connectionString: DATABASE_URL,
            host: "localhost",
            user: "drew",
            port: 5432,
            password: LOCAL_PASSWORD,
        },
    );
    return client;
}

const response = await client.query('SELECT * FROM public.products');
    console.log('DB URL at runtime:', process.env.DATABASE_URL);
    console.log(response.rows);

What I’m trying to figure out:

* if my pg connection config is wrong
* if my PostgreSQL server is not accepting connections
* if I’m misunderstanding how to connect Node/Next.js to a local Postgres DB

Any guidance would be appreciated.