PostgreSQL 19 Interactive Tour
This article provides a technical walkthrough of new features in the PostgreSQL 19 beta, specifically focusing on the implementation of SQL/PGQ for property-graph querying. It offers runnable examples to demonstrate how to define and query graphs within the database.
Why it matters
It serves as a practical guide for database administrators and developers to adopt new SQL standards for graph data management.
PostgreSQL 19 is in beta, with general availability expected around September or October 2026, so it's a good time to get a head start on what's new. The official release notes are the authoritative record: meticulously assembled, complete down to the commit and the contributors behind each change. This article is a hands-on companion to them, taking a selection of those entries and turning each into a runnable example so you can see how the new behavior actually works.
Before we start digging into the new features, let's set the context.
This article is based on the official release notes and the PostgreSQL source code, licensed under the PostgreSQL License . This is not an exhaustive list; see the official release notes for that.
Every example below was run against PostgreSQL 19 beta 3 (released 2026-08-13) and the output is what that server actually printed.
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