Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano Building a dev experience for Postgres in VS Code with Rob Emanuele
Nov 7, 2025
In this engaging discussion, Rob Emanuele, a principal engineer at Microsoft and co-creator of the VS Code extension for PostgreSQL, shares his unique journey from music to software development. He dives into the challenges of using Postgres at planetary scale with the Microsoft Planetary Computer and reveals his insights into GitHub Copilot's role in modern coding. From thoughts on agent-driven workflows to the importance of feedback in building tools, Rob also highlights how creativity in music influences his engineering approach.
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From Busking To Geospatial Engineering
- Rob described a winding path from music to math to software that led him into geospatial work.
- He first encountered Postgres at Azavia where PostGIS backed many production web apps.
Planetary Computer Backed By Postgres
- Rob explained the Microsoft Planetary Computer storing petabytes of satellite data with a STAC API.
- Postgres (with JSONB and PGStack optimizations) powered the platform's scalable spatio-temporal queries.
An Extension That Works With Any Postgres
- The VS Code extension targets any Postgres instance while offering Azure-specific enhancements.
- It includes connection management, query windows, results export, schema viz, server metrics, and Copilot integration.