PostgreSQL CDC, Evolved: Read-Only Mode, IAM Auth & Partition Support Now in Estuary

Estuary has released significant updates to its PostgreSQL connectors, expanding support for production-grade change data capture (CDC) use cases.

## What's New

### Read-Only Capture
Estuary now supports CDC in read-only mode without needing to write to a watermarks table. Read-only captures should include a table with frequent updates or a "heartbeat" table to ensure WAL retention doesn't grow continuously.

Read-only mode also allows capturing from a PostgreSQL standby replica, letting teams offload replication impact from the primary database entirely. Capturing from read-only standbys requires:
- PostgreSQL 16 or later
- Logical decoding enabled
- `hot_standby_feedback = on` to retain catalog metadata

### IAM Authentication
Both PostgreSQL source and destination connectors now support IAM authentication, enabling role-based access for teams running PostgreSQL on AWS, GCP, or Azure. This removes the need to manage static database credentials in pipeline configurations.

### Partitioned Table Support
A new advanced setting called **"Capture Partitioned Tables as Partitions"** allows each partition of a partitioned PostgreSQL table to be captured as an individual stream, giving teams fine-grained control over how partitioned data flows through their pipelines.

## Documentation & Resources

For full setup instructions including WAL configuration, replication slot management, and platform-specific guides for Amazon RDS, Aurora, Google Cloud SQL, and Azure Database for PostgreSQL:

- [PostgreSQL Source Connector Documentation](https://docs.estuary.dev/reference/Connectors/capture-connectors/PostgreSQL/)
- [PostgreSQL Destination Connector Documentation](https://docs.estuary.dev/reference/Connectors/materialization-connectors/PostgreSQL/)
- [Get started free](https://dashboard.estuary.dev/register) | [Contact the team](https://estuary.dev/contact-us/)