# Force SSL When Making A psql Connection

If you try connecting `psql` to a Postgres server that requires SSL connections, you'll see an error message like this:

```
psql: error: FATAL:  SSL/TLS required
```

You can tell `psql` to make an SSL connection by adding the `sslmode=require` key-value pair to the connection.

If you're using a connection string, that might look like this:

```bash
$ psql postgres://username:password@host.com/dbname?sslmode=require
```

Or if you're using the connection parameter flags, it may look like this, using the `--set` flag:

```bash
$ PGPASSWORD=password psql \
    --set=sslmode=require \
    -h host.com \
    -U username \
    dbname
```

If after adding `sslmode=require`, you find that SSL support is not compiled in, [follow the instructions in this post to reinstall Postgres with SSL support](https://dev.to/jbranchaud/reinstall-postgresql-with-openssl-using-asdf-cmj).
