The Scenario
You are a data engineering manager at a healthcare startup. Your production Neon database holds real patient records. Ten developers need to run queries and test features without touching production.
The solution is anonymized branches: copies of the production branch with sensitive columns masked. The developer list and their project assignments are in an Excel workbook on SharePoint. The sprint starts Monday and it is Friday at 3 PM.
The bad version of the next two days:
- Create branch one manually in the Neon dashboard
- Run the masking script on branch one
- Verify the masking worked
- Document the branch ID in the workbook
- Repeat for developer two through ten
- Realize in branch six that you forgot to mask the diagnosis_code column
- You spend Monday morning remediating instead of opening the sprint.
The fast version is one prompt.
The Easy Way: One Prompt in SheetXAI
SheetXAI reads the developer list from your workbook and creates the anonymized branches through the Neon integration.
Open the SheetXAI sidebar and type:
Create anonymized Neon branches for all entries in my Excel sheet — each row has a project ID and target branch name — then write the anonymized branch ID and masked data status into the adjacent columns.
SheetXAI iterates through the rows, creates each anonymized branch, and writes the branch IDs and status back into the workbook. Every developer's environment is documented before the weekend.
What You Get
A complete developer environment tracker with:
- Branch ID column — the unique identifier for each anonymized environment
- Masked data status — confirmation that the anonymization step completed
- Consistent process — every branch created the same way, no variation between developers
If anonymization fails for a branch, SheetXAI flags the row so the platform team knows which one to investigate.
What If the Data Is Not Quite Ready
Developer lists from HR systems are rarely ready to use directly. SheetXAI normalizes and provisions in the same prompt.
When project IDs are project names
Your workbook has project names in column A, not project IDs.
For each row with a project name in column A and developer name in column B, look up the matching Neon project ID by name. Write the ID into column A, create an anonymized branch, and write the branch ID and masked data status into columns C and D.
When some developers only need read access
Some developers on the list should only run SELECT queries.
For rows where column C says 'read-only', create an anonymized branch with a read-only role. For all other rows, create a standard anonymized branch. Write the branch ID and connection string into columns D and E.
When the workbook already has branch IDs from last sprint
Some rows have branch IDs from the previous sprint's environments.
Skip any row where the branch ID column already has a value. For the remaining rows, create an anonymized Neon branch and write the branch ID and masked data status into the adjacent columns.
When the manager wants a summary for the security audit
Your compliance team wants documentation of every anonymized environment created this sprint.
Create anonymized Neon branches for all rows. Write the branch ID into column C and the masked data status into column D. Then write a summary in cell F1 showing the total number of environments created, the project IDs covered, and a note confirming that production data was not directly accessed.
The pattern: the workbook is the audit record. One prompt creates the environments and populates the compliance documentation.
Try It
Get the 7-day free trial of SheetXAI and open a developer list workbook with Neon project IDs, then ask it to create the anonymized branches. The Neon integration is included in every plan. See also how to bulk-create Neon feature branches from an Excel workbook or the Neon in Excel overview.