Add setting to disable connection pooling

[erosselli]

Ticket []

Description Of Changes

Adds setting to disable connection pooling and use NullPool instead.

Code Changes

Steps to Confirm

Pre-Merge Checklist

• Issue requirements met
• All CI pipelines succeeded
• CHANGELOG.md updated
  • Add a db-migration This indicates that a change includes a database migration label to the entry if your change includes a DB migration
  • Add a high-risk This issue suggests changes that have a high-probability of breaking existing code label to the entry if your change includes a high-risk change (i.e. potential for performance impact or unexpected regression) that should be flagged
  • Updates unreleased work already in Changelog, no new entry necessary
• UX feedback:
  • All UX related changes have been reviewed by a designer
  • No UX review needed
• Followup issues:
  • Followup issues created
  • No followup issues
• Database migrations:
  • Ensure that your downrev is up to date with the latest revision on main
  • Ensure that your downgrade() migration is correct and works
    • If a downgrade migration is not possible for this change, please call this out in the PR description!
  • No migrations
• Documentation:
  • Documentation complete, PR opened in fidesdocs
  • Documentation issue created in fidesdocs
  • If there are any new client scopes created as part of the pull request, remember to update public-facing documentation that references our scope registry
  • No documentation updates required

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2 Skipped Deployments

Project	Deployment	Review	Updated (UTC)
fides-plus-nightly	Ignored		Jan 9, 2026 10:19pm
fides-privacy-center	Ignored		Jan 9, 2026 10:19pm

[greptile-apps]

Greptile Overview

Greptile Summary

Summary

This PR adds a new configuration setting api_engine_disable_pooling to allow disabling database connection pooling for API engines (both sync and async). This is a straightforward feature addition that enables use cases like serverless deployments or development environments where connection pooling may not be desirable.

Changes Overview

1. database_settings.py: Added new boolean field api_engine_disable_pooling (default: False) with appropriate documentation
2. deps.py: Updated get_api_session() and get_readonly_api_session() to pass the disable_pooling parameter to get_db_engine()
3. ctl_session.py: Refactored async engine creation to conditionally apply pooling based on the new setting, using SQLAlchemy's NullPool when disabled

Implementation Quality

• Correctness: The logic properly implements the feature with mutually exclusive code paths for pooling vs. non-pooling configurations
• Consistency: The setting is correctly applied to all API engines (sync, async, readonly sync, readonly async)
• Backward Compatibility: When the setting is not configured (defaults to False), behavior is identical to the previous version
• No Functional Bugs: The implementation correctly handles edge cases and follows existing patterns in the codebase

Issues Found

The primary issue is a missing changelog entry. Per the project's changelog fragment system, a file should be created at changelog/7208.yaml documenting this new feature.

Confidence Score: 4/5

• This PR is safe to merge with minimal risk pending the addition of a changelog entry.
• Score reflects a clean implementation of a straightforward feature with proper integration across all API engines and backward compatibility. The single issue is a documentation/administrative one (missing changelog entry) rather than a functional bug. The code logic is sound with no edge cases or error handling concerns identified.
• Only the missing changelog entry needs attention - no code files require modifications.

Important Files Changed

File Analysis

Filename	Score	Overview
src/fides/config/database_settings.py	5/5	Added new configuration setting api_engine_disable_pooling (bool, default=False) to allow disabling connection pooling for API engines. Change is minimal and straightforward - just adds a new Field to the DatabaseSettings class. No issues detected.
src/fides/api/db/ctl_session.py	4/5	Refactored async engine creation to conditionally apply pooling settings based on api_engine_disable_pooling. The logic correctly uses NullPool when disabled, and applies pool_size/max_overflow/pool_pre_ping when enabled. The same settings are applied to both primary and readonly async engines. Refactoring is correct and maintains existing behavior. Note: sync_engine (line 79) still doesn't respect disable_pooling setting, but this appears to be pre-existing behavior per the TODO comment on line 76-78.
src/fides/api/api/deps.py	4/5	Added disable_pooling=CONFIG.database.api_engine_disable_pooling parameter to both get_api_session() and get_readonly_api_session() when calling get_db_engine(). The parameter is correctly passed and properly applied. Both API and readonly sessions now respect the pooling setting. Implementation is correct and consistent.

[greptile-apps]

This PR adds a new configuration setting but is missing a changelog entry. Please create a new file in the changelog/ directory following the pattern described in changelog/README.md. For this PR, create changelog/7208.yaml with the following structure:

type: Added
description: Added configuration setting to disable database connection pooling for API engines
pr: 7208

If this change is high-risk or includes database migrations, also add the corresponding labels to the labels field.

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