I have a password for a remote PostgreSQL server that I cannot change. This password contains hashtags (#). From searching, I know that this can be a problem.

I can connect to the server from the command line: psql -h host -U username -d dbname -p 5432 (and then manually entering the ##pw##). I can connect to it with pgAdmin, with VSCode, and so on.

I cannot manage to connect to the server with node-postgres, whichever of the following connection methods I attempt, I get two types of errors:

// Error 1
// error: no pg_hba.conf entry for host "IP", user "username", database "dbname", no encryption
//     at C:\repos\perfo\node_modules\pg-pool\index.js:45:11
//     at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:105:5)  
//     at async C:\repos\perfo\server.js:118:24 {
//   length: 160,
//   severity: 'FATAL',
//   code: '28000',
//   detail: undefined,
//   hint: undefined,
//   position: undefined,
//   internalPosition: undefined,
//   internalQuery: undefined,
//   where: undefined,
//   schema: undefined,
//   table: undefined,
//   column: undefined,
//   dataType: undefined,
//   constraint: undefined,
//   file: 'auth.c',
//   line: '646',
//   routine: 'ClientAuthentication'
// }

// Error 2
//TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'searchParams')
    // at parse (C:\repos\perfo\node_modules\pg-connection-string\index.js:39:30)      
    // at new ConnectionParameters (C:\repos\perfo\node_modules\pg\lib\connection-parameters.js:56:42)
    // at new Client (C:\repos\perfo\node_modules\pg\lib\client.js:18:33)
    // at BoundPool.newClient (C:\repos\perfo\node_modules\pg-pool\index.js:233:20)    
    // at BoundPool.connect (C:\repos\perfo\node_modules\pg-pool\index.js:227:10)      
    // at BoundPool.query (C:\repos\perfo\node_modules\pg-pool\index.js:411:10)        
    // at C:\repos\perfo\server.js:117:35
    // at Layer.handleRequest (C:\repos\perfo\node_modules\router\lib\layer.js:152:17) 
    // at next (C:\repos\perfo\node_modules\router\lib\route.js:157:13)
    // at Route.dispatch (C:\repos\perfo\node_modules\router\lib\route.js:117:3) 

Here is what I tried:

// #1
const pool = new Pool({connectionString: 'postgresql://username:##pw##@host:5432/dbname'})
// #2 - replacing hashtag with '%23'
const pool = new Pool({connectionString: 'postgresql://username:%23%23pw%23%23@host:5432/dbname'})

I have tried setting the password in a variable and then adding it to the connectionString and also tried encoding it.
// #3
var pw = "##pw##"
const pool = new Pool({connectionString: `postgresql://username:${pw}@host:5432/dbname`})
// or
const pool = new Pool({connectionString: "postgresql://username:"+pw+"@host:5432/dbname"})

// #4
var pw = encodeURIComponent('##pw##')
const pool = new Pool({connectionString: `postgresql://username:${pw}@host:5432/dbname`})
// or
const pool = new Pool({connectionString: "postgresql://username:"+pw+"@host:5432/dbname"})

Tried encoding the whole connection string:
// #5
var connstring = encodeURIComponent("postgres://username:##pw##@host:5432/dbname")
const pool = new Pool({connectionString: connstring})
// here I get Error: getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND base

Also tried to set the config not in a connection string:
// #6
const pool = new Pool({
    user: 'username',
    password: '##pw##', // or '%23%23pw%23%23' or encodeURIComponent('##pw##'),
    host: 'host',
    port: '5432',
    database: 'dbname'
})

// or
var config = {
    user: 'username',
    password: '##pw##', // or '%23%23pw%23%23' or encodeURIComponent('##pw##'),
    host: 'host',
    port: '5432',
    database: 'dbname'
}
const pool = new Pool(config)

Any idea on what I'm doing wrong?

Thank you!