diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..da95e4f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CLAUDE.md
@@ -0,0 +1,110 @@
+# CLAUDE.md
+
+This file provides guidance to Claude Code (claude.ai/code) when working with code in this repository.
+
+## Development Commands
+
+**Testing:**
+```bash
+# Run all tests
+pytest -vv --cov=hasql --cov-report=term-missing --doctest-modules --aiomisc-test-timeout=30 tests
+
+# Run specific test file
+pytest -vv tests/test_utils.py
+
+# Run specific test
+pytest -vv tests/test_utils.py::test_parse_connection_string_basic
+
+# Run tests with specific pattern
+pytest -vv tests/test_utils.py -k "connection_string"
+
+# Run tests using tox (preferred)
+tox -e py39  # Python 3.9
+tox -e py310 # Python 3.10
+tox -e py311 # Python 3.11
+```
+
+**Linting and Type Checking:**
+```bash
+# Lint code
+pylama -o pylama.ini hasql tests
+
+# Type checking
+mypy --install-types --non-interactive hasql tests
+
+# Using tox (preferred)
+tox -e lint
+tox -e mypy
+```
+
+**Package Installation:**
+```bash
+# Install development dependencies
+pip install -e ".[develop]"
+
+# Install specific extras
+pip install -e ".[aiopg]"      # aiopg support
+pip install -e ".[asyncpg]"    # asyncpg support
+pip install -e ".[psycopg]"    # psycopg3 support
+```
+
+## Architecture Overview
+
+**hasql** is a high-availability PostgreSQL connection management library that provides automatic master/replica detection and load balancing across multiple database hosts.
+
+### Core Components
+
+1. **BasePoolManager** (`hasql/base.py`) - Abstract base class that defines the core pooling interface and connection management logic
+
+2. **Driver-Specific Pool Managers:**
+   - `hasql.aiopg.PoolManager` - aiopg driver support
+   - `hasql.asyncpg.PoolManager` - asyncpg driver support
+   - `hasql.psycopg3.PoolManager` - psycopg3 driver support
+   - `hasql.asyncsqlalchemy.PoolManager` - SQLAlchemy async support
+   - `hasql.aiopg_sa.PoolManager` - aiopg with SQLAlchemy support
+
+3. **Balancer Policies** (`hasql/balancer_policy/`) - Load balancing strategies:
+   - `GreedyBalancerPolicy` - Chooses pool with most free connections
+   - `RandomWeightedBalancerPolicy` - Weighted random selection based on response times
+   - `RoundRobinBalancerPolicy` - Round-robin selection
+
+4. **Connection String Parsing** (`hasql/utils.py`) - Handles multi-host PostgreSQL connection strings with support for:
+   - Comma-separated hosts: `postgresql://db1,db2,db3/dbname`
+   - Per-host ports: `postgresql://db1:1234,db2:5678/dbname`
+   - Global port override: `postgresql://db1,db2:6432/dbname`
+   - libpq-style connection strings
+
+5. **Metrics and Monitoring** (`hasql/metrics.py`) - Connection and performance metrics collection
+
+### Key Features
+
+- **Automatic Role Detection:** Continuously monitors each host to determine if it's a master or replica
+- **Health Monitoring:** Background tasks check host availability and automatically exclude unhealthy hosts
+- **Load Balancing:** Multiple policies for distributing connections across healthy replicas
+- **Failover Support:** Automatic fallback to master when replicas are unavailable
+- **Multi-Driver Support:** Works with asyncpg, aiopg, psycopg3, and SQLAlchemy
+
+### Connection Flow
+
+1. Parse multi-host DSN string into individual host connections
+2. Create connection pools for each host with reserved system connections
+3. Background tasks continuously check each host's role (master/replica) and health
+4. When acquiring connections, balancer selects appropriate pool based on read_only flag
+5. Connections are automatically returned to their respective pools when released
+
+### Testing Strategy
+
+- Uses pytest with aiomisc test framework
+- Mocks database connections for unit testing (`tests/mocks/`)
+- Integration tests for each driver implementation
+- Coverage reporting with pytest-cov
+- Tests are organized by driver type and functionality
+
+## Important Notes
+
+- The codebase uses Python 3.8+ with async/await throughout
+- All pool managers extend the abstract `BasePoolManager` class
+- Connection strings support both single and multi-host PostgreSQL URLs
+- Background health checking runs every `refresh_delay` seconds (default: 1s)
+- System reserves one connection per pool for health monitoring
+- The library automatically detects PostgreSQL role changes with slight delay
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/hasql/asyncsqlalchemy.py b/hasql/asyncsqlalchemy.py
index 1d117d4..7b5e281 100644
--- a/hasql/asyncsqlalchemy.py
+++ b/hasql/asyncsqlalchemy.py
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 
 class PoolManager(BasePoolManager):
     def get_pool_freesize(self, pool: AsyncEngine):
-        queue_pool: QueuePool = pool.sync_engine.pool  # type: ignore
+        queue_pool: QueuePool = pool.sync_engine.pool
         return queue_pool.size() - queue_pool.checkedout()
 
     def acquire_from_pool(self, pool: AsyncEngine, **kwargs):
diff --git a/hasql/utils.py b/hasql/utils.py
index 7ace79a..491fc15 100644
--- a/hasql/utils.py
+++ b/hasql/utils.py
@@ -50,28 +50,119 @@ def __init__(
 
     @classmethod
     def parse(cls, dsn: str) -> "Dsn":
+        # First try URL format
         match = cls.URL_EXP.match(dsn)
 
-        if match is None:
-            raise ValueError("Bad DSN")
-
-        groupdict = match.groupdict()
-        scheme = groupdict["scheme"]
-        user = groupdict.get("user")
-        password = groupdict.get("password")
-        netloc: str = groupdict["netloc"]
-        dbname = (groupdict.get("path") or "").lstrip("/")
-        query = groupdict.get("query") or ""
+        if match is not None:
+            # URL format parsing
+            groupdict = match.groupdict()
+            scheme = groupdict["scheme"]
+            user = groupdict.get("user")
+            password = groupdict.get("password")
+            netloc: str = groupdict["netloc"]
+            dbname = (groupdict.get("path") or "").lstrip("/")
+            query = groupdict.get("query") or ""
+
+            params = {}
+            for item in query.split("&"):
+                if not item:
+                    continue
+                key, value = item.split("=", 1)
+                params[key] = unquote(value)
+
+            return cls(
+                scheme=scheme,
+                netloc=netloc,
+                user=user,
+                password=password,
+                dbname=dbname,
+                **params
+            )
+
+        # Try connection string format:
+        # 'host=localhost,localhost port=5432,5432 dbname=mydb'
+        return cls._parse_connection_string(dsn)
 
+    @classmethod
+    def _parse_connection_string_params(cls, conn_str: str) -> Dict[str, str]:
+        """Parse key=value pairs from connection string."""
         params = {}
-        for item in query.split("&"):
-            if not item:
-                continue
-            key, value = item.split("=", 1)
-            params[key] = unquote(value)
+        current_key = None
+        current_value = ""
+        in_quotes = False
+        quote_char = None
+
+        i = 0
+        while i < len(conn_str):
+            char = conn_str[i]
+
+            if not in_quotes:
+                if char in ("'", '"'):
+                    in_quotes = True
+                    quote_char = char
+                elif char == '=' and current_key is None:
+                    # Found key=value separator
+                    current_key = current_value.strip()
+                    current_value = ""
+                elif char.isspace() and current_key is not None:
+                    # End of value
+                    params[current_key] = current_value.strip()
+                    current_key = None
+                    current_value = ""
+                else:
+                    current_value += char
+            else:
+                if char == quote_char:
+                    in_quotes = False
+                    quote_char = None
+                else:
+                    current_value += char
+
+            i += 1
+
+        # Handle final key=value pair
+        if current_key is not None:
+            params[current_key] = current_value.strip()
+
+        return params
+
+    @classmethod
+    def _build_netloc(cls, hosts: str, ports: str) -> str:
+        """Build netloc from comma-separated hosts and ports."""
+        host_list = [h.strip() for h in hosts.split(',')]
+        port_list = [p.strip() for p in ports.split(',')]
+
+        # If single port, use it for all hosts
+        if len(port_list) == 1 and len(host_list) > 1:
+            port_list = port_list * len(host_list)
+        # If single host, use it for all ports
+        elif len(host_list) == 1 and len(port_list) > 1:
+            host_list = host_list * len(port_list)
+
+        # Build netloc (use first host:port for the main DSN)
+        if len(host_list) > 0 and len(port_list) > 0:
+            return ','.join(
+                f"{host}:{port}" for host, port in zip(host_list, port_list)
+            )
+        else:
+            return 'localhost:5432'
+
+    @classmethod
+    def _parse_connection_string(cls, conn_str: str) -> "Dsn":
+        """Parse libpq-style connection string format."""
+        params = cls._parse_connection_string_params(conn_str)
+
+        # Extract standard connection parameters
+        hosts = params.pop('host', 'localhost')
+        ports = params.pop('port', '5432')
+        user = params.pop('user', None)
+        password = params.pop('password', None)
+        dbname = params.pop('dbname', None)
+
+        netloc = cls._build_netloc(hosts, ports)
 
         return cls(
-            scheme=scheme,
+            scheme="postgresql",
             netloc=netloc,
             user=user,
             password=password,
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index 1763623..d07007e 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -15,3 +15,6 @@ warn_unused_ignores = True
 
 [mypy-tests.*]
 ignore_errors = True
+
+[mypy-sqlalchemy.*]
+ignore_missing_imports = True
diff --git a/tests/test_utils.py b/tests/test_utils.py
index ebc8605..90eeeff 100644
--- a/tests/test_utils.py
+++ b/tests/test_utils.py
@@ -253,3 +253,83 @@ def test_ipv6_host_in_dsn():
     )
     result_dsn, *_ = split_dsn(dsn)
     assert str(result_dsn) == dsn
+
+
+# Connection string format tests
+def test_parse_connection_string_basic():
+    """Test basic connection string parsing."""
+    conn_str = "host=localhost port=5432 dbname=mydb user=testuser"
+    dsn = Dsn.parse(conn_str)
+    assert dsn.netloc == "localhost:5432"
+    assert dsn.user == "testuser"
+    assert dsn.dbname == "mydb"
+    assert dsn.scheme == "postgresql"
+
+
+def test_parse_connection_string_multiple_hosts():
+    """Test connection string with comma-separated hosts."""
+    conn_str = "host=localhost,replica port=5432,5433 dbname=mydb"
+    dsn = Dsn.parse(conn_str)
+    assert dsn.netloc == "localhost:5432,replica:5433"
+    assert dsn.dbname == "mydb"
+
+
+def test_parse_connection_string_single_port_multiple_hosts():
+    """Test connection string with single port for multiple hosts."""
+    conn_str = "host=localhost,replica port=5432 dbname=mydb"
+    dsn = Dsn.parse(conn_str)
+    assert dsn.netloc == "localhost:5432,replica:5432"
+
+
+def test_parse_connection_string_with_password():
+    """Test connection string with password."""
+    conn_str = (
+        "host=localhost port=5432 dbname=mydb user=testuser password=secret"
+    )
+    dsn = Dsn.parse(conn_str)
+    assert dsn.user == "testuser"
+    assert dsn.password == "secret"
+
+
+def test_parse_connection_string_with_extra_params():
+    """Test connection string with additional parameters."""
+    conn_str = (
+        "host=localhost port=5432 dbname=mydb "
+        "connect_timeout=10 sslmode=require"
+    )
+    dsn = Dsn.parse(conn_str)
+    assert dsn.params["connect_timeout"] == "10"
+    assert dsn.params["sslmode"] == "require"
+
+
+def test_parse_connection_string_quoted_values():
+    """Test connection string with quoted values."""
+    conn_str = "host=localhost port=5432 dbname='my database' user='test user'"
+    dsn = Dsn.parse(conn_str)
+    assert dsn.dbname == "my database"
+    assert dsn.user == "test user"
+
+
+def test_split_dsn_from_connection_string():
+    """Test that split_dsn works with connection string format."""
+    conn_str = "host=localhost,replica port=5432,5433 dbname=mydb user=testuser"
+    dsns = split_dsn(conn_str)
+    assert len(dsns) == 2
+    assert str(dsns[0]) == "postgresql://testuser@localhost:5432/mydb"
+    assert str(dsns[1]) == "postgresql://testuser@replica:5433/mydb"
+
+
+def test_connection_string_example_format():
+    """Test the exact example format from the user request."""
+    conn_str = (
+        "host=localhost,localhost port=5432,5432 dbname=mydb connect_timeout=10"
+    )
+    dsn = Dsn.parse(conn_str)
+    assert dsn.netloc == "localhost:5432,localhost:5432"
+    assert dsn.dbname == "mydb"
+    assert dsn.params["connect_timeout"] == "10"
+
+    # Test that split_dsn handles duplicates correctly
+    dsns = split_dsn(conn_str)
+    assert len(dsns) == 1  # Should deduplicate identical host:port pairs
+    assert str(dsns[0]) == "postgresql://localhost:5432/mydb?connect_timeout=10"