Use Supabase with RedwoodJS

1. Create a Supabase project#

To start, you need a Supabase project.

Create a new Supabase project from the Dashboard of any organization you belong to.

Save your database password securely. You need it for the connection string.

2. Gather database connection strings#

Open the project Connect panel. This quickstart connects using the Transaction pooler and Session pooler mode. Transaction mode is used for application queries and Session mode is used for running migrations with Prisma.

To do this, set the connection mode to Transaction in the Database Settings page and copy the connection string and append ?pgbouncer=true&connection_limit=1. pgbouncer=true disables Prisma from generating prepared statements. This is required since our connection pooler does not support prepared statements in transaction mode yet. The connection_limit=1 parameter is only required if you are using Prisma from a serverless environment. This is the Transaction mode connection string.

To get the Session mode connection pooler string, change the port of the connection string from the dashboard to 5432.

You will need the Transaction mode connection string and the Session mode connection string to set up environment variables in Step 5.

3. Create a RedwoodJS app#

Create a RedwoodJS app with TypeScript.

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yarn create redwood-app my-app --ts --git-init false

4. Set up AI tooling (optional)#

Supabase provides two ways to give AI tools context about your project: Agent Skills, which give your AI coding agent procedural knowledge, and the MCP server, which connects AI assistants to your Supabase project directly.

Agent Skills#

Agent Skills is a curated set of instructions that give your AI agent procedural knowledge about working with Supabase.

Install them so your AI coding agent can produce more accurate, reliable code using current Supabase patterns, such as authentication, server-side rendering, and database migrations, rather than relying solely on training data.

Installing Agent Skills#

To install, run the following command in the root of your project:

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npx skills add supabase/agent-skills

Supabase MCP server#

The Supabase MCP server connects AI assistants to Supabase, so they can inspect your schema and act on your projects on your behalf. Find out how to add it to your client in the MCP docs.

5. Configure environment variables#

In your .env file, add the following environment variables for your database connection:

• The DATABASE_URL should use the Transaction mode connection string you copied in Step 2.

• The DIRECT_URL should use the Session mode connection string you copied in Step 2.

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# Transaction mode connection string for Prisma Client app queries
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DATABASE_URL="postgres://postgres.[PROJECT-REF]:[YOUR-PASSWORD]@[POOLER-HOST]:6543/postgres?pgbouncer=true&connection_limit=1"
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# Session mode connection string for Prisma Migrate
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DIRECT_URL="postgres://postgres.[PROJECT-REF]:[YOUR-PASSWORD]@[POOLER-HOST]:5432/postgres"

6. Update your Prisma schema#

By default, RedwoodJS ships with a SQLite database, but we want to use Postgres.

Update your Prisma schema file api/db/schema.prisma to use your Supabase Postgres database connection environment variables you set up in Step 5.

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datasource db {
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  provider  = "postgresql"
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  url       = env("DATABASE_URL")
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  directUrl = env("DIRECT_URL")
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}

7. Create the instrument model and apply a schema migration#

Create the Instrument model in api/db/schema.prisma and then run yarn rw prisma migrate dev from your terminal to apply the migration.

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model Instrument {
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  id   Int    @id @default(autoincrement())
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  name String @unique
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}

8. Update seed script#

Seed the database with a few instruments.

Update the file scripts/seed.ts to contain the following code:

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import type { Prisma } from '@prisma/client'
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import { db } from 'api/src/lib/db'
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export default async () => {
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  try {
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    const data: Prisma.InstrumentCreateArgs['data'][] = [
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      { name: 'dulcimer' },
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      { name: 'harp' },
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      { name: 'guitar' },
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    ]
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    console.log('Seeding instruments ...')
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    const instruments = await db.instrument.createMany({ data })
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    console.log('Done.', instruments)
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  } catch (error) {
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    console.error(error)
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  }
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}

9. Seed your database#

Run the seed database command to populate the Instrument table with the instruments you created.

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yarn rw prisma db seed

10. Scaffold the instrument UI#

Use RedwoodJS generators to scaffold a CRUD UI for the Instrument model.

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yarn rw g scaffold instrument

11. Start the app#

Start the app via yarn rw dev. A browser will open to the RedwoodJS Splash page.

12. View instruments UI#

Click on /instruments to visit http://localhost:8910/instruments where should see the list of instruments.

You may now edit, delete, and add new instruments using the scaffolded UI.

Production requirements#

The quickstart procedure in this guide optimizes for getting you to a working app, not for production.

Before you deploy:

• If your app reads or writes through the Data API, review your Row Level Security policies. Any policy you added here is scoped to this quickstart's sample data, not to real user data.
• Set your Supabase credentials as environment variables on whatever platform you deploy to, rather than committing them to source control.
• Configure a custom domain for your Supabase project once you're ready to go live.

Next steps#

• Set up Auth for your app
• Insert more data into your database
• Upload and serve static files using Storage