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Supabase
Open-source backend platform providing PostgreSQL databases, authentication, storage, realtime APIs, and serverless functions.
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Storing OpenAI embeddings in Postgres with pgvector
Post describes how embeddings represent semantic relatedness as vectors and how OpenAI’s text-embedding-ada-002 model produces 1536-dimensional embeddings for text. It addresses storing and searching large or dynamically changing collections that may not fit comfortably in memory, using PostgreSQL and the pgvector extension instead of a small CSV-and-NumPy workflow. The implementation enables the vector extension, creates a documents table with a vector(1536) column, and defines match_documents() with cosine distance, thresholds, counts, and ordering. It also shows JavaScript code for generating embeddings, a search flow that retrieves matching documents for prompt context, and token limiting before a completion request, while noting that documents can be chunked. For larger tables, the post recommends an ivfflat index with vector_cosine_ops and gives 4 * sqrt(table_rows) as a starting point for lists.
Supabase Beta December 2022
Supabase's December 2022 beta update recaps Launch Week 6, Community Day, Postgres ecosystem work, and other recent releases. The announcements include redesigned documentation rebuilt with Next.js; Storage v2 features for image resizing, webhooks, and a Smart CDN; and multi-factor authentication with optional enforcement through Row Level Security. Supabase Wrappers extend PostgreSQL Foreign Data Wrappers to query external databases, systems, and third-party APIs using SQL, while The Vault enters beta for encrypted secrets and stored data. The update also announces custom domains, point-in-time recovery, SSO on the dashboard in preparation for SAML, and ecosystem projects including pg_graphql v1.0, a PostgREST 11 pre-release, and an experimental pg_crdt extension.
Launch Week 6 Hackathon Winners
Supabase announced the winners of its sixth hackathon, held during Launch Week 6 after ending 2022 with many feature releases. Projects were judged across categories including Best Overall, Most Fun/Interesting, Best Flutter, Best Storage, and Best Edge Functions, with Deno participating in judging the edge category. Depulso, a CLI and web app for static site deployments with per-deployment .depulso.site subdomains and SSL, won Best Overall, while Supa SQL App was runner-up for converting human language into SQL queries. Other winners included HTTP Sense, a reverse proxy and network monitoring tool; supaquiz, a realtime multiplayer trivia game; Lookout, a metadata-based image discovery app; and Vista, a video transcoder that adds customizable subtitles from audio. Winners received keyboards or swag, and a Discord event was scheduled for January 5 at 7:00 AM PST.
Custom Domain Names
Supabase is releasing Custom Domains and Vanity Subdomains to give projects a more branded user-facing address. Custom Domains let a project use its own domain, such as api.example.com, instead of an assigned supabase.co hostname; they are generally available as a paid add-on through the Supabase dashboard. Vanity Subdomains let paid-plan projects choose a relevant subdomain on Supabase's domain, such as my-example-brand.supabase.co, at no additional cost, and the feature is launching in closed beta with setup instructions in the documentation. The release currently supports only one custom domain or vanity subdomain per project, while Edge Functions must still be accessed through their existing endpoint because they do not support either feature yet.
Launch Week 6: Wrap Up
Supabase’s Launch Week Day 6 wrap-up consolidates the products and platform changes announced during the event. The roundup announces redesigned Next.js documentation, Storage v2 features for image resizing, webhooks, and a Smart CDN, plus multi-factor authentication usable in Row Level Security policies. It also introduces Wrappers, an Alpha framework for connecting Postgres to external systems, Vault for encrypted secrets, and pg_graphql 1.0 with general availability. Additional releases include dashboard-enabled point-in-time recovery for Pro Projects, custom domains, pg_crdt, PostgreSQL 15 for new projects, a PostgREST 11 pre-release, and the PGroonga multilingual full-text search extension. Community partnerships with Flutterflow and OneSignal provide Flutter app development and push-notification integrations.
What's new in Postgres 15?
PostgreSQL 15, released as a stable version in October 2022, adds security, performance, SQL, replication, logging, compression, and string-processing changes. CREATE permission is revoked from all users except the database owner, views can use caller permissions with security_invoker=on, and sorting is reported up to four times faster for in-memory and on-disk workloads; window functions also improve. The release introduces MERGE, supports two-phase commits and selective data in logical replication, allows conflicting transactions to be skipped or subscriptions disabled, and enables parallel workers for SELECT DISTINCT. It also adds JSON logging, Zstandard and ZL4 compression for WAL and pg_basebackup, and POSIX regexp functions such as regexp_substr() and regexp_count(). The post recommends upgrading for bug fixes and stability, while noting that migrated databases may need manual permission changes and upgrades should be checked for rare manual actions.
pg_graphql v1.0
pg_graphql 1.0 marks the general availability of a PostgreSQL extension that lets databases be queried with GraphQL and formalizes a SemVer-based guarantee against backward-incompatible changes. It was designed for Supabase Free Plan servers with 1 GB of memory, where alternatives such as Hasura and Graphile consumed more memory than the platform could sacrifice. The implementation began with a C parser and SQL transpiler exposed through PostgREST RPC, then moved from SQL to Rust after nested SQL functions, copied state, and JSONB AST processing slowed schema introspection; v0.5.0 completed the rewrite. On Free Plan hardware, version 1.0 adds less than 300 microseconds per request, reaches about 1,060 SQL queries per second per connection, and the full Auth and HTTP stack handles about 645 requests per second, while larger instances exceed 10,000 requests per second.
Point in Time Recovery is now available for Pro projects
Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR) is now available to eligible Pro Plan projects, expanding access beyond Enterprise customers and adding a Dashboard UI for enabling it. Projects created from August 2022 onward can enable PITR except in Northeast Asia / Seoul, and they must use the Small compute add-on; older projects are not yet generally eligible. The system combines daily physical database snapshots with archived Write Ahead Log (WAL) records, using the open-source WAL-G tool; snapshots are uploaded daily and WAL files are archived as transactions occur. WAL files are backed up at two-minute intervals, potentially faster when a file threshold is reached, reducing the recovery point from the up-to-24-hour exposure of daily backups. PITR backups retain up to seven days by default, with self-serve expansion to 28 days, and restoration can target a specified point in time.
PostgREST 11 pre-release
PostgREST 11 is still in pre-release, with the latest features and fixes available through the Supabase CLI rather than Supabase Cloud. The update improves querying related data with spread operators that flatten one-to-one and many-to-one relationships into the response, avoiding an extra view or function for that shape. Related-table ordering is also supported, such as ordering films by technical_specs.duration, with the same relationship limitation. Anti-joins and inner-join behavior can be expressed by filtering related resources with is.null or not.is.null; the latter can also be combined with an or filter and is more flexible than the existing !inner modifier. The release can be tried locally with supabase start, and the post asks users to report bugs, suggestions, and ideas.
Supabase Vault is now in Beta
Supabase Vault is a Postgres extension and accompanying dashboard UI for storing encrypted secrets and encrypting data in database tables, released progressively across the platform and later made available on all Supabase projects. It stores secrets and encryption keys using authenticated encryption on disk, exposes decrypted secrets through a Postgres view, and lets applications use them from SQL in functions, triggers, and webhooks. Its foundation is pgsodium Transparent Column Encryption (TCE), which can encrypt text or bytea values, authenticate associated row columns, and create row-by-row decryption views for encrypted columns. Encryption keys are kept outside the database while only key IDs are stored with encrypted data; Supabase manages root keys in internal backend systems and offers an alternate dashboard endpoint for external decryption, while the post also outlines possible future end-to-end, group, and public-key encryption features.
Supabase Wrappers, a Postgres FDW framework written in Rust
Supabase Wrappers is an Alpha framework for building PostgreSQL Foreign Data Wrappers that connect databases with external systems, including third-party APIs, through SQL. It initially supports Firebase and Stripe, while wrappers for ClickHouse, BigQuery, and Airtable are under development. The framework extends pgx, a Rust Postgres extension framework, with async support for RESTful API-based wrappers and limited push-down support currently provided as a proof of concept. The post presents Wrappers as a basis for QETL, allowing teams to query, extract, transform, and load remote data through Postgres, either on demand or into local tables, while joining it with operational data. It is released outside official platform support, with potential breaking changes.
Multi-factor Authentication via Row Level Security Enforcement
Supabase announces the release of multi-factor authentication (MFA) for everyone and describes dashboard Single Sign-On (SSO) as preparation for a future SAML release; SSO is available on Enterprise plans by contacting the company. The implementation starts with Time-Based One-Time Passwords (TOTP), where an authenticator generates a short-lived code from a shared secret and the current time, exchanged through a QR code or entered manually. Enrollment uses /enroll, /challenge, and /verify, while subsequent sign-ins require a challenge and verification before a JWT is issued with Authenticator Assurance Level (AAL) and Authenticator Method Reference (AMR) claims. Those claims support full or selective enforcement through restrictive Postgres Row Level Security policies, including checks that require aal2 or require it only for users with verified MFA factors; planned additions include WebAuthn, FIDO2 devices, and email notifications.
Supabase Storage v2: Image resizing and Smart CDN
Supabase Storage introduces image resizing, webhooks, and a Smart CDN, positioning them as components of an on-demand image delivery system. Resizing uses imgproxy and supports width, height, and contain, cover, or fill modes through JavaScript clients or direct Storage API requests; images are not enlarged beyond their original dimensions, and aspect ratio is preserved by default. The Smart CDN stores resized results using cache keys based on an Etag, tenant ID, bucket, and image name, while webhook-driven metadata updates propagate invalidations globally within about 60 seconds. Image Resizing is beta for Pro and Enterprise customers, with 100 transformed images per project at no additional cost and $5 per additional 1,000; self-hosting is free.
New Supabase Docs, built with Next.js
Supabase released a new version of its documentation, rebuilding the site with Next.js after outgrowing Docusaurus. The earlier setup became harder to maintain as client-library versioning expanded, contributions grew more difficult, and the docs remained separate from Supabase’s Next.js and Turborepo monorepo. To reduce migration risk, the team first created a one-week Next.js MVP that copied Docusaurus, then spent a month developing the new release with two full-time developers. It introduces a new design, a single sidebar for broader discoverability, and reference pages that group all functions in a library while improving TypeDoc-based generation. Future work described includes unified authentication, project-specific documentation, runnable Postgres WASM examples, interactive tutorials, improved Postgres full-text search, and balancing sparse and overly verbose content.
pg_crdt - an experimental CRDT extension for Postgres
Supabase announces pg_crdt, an experimental Postgres extension that adds CRDT support as a data type for collaborative and offline-oriented applications. It frames CRDTs as structures whose updates can be merged in any order to reach the same final state, avoiding the last-write-wins behavior of ordinary arrays. A content column can use crdt.ydoc, backed by Yjs, while the extension also supports Automerge through Rust libraries wrapped with pgx. The post contrasts storing CRDTs directly in Postgres with making Realtime an authoritative server, favoring the database-centered approach for simpler architecture and broader tooling, while noting that the decision is unsettled and pg_crdt is not released on the Supabase platform. Known limitations include full-document WAL broadcasts, increased WAL and dead tuples for frequently updated documents, and serialization overhead for large CRDT values.
Launch Week 6 Hackathon
Supabase announces its official Launch Week 6 Hackathon, which starts at 8:00am Pacific Time on Friday 9th December 2022 and ends at 00:01am PT on Monday 19th December. The event gives individuals or teams of up to five people ten days to create a new Open Source project using Supabase. Entries may be projects, apps, tools, or libraries in any language or framework, but all design elements and code must be created during the event and each team may submit once. Five categories offer winner and runner-up prizes, including $1500 in GitHub sponsorships paid as three monthly $500 sponsorships for the best overall project, plus Supabase keyboards for its team members. Supabase judges the main categories, while Deno judges Best Edge Functions Project; judging considers creativity, smooth functionality, visual appeal, technical impressiveness, and use of Supabase features.
Who We Hire at Supabase
Supabase describes the hiring traits and operating model it believes support its growth, arguing that people matter more than methodology. It looks for extreme asynchronous effectiveness, egoless execution, continuous incremental improvement, a bias toward immediate action, ambitious problem-solving, and a founder mindset; seniority does not exempt anyone from independent-contributor work, self-management, or maintenance. The 60-person team spans 25 countries, uses meetings as a last resort, and gives autonomous product teams access to shared metrics, user feedback, and equity through an ESOP. Teams are organised around products such as Postgres, Auth, Storage, Realtime, and Functions, while cross-cutting groups consult rather than merely receive delegated tasks. Three-month product cycles set ambitious goals, and Kaizen Weeks focused on QA, documentation, and performance help address technical debt and incorporate improvements into ongoing workflows.
Supabase Beta November 2022
Supabase’s November 2022 update previews Launch Week 6 while reporting a smaller set of product releases and community activity. Remix Auth Helpers are now available for server-side authentication, updated for supabase-js V2 and usable with TypeScript; the post also introduces the Edgy Edge Functions YouTube series and three examples covering OG image generation, Oak API servers, and Puppeteer screenshots. Product fixes address auth.signOut cookies and session removal, magic links can be customized with {{ .TokenHash }}, functions support redirects, and Supabase can be installed through Conda. The update also announces a Fireship course building a Reddit-inspired app with Supabase, PostgreSQL, and React, alongside a broad list of community resources and projects.
The Supabase Content Storm
The post announces Supabase’s Content Storm, a community campaign created to promote Launch Week 6 through a coordinated release of external content. Supabase invited well-known YouTubers, community members, makers, the SupaSquad, and others building with Supabase to publish related material on the same day, while giving participants an opportunity to build personal brands or promote products and startups. More than 30 creators took part, producing videos, livestreams, tutorials, project write-ups, and a Twitter thread covering topics such as authentication, migrations, Edge Functions, Storage, GraphQL, Flutter, Rust, and TypeScript integrations. The content was published on Tuesday, December 6, and the post provides a complete list of works and authors while directing readers to bookmark the collection, give feedback, and follow contributors.
SQL or NoSQL? Why not use both (with PostgreSQL)?
The post compares SQL and NoSQL storage for an application that records daily food, water, exercise, weight, and notes, focusing on the tension between easy document writes and later analysis. It proposes using PostgreSQL as a hybrid: keep core fields such as date, user_id, weight, and notes in relational columns, while storing food_log, water_log, and exercise_log as JSONB fields. For analysis, PostgreSQL's jsonb_array_elements expands arrays into rows; ->> extracts text, -> returns JSON, and numeric values such as calories must be cast to INTEGER before aggregation, with a common table expression used to work around the restriction on set-returning functions inside aggregate calls. The examples show daily calorie totals and a search for garlic bread returning 200 calories, supporting the conclusion that JSONB can simplify storage while SQL preserves querying and analysis capabilities.
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