Use Supabase with Refine

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.

2. Set up your database#

When your Supabase project is up and running, create an instruments table with some sample data. Then set only the privileges each Postgres role needs, add Row Level Security (RLS) for enhanced security for database data by default, and create an RLS policy to make the data in the table publicly readable.

Do these steps within your project's dashboard by copying and running the snippet in your project's SQL Editor.

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-- Create the table
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create table instruments (
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  id bigint primary key generated always as identity,
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  name text not null
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);
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-- Insert sample data into the table
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insert into instruments (name)
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values
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  ('violin'),
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  ('viola'),
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  ('cello');
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-- Grant the privileges the role needs, which is read access
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grant select on public.instruments to anon;
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-- Enable row level security for the table
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alter table instruments enable row level security;
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-- Create a policy to allow the anon role to read from the instruments table
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create policy "public can read instruments"
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on public.instruments
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for select to anon
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using (true);

3. Create a Refine app#

Create a Refine app using the create refine-app.

The refine-supabase preset adds @refinedev/supabase supplementary package that supports Supabase in a Refine app. @refinedev/supabase out-of-the-box includes the Supabase dependency: supabase-js.

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npm create refine-app@latest -- --preset refine-supabase my-app

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printf '\n' | npm create refine-app@latest -- --preset refine-supabase my-app

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. Update supabaseClient with environment variables#

Create a .env file and populate it with your Supabase URL and publishable key, which you can get from the helper below, or from the project Connect panel.

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VITE_SUPABASE_URL=<SUBSTITUTE_SUPABASE_URL>
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VITE_SUPABASE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY=<SUBSTITUTE_SUPABASE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY>

The refine-supabase preset hardcodes Refine's own demo Supabase project in src/providers/constants.ts, and initializes the client from it in src/providers/supabase-client.ts. Replace the hardcoded values so the client reads your project credentials from the environment variables above instead:

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export const SUPABASE_URL = import.meta.env.VITE_SUPABASE_URL
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export const SUPABASE_KEY = import.meta.env.VITE_SUPABASE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY

The supabaseClient is used by the auth and data providers to connect your Refine app to Supabase.

Get API details#

To interact with data in database tables, you use the client libraries that wrap the auto-generated Data API endpoints, authenticating using the Project URL and key from the project Connect dialog.

6. Add instruments resource and pages#

Use the following code to automatically add resources and generate code for the pages to show the instruments data using Refine Inferencer.

This defines pages for list, create, show and edit actions inside the src/pages/instruments/ directory with a <HeadlessInferencer /> component.

The <HeadlessInferencer /> component depends on @refinedev/react-table, @refinedev/react-hook-form, and react-live packages. To avoid errors, install them as dependencies:

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npm install @refinedev/react-table @refinedev/react-hook-form react-live

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npm run refine create-resource instruments

7. Add routes for instruments pages#

Add routes for the list, create, show, and edit pages.

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import { Refine } from '@refinedev/core'
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import { RefineKbar, RefineKbarProvider } from '@refinedev/kbar'
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import routerProvider, {
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  DocumentTitleHandler,
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  NavigateToResource,
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  UnsavedChangesNotifier,
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} from '@refinedev/react-router'
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import { liveProvider } from '@refinedev/supabase'
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import { BrowserRouter, Route, Routes } from 'react-router'
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import './App.css'
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import authProvider from './providers/auth'
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import { dataProvider } from './providers/data'
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import { supabaseClient } from './providers/supabase-client'
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import {
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  InstrumentsCreate,
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  InstrumentsEdit,
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  InstrumentsList,
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  InstrumentsShow,
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} from './pages/instruments'
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function App() {
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  return (
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    <BrowserRouter>
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      <RefineKbarProvider>
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        <Refine
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          dataProvider={dataProvider}
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          liveProvider={liveProvider(supabaseClient)}
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          authProvider={authProvider}
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          routerProvider={routerProvider}
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          options={{
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            syncWithLocation: true,
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            warnWhenUnsavedChanges: true,
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          }}
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          resources={[
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            {
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              name: 'instruments',
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              list: '/instruments',
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              create: '/instruments/create',
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              edit: '/instruments/edit/:id',
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              show: '/instruments/show/:id',
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            },
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          ]}
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        >
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          <Routes>
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            <Route index element={<NavigateToResource resource="instruments" />} />
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            <Route path="/instruments">
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              <Route index element={<InstrumentsList />} />
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              <Route path="create" element={<InstrumentsCreate />} />
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              <Route path="edit/:id" element={<InstrumentsEdit />} />
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              <Route path="show/:id" element={<InstrumentsShow />} />
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            </Route>
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          </Routes>
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          <RefineKbar />
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          <UnsavedChangesNotifier />
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          <DocumentTitleHandler />
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        </Refine>
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      </RefineKbarProvider>
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    </BrowserRouter>
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  )
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}
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export default App

8. Allow writes to the instruments table#

The scaffolded pages create and edit instruments, but the database setup in step 2 grants read access only. Without write privileges and matching policies, the create and edit pages fail with permission denied for table instruments.

Run the following in the SQL Editor to grant the privileges and add the policies:

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grant insert, update, delete on public.instruments to anon;
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create policy "public can insert instruments"
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on public.instruments
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for insert to anon
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with check (true);
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create policy "public can update instruments"
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on public.instruments
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for update to anon
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using (true)
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with check (true);
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create policy "public can delete instruments"
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on public.instruments
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for delete to anon
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using (true);

9. Start the app#

Run the development server, then open /instruments in your browser (Vite defaults to http://localhost:5173). You should see the instruments pages along the /instruments routes. You can edit and add new instruments using the Inferencer-generated UI.

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npm run dev

The Inferencer auto-generated code gives you a good starting point on which to keep building your list, create, show and edit pages. You can get these by clicking the Show the auto-generated code buttons in their respective pages.

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