Supabase Postgres Best Practices

By SupabaseOfficial sourceAgent skill

Postgres best practices maintained by Supabase, for Postgres running anywhere. Load this skill BEFORE writing or changing anything that lives in a Postgres database: creating or altering tables and columns (including choosing column types), schema design, migrations and declarative schema files, RLS policies and the tests that verify them, indexes, triggers, database functions, queues and scheduled jobs (pg_cron, pgmq), vector/semantic search (pgvector), and restoring dumps (pg_restore) or importing data. Also load it when diagnosing slow queries, high CPU, timeouts, EXPLAIN plans, connection

Infrastructure supabase/agent-skills Source updated Jul 30, 2026Instructions up to dateChecking source version…Library synced Nov 6, 2026

npx skills add supabase/agent-skills --skill supabase-postgres-best-practices

Installs from the source repository, including any supporting files.

Instructions

Supabase Postgres Best Practices

Comprehensive performance optimization guide for Postgres, maintained by Supabase. Contains rules across 8 categories, prioritized by impact to guide automated query optimization and schema design.

When to Apply

Reference these guidelines when:

Writing SQL queries or designing schemas
Implementing indexes or query optimization
Reviewing database performance issues
Configuring connection pooling or scaling
Optimizing for Postgres-specific features
Working with Row-Level Security (RLS)

Rule Categories by Priority

Priority	Category	Impact	Prefix
1	Query Performance	CRITICAL	`query-`
2	Connection Management	CRITICAL	`conn-`
3	Security & RLS	CRITICAL	`security-`
4	Schema Design	HIGH	`schema-`
5	Concurrency & Locking	MEDIUM-HIGH	`lock-`
6	Data Access Patterns	MEDIUM	`data-`
7	Monitoring & Diagnostics	LOW-MEDIUM	`monitor-`
8	Advanced Features	LOW	`advanced-`

How to Use

Read individual rule files for detailed explanations and SQL examples:

references/query-missing-indexes.md
references/query-partial-indexes.md
references/_sections.md

Each rule file contains:

Brief explanation of why it matters
Incorrect SQL example with explanation
Correct SQL example with explanation
Optional EXPLAIN output or metrics
Additional context and references
Supabase-specific notes (when applicable)

References

# Supabase Postgres Best Practices Comprehensive performance optimization guide for Postgres, maintained by Supabase. Contains rules across 8 categories, prioritized by impact to guide automated query optimization and schema design. ## When to Apply Reference these guidelines when: - Writing SQL queries or designing schemas - Implementing indexes or query optimization - Reviewing database performance issues - Configuring connection pooling or scaling - Optimizing for Postgres-specific features - Working with Row-Level Security (RLS) ## Rule Categories by Priority | Priority | Category | Impact | Prefix | |----------|----------|--------|--------| | 1 | Query Performance | CRITICAL | `query-` | | 2 | Connection Management | CRITICAL | `conn-` | | 3 | Security & RLS | CRITICAL | `security-` | | 4 | Schema Design | HIGH | `schema-` | | 5 | Concurrency & Locking | MEDIUM-HIGH | `lock-` | | 6 | Data Access Patterns | MEDIUM | `data-` | | 7 | Monitoring & Diagnostics | LOW-MEDIUM | `monitor-` | | 8 | Advanced Features | LOW | `advanced-` | ## How to Use Read individual rule files for detailed explanations and SQL examples: ``` references/query-missing-indexes.md references/query-partial-indexes.md references/_sections.md ``` Each rule file contains: - Brief explanation of why it matters - Incorrect SQL example with explanation - Correct SQL example with explanation - Optional EXPLAIN output or metrics - Additional context and references - Supabase-specific notes (when applicable) ## References - https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/ - https://supabase.com/docs - https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Performance_Optimization - https://supabase.com/docs/guides/database/overview - https://supabase.com/docs/guides/auth/row-level-security