Configuration

This guide covers all configuration options for self-hosted Supabase, from environment variables to service-specific settings.

Environment Variables

All configuration is managed through the .env file in the docker directory.

Core Secrets

Never use default values in production! Generate unique, strong secrets for each installation.

.env

# PostgreSQL root password
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=your-super-secret-and-long-postgres-password

# JWT secret (min 32 characters)
JWT_SECRET=your-super-secret-jwt-token-with-at-least-32-characters-long

# Dashboard authentication
DASHBOARD_USERNAME=supabase
DASHBOARD_PASSWORD=this_password_is_insecure_and_should_be_updated

Generating Secrets

Use the provided utility script:

# Generate all keys automatically
sh ./utils/generate-keys.sh

Or generate manually:

# Random password (32 characters)
openssl rand -base64 32

# JWT secret (64 characters)
openssl rand -base64 64 | tr -d '\n'

# Hex key (32 bytes)
openssl rand -hex 32

API Keys

JWT-based API keys for client authentication:

# Anonymous (public) key - safe to expose in client apps
ANON_KEY=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJyb2xlIjoiYW5vbiIsImlhdCI6MTY0MTc2OTIwMCwiZXhwIjoxNzk5NTM1NjAwfQ.dc_X5iR_VP_qT0zsiyj_I_OZ2T9FtRU2BBNWN8Bu4GE

# Service role (admin) key - NEVER expose in client apps
SERVICE_ROLE_KEY=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJyb2xlIjoic2VydmljZV9yb2xlIiwiaWF0IjoxNjQxNzY5MjAwLCJleHAiOjE3OTk1MzU2MDB9.DaYlNEoUrrEn2Ig7tqibS-PHK5vgusbcbo7X36XVt4Q

Generate new keys using the JWT tool with your custom JWT_SECRET.

URLs and Networking

# Public URL for API endpoints (change for production)
SUPABASE_PUBLIC_URL=http://localhost:8000

# External URL for OAuth callbacks
API_EXTERNAL_URL=http://localhost:8000

# Your application's URL
SITE_URL=http://localhost:3000

# Additional redirect URLs (comma-separated)
ADDITIONAL_REDIRECT_URLS=https://app.yourdomain.com,https://staging.yourdomain.com

For production, use your actual domain: https://api.yourdomain.com

Database Configuration

# Database connection
POSTGRES_HOST=db
POSTGRES_DB=postgres
POSTGRES_PORT=5432

# Default database schemas exposed via API
PGRST_DB_SCHEMAS=public,storage,graphql_public

Connection Pooling (Supavisor)

# Transaction mode port
POOLER_PROXY_PORT_TRANSACTION=6543

# Pool configuration
POOLER_DEFAULT_POOL_SIZE=20
POOLER_MAX_CLIENT_CONN=100

# Unique tenant ID
POOLER_TENANT_ID=your-tenant-id

# Internal pool size
POOLER_DB_POOL_SIZE=5

Authentication Settings

# JWT configuration
JWT_EXPIRY=3600  # 1 hour in seconds

# Email authentication
ENABLE_EMAIL_SIGNUP=true
ENABLE_EMAIL_AUTOCONFIRM=false  # Set true for development

# Phone authentication
ENABLE_PHONE_SIGNUP=false
ENABLE_PHONE_AUTOCONFIRM=false

# Anonymous users
ENABLE_ANONYMOUS_USERS=false

# Disable all signups (login only)
DISABLE_SIGNUP=false

SMTP Configuration

Configure email sending for auth emails:

# SMTP server details
SMTP_ADMIN_EMAIL=admin@yourdomain.com
SMTP_HOST=smtp.sendgrid.net
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_USER=apikey
SMTP_PASS=your-sendgrid-api-key
SMTP_SENDER_NAME=Your App Name

# Email templates
MAILER_URLPATHS_INVITE=/auth/v1/verify
MAILER_URLPATHS_CONFIRMATION=/auth/v1/verify
MAILER_URLPATHS_RECOVERY=/auth/v1/verify
MAILER_URLPATHS_EMAIL_CHANGE=/auth/v1/verify

SendGrid
AWS SES
Mailgun
Gmail

SMTP_HOST=smtp.sendgrid.net
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_USER=apikey
SMTP_PASS=SG.your_sendgrid_api_key

SMTP_HOST=email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_USER=your_ses_smtp_username
SMTP_PASS=your_ses_smtp_password

SMTP_HOST=smtp.mailgun.org
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_USER=postmaster@yourdomain.com
SMTP_PASS=your_mailgun_password

SMTP_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_USER=your-email@gmail.com
SMTP_PASS=your_app_specific_password

Gmail requires App Password, not your regular password.

OAuth Providers

Enable third-party authentication:

# Google OAuth
GOOGLE_ENABLED=true
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=your-google-client-id.apps.googleusercontent.com
GOOGLE_SECRET=your-google-client-secret

# GitHub OAuth
GITHUB_ENABLED=true
GITHUB_CLIENT_ID=your-github-client-id
GITHUB_SECRET=your-github-client-secret

# Azure OAuth
AZURE_ENABLED=true
AZURE_CLIENT_ID=your-azure-client-id
AZURE_SECRET=your-azure-client-secret

Uncomment the corresponding sections in docker-compose.yml:

auth:
  environment:
    GOTRUE_EXTERNAL_GOOGLE_ENABLED: ${GOOGLE_ENABLED}
    GOTRUE_EXTERNAL_GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID: ${GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID}
    GOTRUE_EXTERNAL_GOOGLE_SECRET: ${GOOGLE_SECRET}
    GOTRUE_EXTERNAL_GOOGLE_REDIRECT_URI: ${API_EXTERNAL_URL}/auth/v1/callback

Storage Configuration

Local File Storage:

STORAGE_BACKEND=file
GLOBAL_S3_BUCKET=supabase-storage
FILE_STORAGE_BACKEND_PATH=/var/lib/storage

S3-Compatible Storage:

STORAGE_BACKEND=s3
GLOBAL_S3_BUCKET=your-bucket-name
GLOBAL_S3_ENDPOINT=https://s3.amazonaws.com
GLOBAL_S3_REGION=us-east-1
GLOBAL_S3_PROTOCOL=https
GLOBAL_S3_FORCE_PATH_STYLE=false

AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=your-access-key
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=your-secret-key

S3 Protocol Access:

# Enable S3-compatible API access
S3_PROTOCOL_ACCESS_KEY_ID=your-access-key-id
S3_PROTOCOL_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET=your-secret-access-key

Image Transformations

# Enable image processing
ENABLE_IMAGE_TRANSFORMATION=true
IMGPROXY_ENABLE_WEBP_DETECTION=true

Analytics & Logging

# Logflare API tokens
LOGFLARE_PUBLIC_ACCESS_TOKEN=your-super-secret-and-long-logflare-key-public
LOGFLARE_PRIVATE_ACCESS_TOKEN=your-super-secret-and-long-logflare-key-private

# Analytics backend (postgres or bigquery)
NEXT_ANALYTICS_BACKEND_PROVIDER=postgres

Edge Functions

# JWT verification for function invocations
FUNCTIONS_VERIFY_JWT=true

Advanced Settings

# Realtime configuration
REGION=local
SECRET_KEY_BASE=UpNVntn3cDxHJpq99YMc1T1AQgQpc8kfYTuRgBiYa15BLrx8etQoXz3gZv1/u2oq

# Supavisor encryption
VAULT_ENC_KEY=your-32-character-encryption-key

# Studio encryption
PG_META_CRYPTO_KEY=your-encryption-key-32-chars-min

# Studio defaults
STUDIO_DEFAULT_ORGANIZATION=Default Organization
STUDIO_DEFAULT_PROJECT=Default Project

# OpenAI integration (optional)
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-your-openai-key

Service-Specific Configuration

PostgreSQL

Customize Postgres settings in volumes/db/postgresql.conf:

# Memory settings
shared_buffers = 256MB
effective_cache_size = 1GB
work_mem = 4MB
maintenance_work_mem = 64MB

# Connection settings
max_connections = 200

# WAL settings for replication
wal_level = logical
max_wal_senders = 10
max_replication_slots = 10

Restart database to apply:

docker compose restart db

Kong API Gateway

Edit volumes/api/kong.yml to customize routes and plugins:

services:
  - name: auth-v1-open
    url: http://auth:9999/verify
    routes:
      - name: auth-v1-open
        strip_path: true
        paths:
          - /auth/v1/verify
    plugins:
      - name: cors

Restart Kong:

docker compose restart kong

Vector Logging

Configure log pipeline in volumes/logs/vector.yml:

sources:
  docker_logs:
    type: docker_logs
    
sinks:
  postgres:
    type: postgresql
    inputs:
      - docker_logs
    endpoint: postgresql://supabase_admin:${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}@db:5432/_supabase

Database Backups

Manual Backup

# Dump entire database
docker exec supabase-db pg_dump -U postgres postgres > backup.sql

# Dump specific schema
docker exec supabase-db pg_dump -U postgres -n public postgres > public_schema.sql

# Dump only data
docker exec supabase-db pg_dump -U postgres --data-only postgres > data.sql

Automated Backups

Create a backup script:

backup.sh

#!/bin/bash
BACKUP_DIR="/backups"
DATESTAMP=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)
FILENAME="supabase_backup_${DATESTAMP}.sql.gz"

# Create backup
docker exec supabase-db pg_dump -U postgres postgres | gzip > "${BACKUP_DIR}/${FILENAME}"

# Keep only last 7 days
find ${BACKUP_DIR} -name "supabase_backup_*.sql.gz" -mtime +7 -delete

echo "Backup completed: ${FILENAME}"

Schedule with cron:

# Edit crontab
crontab -e

# Daily backup at 2 AM
0 2 * * * /path/to/backup.sh

Restore from Backup

# Stop services
docker compose stop

# Restore database
gunzip -c backup.sql.gz | docker exec -i supabase-db psql -U postgres postgres

# Restart services
docker compose start

Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR)

Enable WAL archiving for PITR:

Configure WAL Archiving

Add to volumes/db/postgresql.conf:

wal_level = replica
archive_mode = on
archive_command = 'test ! -f /var/lib/postgresql/wal_archive/%f && cp %p /var/lib/postgresql/wal_archive/%f'

Create Archive Directory

mkdir -p volumes/db/wal_archive
chmod 700 volumes/db/wal_archive

Take Base Backup

docker exec supabase-db pg_basebackup -U postgres -D /var/lib/postgresql/base_backup -Ft -z -P

Restore to Point in Time

Create recovery.conf:

restore_command = 'cp /var/lib/postgresql/wal_archive/%f %p'
recovery_target_time = '2026-03-04 12:00:00'

Performance Tuning

Database Optimization

-- Analyze query performance
EXPLAIN ANALYZE SELECT * FROM your_table;

-- Create indexes
CREATE INDEX idx_user_email ON users(email);
CREATE INDEX idx_posts_created ON posts(created_at DESC);

-- Vacuum database
VACUUM ANALYZE;

-- Check table sizes
SELECT
    schemaname,
    tablename,
    pg_size_pretty(pg_total_relation_size(schemaname||'.'||tablename)) AS size
FROM pg_tables
WHERE schemaname = 'public'
ORDER BY pg_total_relation_size(schemaname||'.'||tablename) DESC;

Connection Pooling

Always use Supavisor for web applications:

// Use transaction mode port 6543
const supabase = createClient(
  'http://localhost:8000',
  'your-anon-key',
  {
    db: {
      schema: 'public',
    },
    global: {
      headers: { 'x-connection-encrypted': 'false' },
    },
  }
)

Resource Limits

Set Docker resource limits in docker-compose.yml:

db:
  deploy:
    resources:
      limits:
        cpus: '2'
        memory: 4G
      reservations:
        cpus: '1'
        memory: 2G

Health Checks

Monitor service health:

# Check all services
docker compose ps

# HTTP health checks
curl http://localhost:8000/health
curl http://localhost:8000/auth/v1/health
curl http://localhost:8000/rest/v1/

Create monitoring script:

health-check.sh

#!/bin/bash

services=("kong:8000" "studio:3000" "db:5432")

for service in "${services[@]}"; do
  name=$(echo $service | cut -d: -f1)
  port=$(echo $service | cut -d: -f2)
  
  if nc -z localhost $port 2>/dev/null; then
    echo "✓ $name is healthy"
  else
    echo "✗ $name is down"
  fi
done

Next Steps

Security

Harden your installation for production

Updates

Keep services up-to-date

Docker Guide

Back to Docker installation

Monitoring

Set up monitoring and alerts

Platform

Self-Hosting

CLI

Security

Environment Variables

Core Secrets

Generating Secrets

API Keys

URLs and Networking

Database Configuration

Connection Pooling (Supavisor)

Authentication Settings

SMTP Configuration

OAuth Providers

Storage Configuration

Image Transformations

Analytics & Logging

Edge Functions

Advanced Settings

Service-Specific Configuration

PostgreSQL

Kong API Gateway

Vector Logging

Database Backups

Manual Backup

Automated Backups

Restore from Backup

Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR)

Performance Tuning

Database Optimization

Connection Pooling

Resource Limits

Health Checks

Next Steps

Security

Updates

Docker Guide

Monitoring

​Environment Variables

​Core Secrets

​Generating Secrets

​API Keys

​URLs and Networking

​Database Configuration

​Connection Pooling (Supavisor)

​Authentication Settings

​SMTP Configuration

​OAuth Providers

​Storage Configuration

​Image Transformations

​Analytics & Logging

​Edge Functions

​Advanced Settings

​Service-Specific Configuration

​PostgreSQL

​Kong API Gateway

​Vector Logging

​Database Backups

​Manual Backup

​Automated Backups

​Restore from Backup

​Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR)

​Performance Tuning

​Database Optimization

​Connection Pooling

​Resource Limits

​Health Checks

​Next Steps

Security

Updates

Docker Guide

Monitoring

Environment Variables

Core Secrets

Generating Secrets

API Keys

URLs and Networking

Database Configuration

Connection Pooling (Supavisor)

Authentication Settings

SMTP Configuration

OAuth Providers

Storage Configuration

Image Transformations

Analytics & Logging

Edge Functions

Advanced Settings

Service-Specific Configuration

PostgreSQL

Kong API Gateway

Vector Logging

Database Backups

Manual Backup

Automated Backups

Restore from Backup

Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR)

Performance Tuning

Database Optimization

Connection Pooling

Resource Limits

Health Checks

Next Steps