Supabase Advanced Troubleshooting

Overview

When basic debugging does not reveal the root cause, you need deep PostgreSQL diagnostics: pgstatstatements to find the slowest queries by cumulative execution time, pglocks to detect lock contention and deadlocks, pgstat_activity to find connection leaks, RLS policy conflict analysis to diagnose silent data filtering, Edge Function cold start profiling, and Realtime channel drop investigation. This skill covers every advanced diagnostic technique with real SQL queries and createClient from @supabase/supabase-js.

When to use: Slow query investigation, lock contention causing timeouts, connection pool exhaustion from leaks, RLS policies that silently filter or conflict, Edge Functions with unpredictable latency, or Realtime subscriptions that disconnect intermittently.

Prerequisites

• Supabase project with pgstatstatements extension enabled
• Direct database access via SQL Editor or psql
• @supabase/supabase-js v2+ installed in your project
• Supabase CLI for Edge Function logs
• Familiarity with PostgreSQL system catalogs

Instructions

Step 1: pgstatstatements and Slow Query Analysis

Enable and query pgstatstatements to find the most expensive queries by total execution time, calls, and rows processed.

Enable the extension and query slow queries:

-- Enable pg_stat_statements (run once)
CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS pg_stat_statements;

-- Top 10 slowest queries by total execution time
SELECT
  queryid,
  calls,
  round(total_exec_time::numeric, 2) AS total_ms,
  round(mean_exec_time::numeric, 2) AS avg_ms,
  round(max_exec_time::numeric, 2) AS max_ms,
  rows AS total_rows,
  round(100.0 * shared_blks_hit / nullif(shared_blks_hit + shared_blks_read, 0), 2) AS cache_hit_pct,
  left(query, 150) AS query_preview
FROM pg_stat_statements
WHERE userid = (SELECT usesysid FROM pg_user WHERE usename = current_user)
ORDER BY total_exec_time DESC
LIMIT 10;

-- Top queries by frequency (most called)
SELECT
  queryid,
  calls,
  round(mean_exec_time::numeric, 2) AS avg_ms,
  rows / nullif(calls, 0) AS rows_per_call,
  left(query, 150) AS query_preview
FROM pg_stat_statements
WHERE calls > 100
ORDER BY calls DESC
LIMIT 10;

-- Queries with poor cache hit ratio (reading from disk)
SELECT
  queryid,
  calls,
  shared_blks_hit,
  shared_blks_read,
  round(100.0 * shared_blks_hit / nullif(shared_blks_hit + shared_blks_read, 0), 2) AS cache_hit_pct,
  left(query, 150) AS query_preview
FROM pg_stat_statements
WHERE shared_blks_read > 100
ORDER BY shared_blks_read DESC
LIMIT 10;

-- Reset statistics after optimization (to measure improvement)
-- SELECT pg_stat_statements_reset();

EXPLAIN ANALYZE for specific slow queries:

-- Run EXPLAIN ANALYZE on the suspicious query
EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS, TIMING, FORMAT TEXT)
SELECT p.*, count(o.id) AS order_count
FROM profiles p
LEFT JOIN orders o ON o.user_id = p.id
WHERE p.created_at > now() - interval '30 days'
GROUP BY p.id
ORDER BY order_count DESC
LIMIT 50;

-- What to look for in the output:
-- 1. Seq Scan on large table → needs an index
-- 2. Nested Loop with high actual rows → consider Hash Join
-- 3. Sort with "Sort Method: external merge" → increase work_mem or add index
-- 4. Buffers read >> shared hit → data not cached, optimize query or increase shared_buffers

-- Create a targeted index based on EXPLAIN output
CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY idx_profiles_created_at
  ON profiles(created_at DESC);

CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY idx_orders_user_id
  ON orders(user_id);

Monitor query performance from the SDK:

import { createClient } from '@supabase/supabase-js';

const supabase = createClient(
  process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL!,
  process.env.SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY!,
  { auth: { autoRefreshToken: false, persistSession: false } }
);

// Wrapper that measures and logs query performance
async function timedQuery<T>(
  label: string,
  queryFn: () => Promise<{ data: T | null; error: any }>
): Promise<T | null> {
  const start = performance.now();
  const { data, error } = await queryFn();
  const duration = Math.round(performance.now() - start);

  if (duration > 500) {
    console.warn(`[SLOW QUERY] ${label}: ${duration}ms`);
  }

  if (error) {
    console.error(`[QUERY ERROR] ${label}:`, error.message);
    return null;
  }

  return data;
}

// Usage
const profiles = await timedQuery('recent-profiles', () =>
  supabase
    .from('profiles')
    .select('*, orders(count)')
    .gte('created_at', new Date(Date.now() - 30 * 86400000).toISOString())
    .order('created_at', { ascending: false })
    .limit(50)
);

Step 2: Lock Debugging and Connection Leak Detection

Find blocked queries, detect lock contention, and identify connection leaks that exhaust the pool.

Lock contention detection:

-- Find blocked queries and what's blocking them
SELECT
  blocked.pid AS blocked_pid,
  blocked.usename AS blocked_user,
  age(now(), blocked.query_start)::text AS blocked_duration,
  left(blocked.query, 100) AS blocked_query,
  blocking.pid AS blocking_pid,
  blocking.usename AS blocking_user,
  left(blocking.query, 100) AS blocking_query,
  bl.mode AS lock_mode
FROM pg_stat_activity blocked
JOIN pg_locks bl ON bl.pid = blocked.pid AND NOT bl.granted
JOIN pg_locks kl ON kl.locktype = bl.locktype
  AND kl.database IS NOT DISTINCT FROM bl.database
  AND kl.relation IS NOT DISTINCT FROM bl.relation
  AND kl.page IS NOT DISTINCT FROM bl.page
  AND kl.tuple IS NOT DISTINCT FROM bl.tuple
  AND kl.pid != bl.pid
  AND kl.granted
JOIN pg_stat_activity blocking ON blocking.pid = kl.pid
WHERE blocked.state = 'active';

-- Check all locks on a specific table
SELECT
  l.locktype, l.mode, l.granted, l.pid,
  a.usename, a.state,
  age(now(), a.query_start)::text AS duration,
  left(a.query, 80) AS query
FROM pg_locks l
JOIN pg_stat_activity a ON a.pid = l.pid
WHERE l.relation = 'orders'::regclass
ORDER BY l.granted, a.query_start;

-- Detect potential deadlocks
SELECT
  l1.pid AS pid1, l2.pid AS pid2,
  l1.mode AS lock1, l2.mode AS lock2,
  l1.relation::regclass AS table1,
  l2.relation::regclass AS table2
FROM pg_locks l1
JOIN pg_locks l2 ON l1.pid != l2.pid
  AND l1.relation = l2.relation
  AND NOT l1.granted AND l2.granted
WHERE l1.locktype = 'relation';

Connection leak detection:

-- Connections that have been idle for too long (likely leaks)
SELECT
  pid, usename, client_addr, state,
  age(now(), state_change)::text AS idle_time,
  age(now(), backend_start)::text AS connection_age,
  left(query, 100) AS last_query
FROM pg_stat_activity
WHERE state = 'idle'
  AND age(now(), state_change) > interval '5 minutes'
  AND datname = current_database()
ORDER BY state_change;

-- Connections stuck in "idle in transaction" (the worst kind of leak)
SELECT
  pid, usename, client_addr,
  age(now(), xact_start)::text AS transaction_duration,
  age(now(), state_change)::text AS idle_in_tx_time,
  left(query, 100) AS last_query
FROM pg_stat_activity
WHERE state = 'idle in transaction'
ORDER BY xact_start;

-- Connection usage by application/user
SELECT
  usename,
  client_addr,
  state,
  count(*) AS connections
FROM pg_stat_activity
WHERE datname = current_database()
GROUP BY usename, client_addr, state
ORDER BY connections DESC;

-- Kill leaked connections (batch)
-- SELECT pg_terminate_backend(pid)
-- FROM pg_stat_activity
-- WHERE state = 'idle in transaction'
--   AND age(now(), state_change) > interval '10 minutes';

Connection pool monitoring from the SDK:

import { createClient } from '@supabase/supabase-js';

const supabase = createClient(
  process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL!,
  process.env.SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY!,
  { auth: { autoRefreshToken: false, persistSession: false } }
);

// Monitor connection pool health
async function checkConnectionPool() {
  const { data, error } = await supabase.rpc('get_connection_health');
  if (error) {
    console.error('Connection health check failed:', error.message);
    return;
  }

  const health = data as {
    active: number;
    idle: number;
    idle_in_transaction: number;
    total: number;
    max_connections: number;
  };

  const utilization = (health.total / health.max_connections) * 100;

  console.log('Connection pool:', {
    ...health,
    utilization: `${utilization.toFixed(1)}%`,
  });

  if (health.idle_in_transaction > 0) {
    console.warn(`WARNING: ${health.idle_in_transaction} idle-in-transaction connections (likely leaks)`);
  }

  if (utilization > 80) {
    console.warn(`WARNING: Connection pool at ${utilization.toFixed(1)}% capacity`);
  }
}

// Database function for the RPC call:
// CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION get_connection_health()
// RETURNS json AS $$
//   SELECT json_build_object(
//     'active', (SELECT count(*) FROM pg_stat_activity WHERE state = 'active' AND datname = current_database()),
//     'idle', (SELECT count(*) FROM pg_stat_activity WHERE state = 'idle' AND datname = current_database()),
//     'idle_in_transaction', (SELECT count(*) FROM pg_stat_activity WHERE state = 'idle in transaction' AND datname = current_database()),
//     'total', (SELECT count(*) FROM pg_stat_activity WHERE datname = current_database()),
//     'max_connections', (SELECT setting::int FROM pg_settings WHERE name = 'max_connections')
//   );
// $$ LANGUAGE sql SECURITY DEFINER;

Step 3: RLS Conflicts, Edge Function Cold Starts, and Realtime Drops

See RLS conflicts, Edge Function cold starts, and Realtime drops for RLS policy conflict analysis (SQL and SDK), Edge Function cold start profiling, Realtime channel monitoring, and publication configuration.

Output

After completing this skill, you will have:

• Slow query identification — pgstatstatements queries ranking by total time, frequency, and cache hit ratio
• EXPLAIN ANALYZE proficiency — reading execution plans and creating targeted indexes
• Lock contention diagnosis — blocked/blocking query pairs with lock modes
• Connection leak detection — idle and idle-in-transaction connections with kill commands
• Connection pool monitoring — SDK-based health check RPC with utilization alerts
• RLS conflict analysis — policy listing with permissive/restrictive classification and multi-level comparison
• Edge Function profiling — cold start vs warm invocation measurement
• Realtime debugging — channel state monitoring with system event logging

Error Handling

Examples

Example 1 — Quick performance audit:

-- Run this query to get a snapshot of database health
SELECT
  'Connections' AS metric,
  count(*)::text AS value
FROM pg_stat_activity WHERE datname = current_database()
UNION ALL
SELECT 'Cache hit ratio',
  round(100.0 * sum(heap_blks_hit) / nullif(sum(heap_blks_hit + heap_blks_read), 0), 2)::text || '%'
FROM pg_statio_user_tables
UNION ALL
SELECT 'Table bloat (dead tuples)',
  sum(n_dead_tup)::text
FROM pg_stat_user_tables
UNION ALL
SELECT 'Longest running query',
  coalesce(max(age(now(), query_start))::text, 'none')
FROM pg_stat_activity WHERE state = 'active' AND query NOT LIKE '%pg_stat%';

Example 2 — Build a diagnostic bundle for support:

import { createClient } from '@supabase/supabase-js';

const supabase = createClient(url, serviceRoleKey, {
  auth: { autoRefreshToken: false, persistSession: false },
});

async function buildDiagnosticBundle() {
  const bundle: Record<string, any> = {
    timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
    projectRef: process.env.SUPABASE_PROJECT_REF,
  };

  // Connection stats
  const { data: connHealth } = await supabase.rpc('get_connection_health');
  bundle.connections = connHealth;

  // Table sizes
  const { data: tableSizes } = await supabase.rpc('get_table_sizes');
  bundle.tableSizes = tableSizes;

  // Recent errors from application logs
  const { data: recentErrors } = await supabase
    .from('error_logs')
    .select('message, count, last_seen')
    .order('last_seen', { ascending: false })
    .limit(10);
  bundle.recentErrors = recentErrors;

  console.log(JSON.stringify(bundle, null, 2));
  // Submit with your support ticket at https://supabase.com/dashboard/support
}

Example 3 — Automated slow query alert:

import { createClient } from '@supabase/supabase-js';

const supabase = createClient(url, serviceRoleKey, {
  auth: { autoRefreshToken: false, persistSession: false },
});

async function checkSlowQueries(thresholdMs = 1000) {
  const { data: slowQueries } = await supabase.rpc('get_slow_queries', {
    threshold_ms: thresholdMs,
  });

  if (slowQueries && slowQueries.length > 0) {
    console.warn(`Found ${slowQueries.length} queries averaging > ${thresholdMs}ms`);
    for (const q of slowQueries) {
      console.warn(`  [${q.avg_ms}ms avg, ${q.calls} calls] ${q.query_preview}`);
    }
  }
}

// Database function:
// CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION get_slow_queries(threshold_ms numeric DEFAULT 1000)
// RETURNS TABLE(queryid bigint, avg_ms numeric, calls bigint, query_preview text) AS $$
//   SELECT queryid, round(mean_exec_time::numeric, 2), calls, left(query, 150)
//   FROM pg_stat_statements
//   WHERE mean_exec_time > threshold_ms AND calls > 10
//   ORDER BY mean_exec_time DESC LIMIT 10;
// $$ LANGUAGE sql SECURITY DEFINER;

Resources

• pgstatstatements — PostgreSQL Docs
• EXPLAIN ANALYZE — PostgreSQL Docs
• Supabase Performance Advisor
• RLS Debugging — Supabase Docs
• Edge Functions Logging — Supabase Docs
• Realtime Debugging — Supabase Docs
• pg_locks — PostgreSQL Docs
• Connection Pooling with Supavisor

Next Steps

• For load testing and scaling patterns, see supabase-load-scale
• For incident response procedures, see supabase-incident-runbook
• For performance tuning and index optimization, see supabase-performance-tuning
• For common error patterns and quick fixes, see supabase-common-errors