Supabase Auth + Storage + Realtime Core

Overview

Implement the three pillars that turn a Supabase database into a full application backend: user authentication (email/password, OAuth, magic links, session lifecycle), file storage (uploads, downloads, signed URLs, bucket-level RLS policies), and real-time subscriptions (Postgres change events, client-to-client broadcast, presence tracking). Every operation integrates with Row-Level Security through auth.uid().

Each pillar below carries a lean skeleton in this file; the full, copy-paste walkthroughs live in references/ so this file stays scannable.

Prerequisites

• Supabase project created at supabase.com/dashboard
• @supabase/supabase-js v2 installed (npm install @supabase/supabase-js)
• SUPABASEURL and SUPABASEANON_KEY available from project Settings > API
• For Python: pip install supabase (wraps postgrest-py, gotrue-py, storage3, realtime-py)

Instructions

Read the file (Read), edit or create the client and route/component code (Write, Edit), and grep the project (Grep) to reuse an existing Supabase client before creating a new one. Use Bash(npm:) to install the SDK and Bash(supabase:) to run migrations/policies.

Step 1: Auth — registration, login, OAuth

Initialize the client once, then wire the flows your app needs. The skeleton:

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

const supabase = createClient(process.env.SUPABASE_URL!, process.env.SUPABASE_ANON_KEY!)

// Email/password
await supabase.auth.signUp({ email, password })
await supabase.auth.signInWithPassword({ email, password })

// OAuth — redirect the user to data.url
const { data } = await supabase.auth.signInWithOAuth({ provider: 'google' })

// React to session changes (SIGNED_IN / SIGNED_OUT / TOKEN_REFRESHED)
supabase.auth.onAuthStateChange((event, session) => { /* update UI */ })

Full auth walkthrough — OAuth callback, magic link, session lifecycle, password reset: references/auth.md. Python: references/python-examples.md.

Step 2: Storage — upload, download, secure with bucket policies

Public buckets serve via CDN URLs; private buckets require signed URLs. The skeleton:

// Upload to the signed-in user's own folder (RLS enforces ownership)
await supabase.storage.from('avatars').upload(`${userId}/avatar.png`, file, { upsert: true })

// Public URL (public bucket) vs. time-limited signed URL (private bucket)
supabase.storage.from('avatars').getPublicUrl(`${userId}/avatar.png`)
await supabase.storage.from('documents').createSignedUrl('reports/q4.pdf', 3600)

Full storage walkthrough — download, list, delete, and the bucket RLS policies that enforce per-user access: references/storage.md. Python: references/python-examples.md.

Step 3: Realtime — Postgres changes, broadcast, presence

Three channel types: database change listeners, client-to-client broadcast, and presence. The skeleton:

const channel = supabase
  .channel('chat-room')
  .on('postgres_changes',
    { event: 'INSERT', schema: 'public', table: 'messages' },
    (payload) => console.log('New:', payload.new))
  .subscribe()
// One-time table setup: ALTER PUBLICATION supabase_realtime ADD TABLE messages;
supabase.removeChannel(channel)  // clean up

Full realtime walkthrough — UPDATE/DELETE filters, RLS-scoped subscriptions, broadcast, and presence tracking: references/realtime.md. Python: references/python-examples.md.

Output

• Auth: user registration, password login, OAuth flow (Google/GitHub), magic link, session lifecycle with onAuthStateChange, password reset
• Storage: file upload/download, public URLs for CDN-served assets, time-limited signed URLs for private files, bucket-level RLS policies using auth.uid() and storage.foldername()
• Realtime: Postgres change subscriptions with server-side filters, broadcast channels for client-to-client messaging, presence tracking for online status

Error Handling

Examples

The end-to-end flow — sign in, upload an avatar to the user's RLS-guarded folder, resolve its public URL, and subscribe to live profile updates — is in references/examples.md. Each step composes the three skeletons above with no new API surface.

Resources

• Auth Guide
• Auth API Reference
• Storage Guide
• Storage Access Control
• Realtime Guide
• Realtime Postgres Changes
• Realtime Broadcast
• Realtime Presence

Next Steps

For common Supabase errors and debugging, see supabase-common-errors.

For database queries and CRUD operations, see supabase-crud-core.