Getting Started

Use Supabase with Python

Learn how to create a Supabase project, add some sample data to your database, and query the data from a Python app.

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Create a Supabase project

Go to database.new and create a new Supabase project.

Alternatively, you can create a project using the Management API:

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# First, get your access token from https://supabase.com/dashboard/account/tokens
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export SUPABASE_ACCESS_TOKEN="your-access-token"
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# List your organizations to get the organization ID
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curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUPABASE_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
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  https://api.supabase.com/v1/organizations
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# Create a new project (replace <org-id> with your organization ID)
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curl -X POST https://api.supabase.com/v1/projects \
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  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUPABASE_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
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  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
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  -d '{
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    "organization_id": "<org-id>",
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    "name": "My Project",
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    "region": "us-east-1",
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    "db_pass": "<your-secure-password>"
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  }'

When your project is up and running, go to the Table Editor section of the Dashboard, create a new table and insert some data. Then in the Integrations > Data API section of the Dashboard, expose the specific tables or functions you want to access. To automatically grant access for new tables and functions in public, enable Default privileges for new entities.

Alternatively, you can run the following snippet in your project's SQL Editor.

This creates an instruments table with some sample data, sets a secure baseline by setting only the privileges each Postgres role needs, and adds Row Level Security (RLS) for enhanced security for database data by default.

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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;

Create an RLS policy to make the data in your table publicly readable:

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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);
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Create a Python app with Flask

Create a new directory for your Python app and set up a virtual environment.

Terminal
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mkdir my-app && cd my-app
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python3 -m venv venv
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source venv/bin/activate
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Install Flask and the Supabase client library

The fastest way to get started is to use Flask for the web framework and the supabase-py client library which provides a convenient interface for working with Supabase from a Python app.

Install both packages using pip.

Terminal
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pip install flask supabase
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Create Environment Variables file

Create a .env file in your project root and populate it with your Supabase connection variables:

Project URL
Publishable key
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SUPABASE_URL=<SUBSTITUTE_SUPABASE_URL>
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SUPABASE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY=<SUBSTITUTE_SUPABASE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY>

You can also get the Project URL and key from the project's Connect dialog.

Get API details#

Now that you've created some database tables, you are ready to insert data using the auto-generated API.

To do this, you need to get the Project URL and key from the project Connect dialog.

Read the API keys docs for a full explanation of all key types and their uses.

5

Query data from the app

Install the python-dotenv package to load environment variables:

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pip install python-dotenv

Create an app.py file and add a route that fetches data from your instruments table using the Supabase client.

app.py
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import os
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from flask import Flask
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from supabase import create_client, Client
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from dotenv import load_dotenv
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load_dotenv()
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app = Flask(__name__)
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supabase: Client = create_client(
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    os.environ.get("SUPABASE_URL"),
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    os.environ.get("SUPABASE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY")
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)
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@app.route('/')
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def index():
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    response = supabase.table('instruments').select("*").execute()
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    instruments = response.data
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    html = '<h1>Instruments</h1><ul>'
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    for instrument in instruments:
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        html += f'<li>{instrument["name"]}</li>'
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    html += '</ul>'
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    return html
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if __name__ == '__main__':
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    app.run(debug=True)
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Start the app

Run the Flask development server, go to http://localhost:5000 in a browser and you should see the list of instruments.

Terminal
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python app.py

Next steps#