Store Data in Your App

When You Need a Database

Your app needs a database when you want to:

• Save user-created content (posts, tasks, profiles)
• Store settings that persist between sessions
• Share data between users
• Keep data even after the user closes the browser

Setting Up Supabase

Supabase is a database with a nice API layer. It's free to start and scales well.

1. Sign up at supabase.com
2. Create a new project
3. Go to Settings → API and copy your credentials

Add to your environment:

NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL=your-url
NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY=your-key

Creating Tables

Ask the AI to create your data structure:

"Create a tasks table with title, description, completed status, and due date. Link tasks to users."

The AI generates:

• SQL to create the table
• TypeScript types for the data
• API functions to create, read, update, delete

Common Patterns

User profiles:

"Add a profiles table that extends the auth user with name, avatar URL, and bio"

Posts or content:

"Create a posts table with title, body, published status, and author"

Settings:

"Add a user_settings table for notification preferences and theme choice"

CRUD Operations

Once your table exists, add UI for managing data:

"Create a form to add new tasks"

"Show a list of all tasks with edit and delete buttons"

"Add a toggle to mark tasks complete"

Row Level Security

Supabase can restrict data access automatically. Ask:

"Make it so users can only see and edit their own tasks"

This prevents User A from seeing User B's private data.

Relationships

Need related data? Just describe it:

"Tasks can have multiple comments. Each comment has text and author."

The AI creates the relationship and handles loading related data.