SKILL.md
Supabase Observability
Overview
Monitor Supabase projects end-to-end: Dashboard reports for API/database/auth metrics, supabase inspect db CLI for deep Postgres diagnostics, pgstatstatements for query analytics, log drains for external aggregation, Edge Functions for custom metrics, and alerting on quota thresholds.
Follow the three steps below from this file for the high-level workflow, then drill into the linked references/ files for the full commands, SQL, and function source.
Prerequisites
- Supabase CLI installed (
npx supabase --version) - Supabase project linked (
supabase link --project-ref <ref>) - Pro plan or higher for log drain support and extended log retention
@supabase/supabase-jsv2+ installed for application-level monitoring
Instructions
Step 1: Dashboard Reports and CLI Inspect Commands
Start with the built-in Dashboard > Reports (API Requests, Database, Auth Usage, Storage, Realtime) for high-level metrics. For deeper Postgres diagnostics, use the supabase inspect db subcommands — begin with cache hit ratio and sequential scans:
# Cache hit ratio — should be > 99% (below 95% means upgrade compute)
npx supabase inspect db cache-hit --linked
# Sequential scans — tables needing indexes
npx supabase inspect db seq-scans --linked
The full report table plus all nine inspect subcommands (table sizes, index usage, long-running queries, bloat, blocking, replication slots, and more) are in [references/cli-inspect-commands.md](references/cli-inspect-commands.md).
Step 2: Query Analytics with pgstatstatements and Log Drains
Enable pgstatstatements for query-level metrics, then rank queries by execution time:
create extension if not exists pg_stat_statements;
-- Top slowest queries by average execution time
select substring(query, 1, 80) as query_preview, calls,
round(mean_exec_time::numeric, 2) as avg_ms
from pg_stat_statements
where mean_exec_time > 50
order by mean_exec_time desc limit 20;
Forward logs to external aggregation with a log drain:
npx supabase log-drains add --name datadog-drain --type datadog \
--datadog-api-key "$DATADOG_API_KEY" --datadog-region us1 --linked
The complete slow-query / high-frequency / connection-monitoring SQL set and every log-drain command (Datadog, webhook, list, remove) are in [references/query-analytics-and-log-drains.md](references/query-analytics-and-log-drains.md).
Step 3: Custom Metrics, Alerting, and Health Checks
Emit business-level metrics from a scheduled Edge Function, alert on quota thresholds, and expose a health endpoint for uptime monitors. The skeleton of the metrics collector:
// supabase/functions/collect-metrics/index.ts — see reference for full source
const DB_LIMIT_MB = 8000; // 8GB Pro plan limit
if (dbSize > DB_LIMIT_MB * 0.85) {
console.warn(`[QUOTA_ALERT] Database at ${Math.round(dbSize / DB_LIMIT_MB * 100)}% capacity`);
}
Schedule it every 15 minutes via [functions.collect-metrics] in config.toml. The complete collector, the multi-service health-check endpoint, and Realtime connection monitoring are in [references/custom-metrics-and-health-checks.md](references/custom-metrics-and-health-checks.md). For external alert rules, see the Prometheus AlertManager set in [references/alert-configuration.md](references/alert-configuration.md).
Output
- Dashboard reports configured for API, database, and auth monitoring
- CLI inspect commands available for Postgres diagnostics (table sizes, index usage, cache hits, sequential scans, long-running queries)
pgstatstatementsenabled with slow-query and high-frequency-query views- Log drains forwarding to external tools (Datadog, Logflare, or webhook)
- Custom metrics Edge Function collecting quota-relevant data on a schedule
- Health check endpoint returning per-service status with latency
- Alerting on quota thresholds (database size, user count)
Error Handling
| Issue | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
pgstatstatements returns no rows |
Extension not enabled | Enable via Dashboard > Database > Extensions |
supabase inspect db fails |
CLI not linked to project | Run supabase link --project-ref <ref> |
| Log drain not receiving events | API key invalid or region mismatch | Verify credentials; check supabase log-drains list |
| Cache hit ratio below 95% | Working set exceeds RAM | Upgrade compute add-on or optimize queries |
| Health check returns 503 | One or more services degraded | Check detail field in response; verify service role key |
| Edge Function cron not firing | Missing schedule in config.toml |
Add [functions.<name>] with schedule field and redeploy |
| Long-running queries growing | Missing indexes or lock contention | Run inspect db seq-scans and inspect db blocking |
Examples
A one-shot diagnostic bash script that runs every inspect command in sequence, plus the app_metrics backing table schema with a 90-day retention policy, are in [references/diagnostic-scripts.md](references/diagnostic-scripts.md). For application-level Prometheus instrumentation of the Supabase client, see [references/metrics-collection.md](references/metrics-collection.md).
Resources
- Supabase Logs & Analytics
- Database Inspect Commands
- Log Drains
- Edge Functions Scheduling
- pgstatstatements
- Supabase JS Client
Next Steps
For incident response procedures, see supabase-incident-runbook. For performance optimization, see supabase-performance-tuning.