Supabase Edge Functions Overview
This skill provides operations for working with Supabase Edge Functions - serverless TypeScript/JavaScript functions that run on Deno Deploy. Use for invoking functions, deploying code, and managing function lifecycles.
Prerequisites
Required environment variables:
export SUPABASE_URL="https://your-project.supabase.co" export SUPABASE_KEY="your-anon-or-service-role-key"
Required tools:
Supabase CLI (supabase command) Deno (for local development)
Install Supabase CLI:
macOS
brew install supabase/tap/supabase
Linux
curl -fsSL https://github.com/supabase/cli/releases/latest/download/supabase_linux_amd64.tar.gz | tar -xz sudo mv supabase /usr/local/bin/
Windows (PowerShell)
scoop bucket add supabase https://github.com/supabase/scoop-bucket.git scoop install supabase
Helper script: This skill uses the shared Supabase API helper for invoking functions:
source "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/../../scripts/supabase-api.sh"
Invoke Edge Functions Basic Invocation
Invoke a function with POST:
source "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/../../scripts/supabase-api.sh"
FUNCTION_NAME="hello-world"
supabase_post "/functions/v1/${FUNCTION_NAME}" '{ "name": "Alice" }'
Invoke with GET:
source "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/../../scripts/supabase-api.sh"
FUNCTION_NAME="get-data"
supabase_get "/functions/v1/${FUNCTION_NAME}?id=123"
Invoke with Headers
Pass custom headers:
FUNCTION_NAME="authenticated-function" USER_TOKEN="user-access-token"
curl -s -X POST \ "${SUPABASE_URL}/functions/v1/${FUNCTION_NAME}" \ -H "apikey: ${SUPABASE_KEY}" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer ${USER_TOKEN}" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"action": "process"}'
Invoke with Authentication
Invoke function as authenticated user:
source "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/../../scripts/supabase-api.sh"
FUNCTION_NAME="user-profile" ACCESS_TOKEN="user-jwt-token"
curl -s -X POST \ "${SUPABASE_URL}/functions/v1/${FUNCTION_NAME}" \ -H "apikey: ${SUPABASE_KEY}" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer ${ACCESS_TOKEN}" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{}'
Function Management (CLI) Initialize Function
Create a new edge function:
Navigate to your Supabase project directory
cd /path/to/project
Create new function
supabase functions new my-function
This creates: supabase/functions/my-function/index.ts
Function Template
Basic function structure:
// supabase/functions/my-function/index.ts
import { serve } from "https://deno.land/std@0.168.0/http/server.ts"
serve(async (req) => { const { name } = await req.json()
const data = {
message: Hello ${name}!,
}
return new Response( JSON.stringify(data), { headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" } }, ) })
Function with authentication:
import { serve } from "https://deno.land/std@0.168.0/http/server.ts" import { createClient } from 'https://esm.sh/@supabase/supabase-js@2'
serve(async (req) => { // Get JWT from Authorization header const authHeader = req.headers.get('Authorization')! const token = authHeader.replace('Bearer ', '')
// Create Supabase client with user's token const supabase = createClient( Deno.env.get('SUPABASE_URL') ?? '', Deno.env.get('SUPABASE_ANON_KEY') ?? '', { global: { headers: { Authorization: authHeader } } } )
// Get authenticated user const { data: { user }, error } = await supabase.auth.getUser(token)
if (error || !user) { return new Response('Unauthorized', { status: 401 }) }
return new Response(
JSON.stringify({ message: Hello ${user.email}! }),
{ headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" } },
)
})
Deploy Function
Deploy a function to Supabase:
Login to Supabase (first time only)
supabase login
Link to your project (first time only)
supabase link --project-ref your-project-ref
Deploy specific function
supabase functions deploy my-function
Deploy with custom environment variables
supabase functions deploy my-function \ --env-file ./supabase/.env.local
Deploy all functions
supabase functions deploy
Set Environment Variables
Set secrets for edge functions:
Set individual secret
supabase secrets set MY_SECRET_KEY=value123
Set multiple secrets from file
Create .env file:
API_KEY=abc123
DATABASE_URL=postgres://...
supabase secrets set --env-file .env
List secrets (names only, not values)
supabase secrets list
Unset secret
supabase secrets unset MY_SECRET_KEY
Local Development
Run functions locally:
Start local Supabase (includes edge functions)
supabase start
Serve functions locally
supabase functions serve
Serve specific function
supabase functions serve my-function --env-file ./supabase/.env.local
Invoke local function
curl http://localhost:54321/functions/v1/my-function \ -H "Authorization: Bearer ${SUPABASE_KEY}" \ -d '{"name": "test"}'
Delete Function
Remove a deployed function:
Delete function from Supabase dashboard or using SQL
Note: No direct CLI command to delete, must use dashboard
Remove local function file
rm -rf supabase/functions/my-function
Common Patterns Invoke and Process Response
!/bin/bash
source "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/../../scripts/supabase-api.sh"
FUNCTION_NAME="process-data"
response=$(supabase_post "/functions/v1/${FUNCTION_NAME}" '{ "action": "calculate", "values": [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] }')
if [[ $? -eq 0 ]]; then result=$(echo "$response" | jq -r '.result') echo "Function result: $result" else echo "Function invocation failed" exit 1 fi
Batch Function Invocations
!/bin/bash
source "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/../../scripts/supabase-api.sh"
FUNCTION_NAME="send-email" RECIPIENTS=("alice@example.com" "bob@example.com" "charlie@example.com")
for email in "${RECIPIENTS[@]}"; do echo "Processing $email..."
supabase_post "/functions/v1/${FUNCTION_NAME}" '{
"to": "'"$email"'",
"subject": "Hello",
"body": "Test message"
}'
echo "✓ Sent to $email"
done
Function with Retry Logic
!/bin/bash
source "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/../../scripts/supabase-api.sh"
invoke_with_retry() { local function_name="$1" local payload="$2" local max_retries=3 local retry_count=0
while [[ $retry_count -lt $max_retries ]]; do
if response=$(supabase_post "/functions/v1/${function_name}" "$payload" 2>&1); then
echo "$response"
return 0
else
retry_count=$((retry_count + 1))
echo "Retry $retry_count/$max_retries..." >&2
sleep 2
fi
done
echo "Function failed after $max_retries retries" >&2
return 1
}
Use it
invoke_with_retry "my-function" '{"action": "process"}'
Deploy Function Script
!/bin/bash
deploy-function.sh
FUNCTION_NAME="${1:-my-function}"
echo "Deploying function: $FUNCTION_NAME"
Validate function exists
if [[ ! -d "supabase/functions/$FUNCTION_NAME" ]]; then echo "Error: Function $FUNCTION_NAME not found" exit 1 fi
Deploy
if supabase functions deploy "$FUNCTION_NAME"; then echo "✓ Deployed successfully"
# Test invocation
echo "Testing function..."
response=$(curl -s -X POST \
"${SUPABASE_URL}/functions/v1/${FUNCTION_NAME}" \
-H "apikey: ${SUPABASE_KEY}" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{}')
echo "Test response: $response"
else echo "✗ Deployment failed" exit 1 fi
Monitor Function Logs
View function logs (requires Supabase CLI)
supabase functions logs my-function
Follow logs in real-time
supabase functions logs my-function --follow
Filter logs by level
supabase functions logs my-function --level error
View logs from specific time
supabase functions logs my-function --since 1h
Advanced Patterns Function with Database Access // supabase/functions/get-user-data/index.ts import { serve } from "https://deno.land/std@0.168.0/http/server.ts" import { createClient } from 'https://esm.sh/@supabase/supabase-js@2'
serve(async (req) => { const supabase = createClient( Deno.env.get('SUPABASE_URL') ?? '', Deno.env.get('SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY') ?? '' )
const { userId } = await req.json()
const { data, error } = await supabase .from('users') .select('*') .eq('id', userId) .single()
if (error) { return new Response(JSON.stringify({ error: error.message }), { status: 400, headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' } }) }
return new Response(JSON.stringify(data), { headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' } }) })
Function with External API Call // supabase/functions/fetch-weather/index.ts import { serve } from "https://deno.land/std@0.168.0/http/server.ts"
serve(async (req) => { const { city } = await req.json() const apiKey = Deno.env.get('WEATHER_API_KEY')
const response = await fetch(
https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?q=${city}&appid=${apiKey}
)
const data = await response.json()
return new Response(JSON.stringify(data), { headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' } }) })
Scheduled Function (Cron) // supabase/functions/daily-cleanup/index.ts import { serve } from "https://deno.land/std@0.168.0/http/server.ts" import { createClient } from 'https://esm.sh/@supabase/supabase-js@2'
serve(async (req) => {
// Verify request is from Supabase Cron
const authHeader = req.headers.get('Authorization')
if (authHeader !== Bearer ${Deno.env.get('SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY')}) {
return new Response('Unauthorized', { status: 401 })
}
const supabase = createClient( Deno.env.get('SUPABASE_URL') ?? '', Deno.env.get('SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY') ?? '' )
// Delete old records const { data, error } = await supabase .from('logs') .delete() .lt('created_at', new Date(Date.now() - 30 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000).toISOString())
return new Response(JSON.stringify({ deleted: data?.length ?? 0 }), { headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' } }) })
Set up cron job in Supabase Dashboard:
-- In SQL Editor, create pg_cron job: select cron.schedule( 'daily-cleanup', '0 2 * * *', -- Run at 2 AM daily $$ select net.http_post( url := 'https://your-project.supabase.co/functions/v1/daily-cleanup', headers := '{"Content-Type": "application/json", "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY"}'::jsonb, body := '{}'::jsonb ) as request_id; $$ );
Testing Functions Test Locally
Start local environment
supabase start
Serve function
supabase functions serve my-function
Test with curl
curl http://localhost:54321/functions/v1/my-function \ -H "Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9..." \ -d '{"test": "data"}'
Integration Test Script
!/bin/bash
test-function.sh
FUNCTION_NAME="$1" TEST_CASES_FILE="$2"
if [[ ! -f "$TEST_CASES_FILE" ]]; then echo "Test cases file not found" exit 1 fi
echo "Testing function: $FUNCTION_NAME"
while IFS= read -r test_case; do echo "Test case: $test_case"
response=$(curl -s -X POST \
"${SUPABASE_URL}/functions/v1/${FUNCTION_NAME}" \
-H "apikey: ${SUPABASE_KEY}" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d "$test_case")
echo "Response: $response"
echo "---"
done < "$TEST_CASES_FILE"
Error Handling
Function errors return HTTP status codes:
Status Meaning 200 Success 400 Bad request (invalid input) 401 Unauthorized (invalid/missing auth) 403 Forbidden (insufficient permissions) 500 Internal server error (function crashed) 504 Gateway timeout (function took too long)
Timeout limit: Edge functions have a 2-second CPU time limit and 150-second wall clock timeout.
Security Best Practices Validate input: Always validate and sanitize request data Use service role key carefully: Only in admin functions, never expose to clients Implement authentication: Check user tokens for protected functions Rate limiting: Implement rate limiting for public functions Environment variables: Store secrets in Supabase secrets, not in code CORS: Configure CORS headers appropriately Error messages: Don't leak sensitive information in error responses Performance Tips Cold starts: Functions may have cold starts (100-200ms delay) Keep functions small: Faster cold starts and easier debugging Cache external data: Use in-memory caching for repeated API calls Parallel execution: Use Promise.all() for concurrent operations Stream large responses: Use streaming for large data transfers API Documentation Supabase Edge Functions: https://supabase.com/docs/guides/functions Deno Deploy: https://deno.com/deploy/docs