n8n-nodes-supabase-realtime

What this node does

n8n-nodes-supabase-realtime is a community trigger node for n8n that listens to Supabase Realtime events on a specified Postgres table and fires an n8n workflow the moment a row is inserted, updated, or deleted. Unlike the built-in Supabase node (which only supports CRUD polling), this node opens a persistent WebSocket connection to Supabase Realtime so your workflow reacts to database changes in real time — no polling interval, no missed events during normal operation.

Prerequisites

• An n8n instance (self-hosted or n8n Cloud).
• A Supabase project with Realtime enabled for the target table.
  To enable: Supabase Dashboard → Table Editor → select your table → toggle Realtime on.
  Alternatively, run the following SQL:

  ALTER PUBLICATION supabase_realtime ADD TABLE your_table;
  

• A Supabase anon key (for tables with permissive RLS) or service_role key (to bypass RLS).

Installation

In your n8n instance go to Settings → Community Nodes → Install and enter:

n8n-nodes-supabase-realtime

Or via the n8n CLI:

npm install n8n-nodes-supabase-realtime

Credentials

Create a Supabase Realtime API credential with:

Node parameters

Example output

An INSERT event on a orders table produces:

{
  "eventType": "INSERT",
  "schema": "public",
  "table": "orders",
  "new": {
    "id": 42,
    "customer_id": 7,
    "status": "pending",
    "total": 149.99,
    "created_at": "2024-06-01T10:23:45.000Z"
  }
}

An UPDATE event with Include Old Record enabled:

{
  "eventType": "UPDATE",
  "schema": "public",
  "table": "orders",
  "new": {
    "id": 42,
    "status": "shipped"
  },
  "old": {
    "id": 42,
    "status": "pending"
  }
}

REPLICA IDENTITY FULL

By default, Postgres only includes the primary key in old values on UPDATE and DELETE. To receive the full previous row, run this in the Supabase SQL editor:

ALTER TABLE your_table REPLICA IDENTITY FULL;

Without this, old will only contain the row's primary key columns.

Known limitations

• Free tier: Supabase limits free projects to 200 concurrent Realtime connections.

• No event replay: Events that occur while n8n is offline are not replayed when it reconnects. For guaranteed delivery, combine this trigger with a scheduled fallback poll (e.g. using the built-in Supabase node on a cron schedule) that checks for rows modified since the last execution.

• Filter syntax: Row filters use Supabase's Realtime filter syntax (column=op.value). Only equality-style filters are supported server-side; complex expressions must be handled in downstream n8n nodes.

• DELETE payloads only include the primary key: Even with REPLICA IDENTITY FULL set, Supabase's hosted Realtime server only sends the primary key in old for DELETE events — the full row is not available. This is a platform-level constraint, not a node limitation. If you need the full row on delete, use a soft delete pattern: add a deleted_at timestamp column to your table and UPDATE it instead of deleting the row. The UPDATE event will carry the full row in new, and nothing is permanently lost until you clean up manually.

  -- Add soft delete column
  ALTER TABLE your_table ADD COLUMN deleted_at timestamptz;
  
  -- Soft delete instead of DELETE
  UPDATE your_table SET deleted_at = now() WHERE id = 123;
  

Testing locally

# In your n8n data directory
cd ~/.n8n
mkdir -p custom
cd custom
npm install /path/to/n8n-nodes-supabase-realtime

# Restart n8n
# The node should appear in the trigger node panel as "Supabase Realtime Trigger"

License

MIT — see LICENSE.