Triggering tasks from Supabase database webhooks
This guide will show you how to trigger a task when a row is added to a table using a Supabase database webhook and edge function.
Overview
Database webhooks allow you to send realtime data from your database to another system whenever an event occurs in your table e.g. when a row is inserted, updated, or deleted, or when a specific column is updated.
This guide shows you how to set up a Supabase database webhook and deploy a simple edge function that triggers a “Hello world” task every time a new row is inserted into your table.
Prerequisites
- Ensure you have the Supabase CLI installed
- Ensure TypeScript is installed
- Create a Trigger.dev account
- Create a new Trigger.dev project
Initial setup
Optional step 1: create a new Supabase project
You can create a new project by running the following command in your terminal using the Supabase CLI:
supabase init
If you are using VS Code, ensure to answer ‘y’ when asked to generate VS Code settings for Deno, and install any recommended extensions.
Optional step 2: create package.json and tsconfig.json files
If your project does not already have package.json
or/and tsconfig.json
files (e.g. if you are using Deno), create them manually and add them to your project root folder.
Both of these files are required for the Trigger.dev SDK to work correctly.
{
"devDependencies": {
// This should be the version of typescript you are using
"typescript": "^5.6.2"
}
}
{
"compilerOptions": {
"target": "esnext",
"module": "NodeNext",
"moduleResolution": "NodeNext",
"esModuleInterop": true,
"strict": true,
"outDir": "dist",
"skipLibCheck": true,
"lib": ["DOM", "DOM.Iterable"],
"noEmit": true
},
"include": ["./src/**/*.ts", "trigger.config.ts"]
}
Run the CLI `init` command
The easiest way to get started is to use the CLI. It will add Trigger.dev to your existing project, create a /trigger
folder and give you an example task.
Run this command in the root of your project to get started:
It will do a few things:
- Log you into the CLI if you’re not already logged in.
- Create a
trigger.config.ts
file in the root of your project. - Ask where you’d like to create the
/trigger
directory. - Create the
/trigger
directory with an example task,/trigger/example.[ts/js]
.
Install the “Hello World” example task when prompted. We’ll use this task to test the setup.
Run the CLI `dev` command
The CLI dev
command runs a server for your tasks. It watches for changes in your /trigger
directory and communicates with the Trigger.dev platform to register your tasks, perform runs, and send data back and forth.
It can also update your @trigger.dev/*
packages to prevent version mismatches and failed deploys. You will always be prompted first.
Perform a test run using the dashboard
The CLI dev
command spits out various useful URLs. Right now we want to visit the Test page
You should see our Example task in the list
, select it. Most tasks have a “payload” which you enter in the JSON editor , but our example task doesn’t need any input.Press the “Run test” button
.View your run
Congratulations, you should see the run page which will live reload showing you the current state of the run.
If you go back to your terminal you’ll see that the dev command also shows the task status and links to the run log.
Create and deploy a new Supabase edge function and create a new database webhook
Add your Trigger.dev prod secret key in Supabase
First, go to your Trigger.dev project dashboard and copy the prod
secret key from the API keys page.
Then, in Supabase, select the project you want to use, navigate to ‘Project settings’
, click ‘Edge functions’ in the configurations menu, and then click the ‘Add new secret’ button.Add TRIGGER_SECRET_KEY
prod
secret key.Create a new edge function using the Supabase CLI
Now create a new edge function using the Supabase CLI. We will call it database-webhook
.
supabase functions new database-webhook
Update the edge function code
Replace the database-webhook
placeholder code with the following code:
import "jsr:@supabase/functions-js/edge-runtime.d.ts";
// Import the Trigger.dev SDK - replace "<your-sdk-version>" with the version of the SDK you are using, e.g. "3.0.0". You can find this in your package.json file.
import { tasks } from "npm:@trigger.dev/[email protected]/v3";
// Import your task type from your /trigger folder
import type { helloWorldTask } from "../../../src/trigger/example.ts";
// 👆 **type-only** import
console.log("Hello from 'database-webhook' function!");
Deno.serve(async (req) => {
// Listens for incoming JSON requests
const payload = await req.json();
// Triggers the "hello-world" task with the payload
await tasks.trigger<typeof helloWorldTask>(
// Your task id
"hello-world",
// Your task payload. This will be the data you receive from the database webhook
payload
);
return new Response("ok");
});
This code sets up a Deno server that listens for incoming JSON requests, triggers a “hello-world” task, logs the received payload, and responds with “ok”. This setup is typical for a webhook endpoint that processes incoming data and triggers some action (in this case, the “hello-world” task) based on that data.
type
from the task.Tasks in the trigger
folder use Node, so they must stay in there or they will not run,
especially if you are using a different runtime like Deno. Also do not add ”npm:
” to imports
inside your task files, for the same reason.
Deploy your edge function using the Supabase CLI
Now deploy your edge function with the following command:
supabase functions deploy database-webhook
Follow the CLI instructions, selecting the same project you added your prod
secret key to, and once complete you should see your new edge function deployment in your Supabase edge functions dashboard.
There will be a link to the dashboard in your terminal output, or you can find it at this URL:
https://supabase.com/dashboard/project/<your-project-id>/functions
your-project-id
with your actual project ID.Create a new table
Next, in your Supabase project dashboard, click on ‘Table Editor’
in the left-hand menu and create a new table.In this example we will call our table skynet
.
Add a new column called name
with the type text
.
Configure JWT settings
By default, Supabase edge functions require a JSON Web Token JWT in the authorization header. This is to ensure that only authorized users can access your edge functions.
In your Supabase project dashboard, click ‘Project settings’
, then the ‘API’ tab , and copy theanon
public
API key from the table .Then, go to ‘Database’
click on ‘Webhooks’ , and then click ‘Create a new hook’ . Call the hookedge-function-hook
. Select the new table you have created:
public
skynet
. Choose the insert
event. Under ‘Webhook configuration’, select
‘Supabase Edge functions’ Under ‘Edge function’, choose POST
and select the edge function you have created: database-webhook
. Under ‘HTTP Headers’, add a new header with the key Authorization
and the value Bearer <your-api-key>
(replace <your-api-key>
with the anon
public
API key you copied earlier). Click ‘Create webhook’.Your database webhook is now ready to use.
Deploy your task and trigger it from your new database-webhook
edge function
Deploy your 'Hello World' task
The next step is to deploy your hello-world
task to Trigger.dev cloud.
To do this, run the following command in the terminal:
Trigger the task from your edge function
Your database-webhook
edge function is now set up to trigger the hello-world
task every time a new row is inserted into your skynet
table.
To do this, go back to your Supabase project dashboard, click on ‘Table Editor’
in the left-hand menu, click on theskynet
table , and then click ‘Insert’, ‘Insert Row’ .Add a new item under name
, with the value Sarah Connor
(this can be any string).
Go back to your edge function dashboard
, and under ‘Logs’ you should see a new run of yourdatabase-webhook
edge function. Then, check your cloud.trigger.dev project ‘Runs’ list
and you should see a successfulhello-world
task which has been triggered when you added a new row with the name
Sarah Connor
to your skynet
Supabase table.Inside that run you will see the payload that was sent from the database webhook, including the name
and other table information.
Congratulations, you have successfully triggered a task from a Supabase edge function using a database webhook!
Learn more about Supabase and Trigger.dev
Full walkthrough guides from development to deployment
Edge function hello world
Learn how to trigger a task from a Supabase edge function when a URL is visited.
Edge function database webhooks
Learn how to trigger a task from a Supabase edge function when an event occurs in your database.
Task examples with code you can copy and paste
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