Branching

Supabase Branching allows you to create and test changes in separate, temporary environments without affecting your production setup. Branching 2.0 (currently in public alpha) removes the Git requirement—spin up branches directly from the dashboard, CLI, or Management API, with or without GitHub integration.

Key features

1. No-Git workflows: Create branches directly from dashboard or CLI without requiring GitHub connection.
2. Git-based workflow: Optionally integrate with GitHub, creating preview branches for each pull request.
3. Isolated environments: Each branch has its own Supabase instance with separate API credentials.
4. Automatic migrations: Runs new migrations when changes are pushed to the ./supabase/migrations directory.
5. Data seeding: Preview branches can be seeded with sample data using ./supabase/seed.sql.
6. CI/CD integration: Supports preview deployments with hosting providers like Vercel.
7. Merge requests: Review schema diffs and merge changes directly in the dashboard.

Benefits:

• Risk-free experimentation: Test changes without affecting the production environment.
• Improved collaboration: Multiple team members can work on different features simultaneously.
• Streamlined reviews: Facilitate thorough checks of database changes before merging.
• Rapid iteration: Quickly prototype and validate database-driven features.
• Flexible workflows: Use Git integration, dashboard creation, or combine both approaches.

Supabase Branching is valuable for:

• Agile teams working on multiple features concurrently
• Projects with complex database schemas requiring careful management
• Applications undergoing significant refactoring or upgrades
• CI/CD pipelines integrating database changes
• Teams preferring no-code or database-first development workflows