Foreign Data Wrappers

Foreign Data Wrappers allow you to query external data sources—databases, APIs, services—as if they were native Postgres tables. Built on Supabase's open-source Wrappers framework written in Rust, this feature transforms how you integrate external data into your application.

Key benefits

1. Query external data as tables: Access Stripe, Firebase, ClickHouse, BigQuery, Airtable, S3, and more using SQL.
2. No data movement: Data remains in the remote server, eliminating ETL overhead.
3. WebAssembly support: Easier FDW development with Wasm compatibility.
4. SQL-native: Just SQL—no new tools to learn.
5. On-demand data: Always up-to-date without scheduled syncs.
6. Cost savings: Less infrastructure to manage compared to traditional ETL tools.

Security considerations

Foreign Data Wrappers should be stored in private schemas and do not provide Row Level Security. Use Database Functions with security definer if you need to expose data publicly.

Foreign Data Wrappers are valuable for:

• Integrating payment data from Stripe
• Syncing data from Firebase or other databases
• Querying analytics data from BigQuery or ClickHouse
• Accessing files from S3
• Any scenario requiring real-time external data access

Foreign Data Wrappers simplify data integration by bringing external data into your Postgres environment without complex ETL pipelines.