Supabase Takeover Strategy

Export and migrate your Supabase project to a new account

This repository contains the comprehensive strategy and step-by-step guide for exporting an existing Supabase project and deploying it to a different Supabase account. Perfect for transferring projects between organizations, clients, or personal accounts.

🎯 Purpose

The Supabase Takeover strategy enables you to:

• ✅ Export complete projects from one Supabase account
• ✅ Deploy to a new account with all schema, data, and configuration
• ✅ Version control your entire database schema, functions, and settings
• ✅ Transfer between organizations (agency to client, personal to team, etc.)
• ✅ Maintain full functionality including RLS policies, functions, and auth
• ✅ CLI-driven workflow for repeatable, reliable migrations

📚 Documentation

Core Documents

• Supabase Takeover Strategy - Complete technical implementation guide

  • Exporting from existing Supabase account
  • Step-by-step migration process
  • Deploying to new Supabase account
  • Schema and data transfer
  • Testing and validation

• Git Workflow & Setup - Version control best practices

  • Repository structure
  • Git workflow for database changes
  • CLI-driven development
  • Team collaboration patterns
  • Deployment strategies

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Supabase CLI (brew install supabase/tap/supabase)
• Access to your source Supabase account/project
• Access to your destination Supabase account
• Git repository for version control

Migration Overview

1. Extract - Pull schema, functions, and config from source project
2. Version Control - Commit everything to git for safety
3. Create New Project - Set up fresh project in destination account
4. Deploy - Push schema and functions to new project
5. Migrate Data - Transfer data using pg_dump/restore
6. Switch - Update your applications to point to new project

See sb_takeover.md for detailed steps.

🏗️ What Gets Migrated

Database & Schema

• Database Schema - All tables, columns, types, extensions
• Row Level Security (RLS) - All policies and rules
• Functions - PostgreSQL functions and triggers
• Indexes - All database indexes for performance
• Extensions - PostgreSQL extensions (uuid, pgcrypto, etc.)

Application Layer

• Edge Functions - Deno serverless functions
• Storage Configuration - Buckets and access policies
• Auth Settings - User tables and authentication config
• Environment Variables - Secrets and API keys

Migration Flow

┌─────────────────────┐
│  Source Account     │
│  (Old Project)      │
└──────────┬──────────┘
           │
           │ supabase db pull
           │ supabase functions download
           ↓
┌─────────────────────┐
│   Git Repository    │
│  (Version Control)  │
└──────────┬──────────┘
           │
           │ supabase db push
           │ supabase functions deploy
           ↓
┌─────────────────────┐
│ Destination Account │
│   (New Project)     │
└─────────────────────┘

💡 Why This Matters

Common Use Cases

Agency to Client Handoff

• Develop project in your agency account
• Transfer complete project to client's account
• Clean ownership transfer with all data and config

Organizational Changes

• Moving from personal to team account
• Merging projects across accounts
• Separating projects after company splits

Account Consolidation

• Multiple projects across different accounts
• Consolidate into single organization account
• Better project management and billing

Benefits

Complete Migration

• All schema, policies, and functions transferred
• No data loss or manual recreation
• Maintain all existing functionality

Version Controlled

• Everything saved in git before migration
• Easy rollback if needed
• Audit trail of all changes

Repeatable Process

• CLI-driven workflow
• Document every step
• Repeat for multiple projects

🛠️ Tools Used

• Supabase CLI - Project export and deployment
• Git - Version control for all migrations
• GitHub CLI - Repository management
• pg_dump/pg_restore - Data migration utilities

📖 Additional Resources

Official Supabase Docs

• Supabase CLI Reference
• Database Migrations
• Managing Projects

Community Resources

• Supabase GitHub
• Supabase Discord
• CLI Documentation

🎯 Use Cases

This strategy is ideal for:

• Agency Project Handoffs - Transfer completed projects to client accounts
• Account Consolidation - Merge projects from multiple accounts
• Organizational Changes - Move projects between personal/team accounts
• Client Onboarding - Set up identical environments for new clients
• Backup & Recovery - Create versioned backups of entire projects
• Multi-tenant Setups - Deploy same schema to multiple accounts

⚠️ Considerations

Before migrating, consider:

• Data Migration - Large databases may take time to export/import
• Downtime - Plan for brief downtime during the switch
• API Keys - All applications need new project URLs and keys
• Auth Users - User passwords cannot be migrated (users must reset)
• Storage Files - Large file storage may need separate migration
• Testing - Thoroughly test new project before switching production traffic

🚦 Status

• ✅ Strategy documented
• ✅ Git workflow defined
• 🔄 Implementation in progress
• ⏳ Production deployment pending

📝 Contributing

This is a living document. As we learn more through implementation, we'll update the strategy and add:

• Migration scripts
• Deployment automation
• Monitoring setup
• Backup strategies
• Performance optimization guides

📞 Support

Questions or need help? Open an issue or reach out to the team.

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Last Updated: November 2024
Status: Active Development
License: Internal Use