5.2.51. Supavisor

1. Overview

Supavisor is Atlas's optional Supabase Postgres transaction pooler. It protects supabase-db from connection growth as backend workers, workflows, notebooks, and data services expand.

Supavisor is disabled by default. When enabled, it routes only the backend, the Celery worker, n8n and n8n-worker through transaction mode.

2. Access

Supavisor speaks the Postgres wire protocol on transaction port 6543 inside the container. The listener is internal-only. It uses no host port and no topology port slot.

There is no Kong alias for Supavisor. The management API is also internal-only, because it is not a browser dashboard.

3. Configuration

Set SUPAVISOR_SOURCE=container to enable the pooler. Leave SUPAVISOR_SOURCE=disabled for the default direct-Postgres behavior.

Key variables:

Variable	Purpose
SUPAVISOR_SOURCE	disabled or container.
SUPAVISOR_TENANT_ID	Tenant suffix appended to the Postgres user. Default: atlas; must match [A-Za-z0-9_-]+ with no surrounding whitespace.
SUPAVISOR_DEFAULT_POOL_SIZE	Per-user upstream pool size. Default: 20.
SUPAVISOR_MAX_CLIENT_CONN	Maximum accepted client connections. Default: 100.
SUPAVISOR_DB_POOL_SIZE	Supavisor metadata DB pool size. Default: 5.
SUPAVISOR_VAULT_ENC_KEY	Exactly 32 bytes; generated by the bootstrapper when blank.

Generated client variables:

Variable	Enabled value	Disabled rollback value
SUPAVISOR_DATABASE_URL	postgresql://${BACKEND_DB_USER_URI}.${SUPAVISOR_TENANT_ID}:...@supavisor:6543/${SUPABASE_DB_NAME_URI}	Scoped Backend direct URL
SUPAVISOR_DB_HOST	supavisor	supabase-db
SUPAVISOR_DB_PORT_VALUE	6543	5432
SUPAVISOR_DB_USER	${N8N_DB_USER}.${SUPAVISOR_TENANT_ID}	${N8N_DB_USER}

4. Architecture & wiring

Supavisor depends on supabase-db-init, uses a dedicated management login for migrations and authentication lookup, evaluates pooler/pooler.exs, then starts the pooler server. Pooled clients retain their own PostgreSQL role and password.

Pooled consumers:

Consumer	Pooled setting
backend	DATABASE_URL=${SUPAVISOR_DATABASE_URL:-...direct...}
Celery worker	DATABASE_URL=${SUPAVISOR_DATABASE_URL:-...direct...}
n8n	DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST/PORT/USER from generated Supavisor envs
n8n-worker	Mirrors n8n DB settings

Direct Supabase consumers intentionally remain direct until session/native behavior is proven:

Direct consumer	Reason
PostgREST (supabase-api)	Session-sensitive API surface; not yet audited for transaction mode.
Realtime	Replication/session behavior stays direct.
GoTrue/Auth	Core Supabase service; direct until separately validated.
Storage, Meta, Studio	Core Supabase internals stay on supabase-db:5432.
supabase-db-init, postgres-exporter	Bootstrap and scrape paths stay direct.

5. Capabilities & limitations

Support tier: experimental — Capability contract declared; no cited cold-start, workflow, or upgrade qualification run yet (evidence at v0.1.0).

Capability	Status	Verification	Notes
Transaction pooling for selected application clients	partial	tested	Atlas routes backend, Celery, and n8n through Supavisor transaction pooling when enabled, while session-sensitive Supabase services remain on direct PostgreSQL connections.
Zero-edit direct Postgres rollback	supported	tested	Disabling Supavisor restores the selected consumers to their existing direct Supabase endpoints without changing application code or credentials.
Public pooler endpoint	not-supported	tested	The Supavisor port is backend-network only and Atlas publishes neither a host binding nor a Kong route for external database clients.

6. Rollback

Set SUPAVISOR_SOURCE=disabled and rerun ./start.sh. The bootstrapper resets SUPAVISOR_DATABASE_URL, SUPAVISOR_DB_HOST, SUPAVISOR_DB_PORT_VALUE and SUPAVISOR_DB_USER to direct supabase-db:5432 values. The backend, Celery and n8n then connect directly, with no compose-file edits.

7. Troubleshooting

• FATAL: Tenant or user not found: confirm the client username includes the tenant suffix, for example ${BACKEND_DB_USER}.${SUPAVISOR_TENANT_ID}.
• VAULT_ENC_KEY errors: make sure SUPAVISOR_VAULT_ENC_KEY is exactly 32 bytes. The bootstrapper generates this when the value is blank.
• Backend or n8n auth failures after enabling: set SUPAVISOR_SOURCE=disabled to roll back, then inspect Supavisor tenant bootstrap logs.
• The tenant is created once and never updated (pooler/pooler.exs, matching upstream Supabase). If .env is regenerated while volumes are kept, the scoped manager password changes but the stored tenant keeps the old one. Later edits to SUPAVISOR_DEFAULT_POOL_SIZE / SUPAVISOR_MAX_CLIENT_CONN also have no effect. To fix either, re-create the tenant (below).
• No Kong alias or host port is expected. Consumers connect over the Compose network at supavisor:6543.

Re-create the tenant. Supavisor has no volume of its own, so do not touch the supabase-db volume.

1. In the supavisor database on supabase-db, run DELETE FROM _supavisor.tenants WHERE external_id = '<SUPAVISOR_TENANT_ID>';. Its _supavisor.users rows cascade.
2. Restart Supavisor.

8. Dependencies & Integrations

8.1. Current — Upstream (this service calls)

Service	Category
supabase	data

8.2. Current — Downstream (services that call this)

Service	Category
celery	agents
n8n	agents
backend	apps

8.3. Architecture diagram

Open the full-size diagram for a full-screen view.

8.4. Future — Missing pair integrations

No high-confidence opportunities identified.

8.5. Future — Candidate new services

No high-confidence opportunities identified.

8.6. Future — Unused features in this service

No high-confidence opportunities identified.