Supabase Keep Alive

Keeps your Supabase free-tier databases from pausing after 7 days of inactivity.

Runs twice daily (6 AM & 6 PM UTC), inserts a record into a keep_alive table, then deletes it immediately.

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Setup

1. Get your Supabase service role keys

For each database:

1. Open Supabase Dashboard
2. Go to Settings → API
3. Copy the service_role key (not the anon key)

2. Add keys to GitHub Secrets

gh secret set SUPABASE_URL_1     # Example: https://abcdefgh.supabase.co
gh secret set SUPABASE_KEY_1     # Paste your Database 1 service_role key
gh secret set SUPABASE_URL_2     # Example: https://ijklmnop.supabase.co
gh secret set SUPABASE_KEY_2     # Paste your Database 2 service_role key

Or set them manually: GitHub repo → Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions → New repository secret

3. Create keep_alive table in both databases

Open Supabase Dashboard → SQL Editor → New query

Run this in Database 1 and 2:

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS public.keep_alive CASCADE;

CREATE TABLE public.keep_alive (
    id uuid DEFAULT gen_random_uuid() PRIMARY KEY,
    ping_time timestamptz DEFAULT now() NOT NULL
);

ALTER TABLE public.keep_alive ENABLE ROW LEVEL SECURITY;

CREATE POLICY "Allow all operations" ON public.keep_alive
    FOR ALL TO public USING (true) WITH CHECK (true);

4. Done

The workflow runs automatically twice a day. You can also trigger it manually:

gh workflow run keep-supabase-alive.yml

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How it works

• Inserts a record with timestamp
• Deletes the record immediately
• Write operations signal active database usage to Supabase
• Service role key bypasses RLS policies

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Verify it's working

gh run list --limit 1

Should show success. Check logs:

gh run view <run-id> --log | grep "✓"

Should see:

✓ Record inserted successfully with ID: X
✓ Database 1 kept alive successfully (insert+delete)
✓ Record inserted successfully with ID: Y
✓ Database 2 kept alive successfully (insert+delete)

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Troubleshooting

Workflow fails: Check that you used service_role key, not anon key

Table not found: Run the SQL script for Database 2

Want to change schedule: Edit .github/workflows/keep-supabase-alive.yml line 6