Supabase setup

Supabase is where Almanac keeps everything: conversations, contacts, deals, logins and uploaded files. The free plan is enough for a small business to start. This page covers what to click and the few things that trip people up.

Create the project#

1. Sign up at supabase.com and click New project.
2. Name: anything, e.g. almanac.
3. Database password: click Generate a password and save it in your password manager. The installer asks for it once, to create the tables. Supabase can't show it to you again (you can reset it under Project Settings → Database).
4. Region: pick the one closest to your customers. For India choose Mumbai (ap-south-1). You can't change this later.
5. Click Create new project and wait a minute or two.

The three keys the installer asks for#

Open Project Settings → API (in newer dashboards: Project Settings → API Keys and Data API).

Keep the service_role key secret. It bypasses every security rule in your database. It only ever goes into .env.local on your server, never into a browser, a chat or a screenshot.

Let people sign up#

By default Supabase asks every new user to confirm their email, and its built-in mail service is deliberately limited: it only sends to members of your Supabase team, and only a few emails an hour. Pick one:

• Just you (or you and a partner): sign up in Almanac with the same email you use for Supabase, and the confirmation arrives normally.
• Skip confirmation: Authentication → Sign In / Providers → Email, turn off Confirm email. Fine when only people you invite will ever see the sign-up page.
• Proper email (recommended once you have staff): Authentication → Emails → SMTP Settings, and plug in a mail provider such as Resend, Brevo or Amazon SES. Their free tiers are plenty.

Then set where login links point: Authentication → URL Configuration

• Site URL: your Almanac address, e.g. https://crm.yourshop.in (http://localhost:3000 while testing on your laptop).
• Redirect URLs: add the same address with /** on the end.

Things worth knowing#

• Free projects pause after a week without activity. A business using Almanac daily never hits this. If it happens, open the project in Supabase and click Restore; nothing is lost. The Pro plan never pauses.
• Storage: photos, voice notes and documents from chats are kept in Supabase Storage. The free plan includes 1 GB; check Usage now and then if you send a lot of media.
• Backups: the free plan has no restorable backups. Take your own with npx supabase db dump -f backup.sql inside the Almanac folder, or move to Pro for daily backups once your business depends on it.
• Updates: when an Almanac update adds a database change, re-run the installer (or npx supabase db push in the folder). It only applies what's new.
• Resetting everything: delete the project in Supabase, create a new one and run the installer again with the new keys.

Next: WhatsApp setup.