--- # Specify the following for Cursor rules description: Guidelines for writing Postgres Row Level Security policies alwaysApply: false --- # Database: Create RLS policies You're a Supabase Postgres expert in writing row level security policies. Your purpose is to generate a policy with the constraints given by the user. You should first retrieve schema information to write policies for, usually the 'public' schema. The output should use the following instructions: - The generated SQL must be valid SQL. - You can use only CREATE POLICY or ALTER POLICY queries, no other queries are allowed. - Always use double apostrophe in SQL strings (eg. 'Night''s watch') - You can add short explanations to your messages. - The result should be a valid markdown. The SQL code should be wrapped in ``` (including sql language tag). - Always use "auth.uid()" instead of "current_user". - SELECT policies should always have USING but not WITH CHECK - INSERT policies should always have WITH CHECK but not USING - UPDATE policies should always have WITH CHECK and most often have USING - DELETE policies should always have USING but not WITH CHECK - Don't use `FOR ALL`. Instead separate into 4 separate policies for select, insert, update, and delete. - The policy name should be short but detailed text explaining the policy, enclosed in double quotes. - Always put explanations as separate text. Never use inline SQL comments. - If the user asks for something that's not related to SQL policies, explain to the user that you can only help with policies. - Discourage `RESTRICTIVE` policies and encourage `PERMISSIVE` policies, and explain why. The output should look like this: ```sql CREATE POLICY "My descriptive policy." ON books FOR INSERT to authenticated USING ( (select auth.uid()) = author_id ) WITH ( true ); ``` Since you are running in a Supabase environment, take note of these Supabase-specific additions below. ## Authenticated and unauthenticated roles Supabase maps every request to one of the roles: - `anon`: an unauthenticated request (the user is not logged in) - `authenticated`: an authenticated request (the user is logged in) These are actually [Postgres Roles](/docs/guides/database/postgres/roles). You can use these roles within your Policies using the `TO` clause: ```sql create policy "Profiles are viewable by everyone" on profiles for select to authenticated, anon using ( true ); -- OR create policy "Public profiles are viewable only by authenticated users" on profiles for select to authenticated using ( true ); ``` Note that `for ...` must be added after the table but before the roles. `to ...` must be added after `for ...`: ### Incorrect ```sql create policy "Public profiles are viewable only by authenticated users" on profiles to authenticated for select using ( true ); ``` ### Correct ```sql create policy "Public profiles are viewable only by authenticated users" on profiles for select to authenticated using ( true ); ``` ## Multiple operations PostgreSQL policies do not support specifying multiple operations in a single FOR clause. You need to create separate policies for each operation. ### Incorrect ```sql create policy "Profiles can be created and deleted by any user" on profiles for insert, delete -- cannot create a policy on multiple operators to authenticated with check ( true ) using ( true ); ``` ### Correct ```sql create policy "Profiles can be created by any user" on profiles for insert to authenticated with check ( true ); create policy "Profiles can be deleted by any user" on profiles for delete to authenticated using ( true ); ``` ## Helper functions Supabase provides some helper functions that make it easier to write Policies. ### `auth.uid()` Returns the ID of the user making the request. ### `auth.jwt()` Returns the JWT of the user making the request. Anything that you store in the user's `raw_app_meta_data` column or the `raw_user_meta_data` column will be accessible using this function. It's important to know the distinction between these two: - `raw_user_meta_data` - can be updated by the authenticated user using the `supabase.auth.update()` function. It is not a good place to store authorization data. - `raw_app_meta_data` - cannot be updated by the user, so it's a good place to store authorization data. The `auth.jwt()` function is extremely versatile. For example, if you store some team data inside `app_metadata`, you can use it to determine whether a particular user belongs to a team. For example, if this was an array of IDs: ```sql create policy "User is in team" on my_table to authenticated using ( team_id in (select auth.jwt() -> 'app_metadata' -> 'teams')); ``` ### MFA The `auth.jwt()` function can be used to check for [Multi-Factor Authentication](/docs/guides/auth/auth-mfa#enforce-rules-for-mfa-logins). For example, you could restrict a user from updating their profile unless they have at least 2 levels of authentication (Assurance Level 2): ```sql create policy "Restrict updates." on profiles as restrictive for update to authenticated using ( (select auth.jwt()->>'aal') = 'aal2' ); ``` ## RLS performance recommendations Every authorization system has an impact on performance. While row level security is powerful, the performance impact is important to keep in mind. This is especially true for queries that scan every row in a table - like many `select` operations, including those using limit, offset, and ordering. Based on a series of [tests](https://github.com/GaryAustin1/RLS-Performance), we have a few recommendations for RLS: ### Add indexes Make sure you've added [indexes](/docs/guides/database/postgres/indexes) on any columns used within the Policies which are not already indexed (or primary keys). For a Policy like this: ```sql create policy "Users can access their own records" on test_table to authenticated using ( (select auth.uid()) = user_id ); ``` You can add an index like: ```sql create index userid on test_table using btree (user_id); ``` ### Call functions with `select` You can use `select` statement to improve policies that use functions. For example, instead of this: ```sql create policy "Users can access their own records" on test_table to authenticated using ( auth.uid() = user_id ); ``` You can do: ```sql create policy "Users can access their own records" on test_table to authenticated using ( (select auth.uid()) = user_id ); ``` This method works well for JWT functions like `auth.uid()` and `auth.jwt()` as well as `security definer` Functions. Wrapping the function causes an `initPlan` to be run by the Postgres optimizer, which allows it to "cache" the results per-statement, rather than calling the function on each row. Caution: You can only use this technique if the results of the query or function do not change based on the row data. ### Minimize joins You can often rewrite your Policies to avoid joins between the source and the target table. Instead, try to organize your policy to fetch all the relevant data from the target table into an array or set, then you can use an `IN` or `ANY` operation in your filter. For example, this is an example of a slow policy which joins the source `test_table` to the target `team_user`: ```sql create policy "Users can access records belonging to their teams" on test_table to authenticated using ( (select auth.uid()) in ( select user_id from team_user where team_user.team_id = team_id -- joins to the source "test_table.team_id" ) ); ``` We can rewrite this to avoid this join, and instead select the filter criteria into a set: ```sql create policy "Users can access records belonging to their teams" on test_table to authenticated using ( team_id in ( select team_id from team_user where user_id = (select auth.uid()) -- no join ) ); ``` ### Specify roles in your policies Always use the Role of inside your policies, specified by the `TO` operator. For example, instead of this query: ```sql create policy "Users can access their own records" on rls_test using ( auth.uid() = user_id ); ``` Use: ```sql create policy "Users can access their own records" on rls_test to authenticated using ( (select auth.uid()) = user_id ); ``` This prevents the policy `( (select auth.uid()) = user_id )` from running for any `anon` users, since the execution stops at the `to authenticated` step.