---
id: 'creating-routes'
title: 'Creating API Routes'
description: 'API routes are automatically created when you create Postgres Tables, Views, or Functions.'
---

API routes are automatically created when you create Postgres Tables, Views, or Functions.

## Create a table

Let's create our first API route by creating a table called `todos` to store tasks.
This creates a corresponding route `todos` which can accept `GET`, `POST`, `PATCH`, & `DELETE` requests.

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  scrollable
  size="small"
  type="underlined"
  defaultActiveId="dashboard"
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<TabPanel id="dashboard" label="Dashboard">

1. Go to the [Table editor](https://supabase.com/dashboard/project/_/editor) page in the Dashboard.
1. Click **New Table** and create a table with the name `todos`.
1. Click **Save**.
1. Click **New Column** and create a column with the name `task` and type `text`.
1. Click **Save**.

<video width="99%" muted playsInline controls={true}>
  <source
    src="https://xguihxuzqibwxjnimxev.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/videos/docs/api/api-create-table-sm.mp4"
    type="video/mp4"
  />
</video>

</TabPanel>
<TabPanel id="sql" label="SQL">

```sql
 -- Create a table called "todos" with a column to store tasks.
create table
  todos (
    id bigint generated by default as identity primary key,
    task text check (char_length(task) > 3)
  );
```

</TabPanel>
</Tabs>

## API URL and keys

Every Supabase project has a unique API URL. Your API is secured behind an API gateway which requires an API Key for every request.

1. Go to the [Settings](https://supabase.com/dashboard/project/_/settings/general) page in the Dashboard.
2. Click **API** in the sidebar.
3. Find your API `URL`, `anon`, and `service_role` keys on this page.

<video width="99%" muted playsInline controls={true}>
  <source
    src="https://xguihxuzqibwxjnimxev.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/videos/docs/api/api-url-and-key.mp4"
    type="video/mp4"
  />
</video>

The REST API is accessible through the URL `https://<project_ref>.supabase.co/rest/v1`

Both of these routes require the `anon` key to be passed through an `apikey` header.

## Using the API

You can interact with your API directly via HTTP requests, or you can use the client libraries which we provide.

Let's see how to make a request to the `todos` table which we created in the first step,
using the API URL (`SUPABASE_URL`) and Key (`SUPABASE_ANON_KEY`) we provided:

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<TabPanel id="javascript" label="Javascript">

```javascript
// Initialize the JS client
import { createClient } from '@supabase/supabase-js'
const supabase = createClient(SUPABASE_URL, SUPABASE_ANON_KEY)

// Make a request
const { data: todos, error } = await supabase.from('todos').select('*')
```

</TabPanel>
<TabPanel id="curl" label="cURL">

```bash
# Append /rest/v1/ to your URL, and then use the table name as the route
curl '<SUPABASE_URL>/rest/v1/todos' \
-H "apikey: <SUPABASE_ANON_KEY>" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer <SUPABASE_ANON_KEY>"
```

</TabPanel>
</Tabs>

JS Reference: [select()](/docs/reference/javascript/select),
[insert()](/docs/reference/javascript/insert),
[update()](/docs/reference/javascript/update),
[upsert()](/docs/reference/javascript/upsert),
[delete()](/docs/reference/javascript/delete),
[rpc()](/docs/reference/javascript/rpc) (call Postgres functions).