---
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.

<Tabs
  scrollable
  size="small"
  type="underlined"
  defaultActiveId="dashboard"
  queryGroup="database-method"
>
<TabPanel id="dashboard" label="Dashboard">

1. Go to the [Table editor](/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.

{/* TODO: Further consolidate partial */}

To do this, you need to get the Project URL and key from [the project's **Connect** dialog](/dashboard/project/_?showConnect=true).

<Admonition type="note" title="Changes to API keys">

Supabase is changing the way keys work to improve project security and developer experience. You can [read the full announcement](https://github.com/orgs/supabase/discussions/29260), but in the transition period, you can use both the current `anon` and `service_role` keys and the new publishable key with the form `sb_publishable_xxx` which will replace the older keys.

In most cases, you can get the correct key from [the Project's **Connect** dialog](/dashboard/project/_?showConnect=true), but if you want a specific key, you can find all keys in [the API Keys section of a Project's Settings page](/dashboard/project/_/settings/api-keys/):

- **For legacy keys**, copy the `anon` key for client-side operations and the `service_role` key for server-side operations from the **Legacy API Keys** tab.
- **For new keys**, open the **API Keys** tab, if you don't have a publishable key already, click **Create new API Keys**, and copy the value from the **Publishable key** section.

</Admonition>

[Read the API keys docs](/docs/guides/api/api-keys) for a full explanation of all key types and their uses.

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

Both of these routes require the 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_PUBLISHABLE_KEY`) we provided:

<Tabs
  scrollable
  size="small"
  type="underlined"
  defaultActiveId="javascript"
  queryGroup="language"
>
<TabPanel id="javascript" label="Javascript">

```javascript
// Initialize the JS client
import { createClient } from '@supabase/supabase-js'
const supabase = createClient(SUPABASE_URL, SUPABASE_PUBLISHABLE_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_PUBLISHABLE_KEY>" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer <SUPABASE_PUBLISHABLE_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).