---
id: postgres-changes
title: Postgres Changes
description: Getting started with Realtime's Postgres Changes feature
---

Supabase Postgres Changes listen for database changes and sends them to clients. Clients are required to subscribe with a JWT dictating which changes they are allowed to receive based on the database's [Row Level Security](/docs/guides/auth/row-level-security).

:::caution
Anyone with access to a valid JWT signed with the project's JWT secret is able to listen to your database's changes, unless tables have [Row Level Security](/docs/guides/auth/row-level-security) enabled and policies in place.
:::

Clients can choose to receive `INSERT`, `UPDATE`, `DELETE`, or `*` (all) changes for all changes in a schema, a table in a schema, or a column's value in a table.Your clients can only listen to tables in the `public` schema and you must first enable the tables you want your clients to listen to. You can do this in the [Replication](https://app.supabase.com/project/_/database/replication) section in the Dashboard or with the [SQL editor](https://app.supabase.com/project/_/sql):

```sql
begin;
  -- remove the supabase_realtime publication
  drop publication if exists supabase_realtime;

  -- re-create the supabase_realtime publication with no tables
  create publication supabase_realtime;
commit;

-- add a table to the publication
alter publication supabase_realtime add table messages;
```

By default, only `new` record changes are sent but if you want to receive the `old` record (previous values) whenever you `UPDATE` or `DELETE` a record,
you can set the `replica identity` of your table to `full`:

```sql
alter table messages replica identity full;
```

To listen to all changes in the `public` schema:

```js
const { createClient } = require('@supabase/supabase-js')

const supabase = createClient(
  process.env.SUPABASE_URL,
  process.env.SUPABASE_KEY
)

/*
  Channel name can be any string.
  Event name can can be one of:
    - INSERT
    - UPDATE
    - DELETE
    - *
*/
const channel = supabase
  .channel('schema-db-changes')
  .on('postgres_changes', { event: '*', schema: 'public' }, (payload) =>
    console.log(payload)
  )
  .subscribe()
```

To listen to changes on a table in the `public` schema:

```js
// Supabase client setup

const channel = supabase
  .channel('table-db-changes')
  .on(
    'postgres_changes',
    { event: 'INSERT', schema: 'public', table: 'messages' },
    (payload) => console.log(payload)
  )
  .subscribe()
```

To listen to changes when a column's value in a table matches a client-specified value:

```js
// Supabase client setup

const channel = supabase
  .channel('value-db-changes')
  .on(
    'postgres_changes',
    {
      event: 'UPDATE',
      schema: 'public',
      table: 'messages',
      filter: 'body=eq.hey',
    },
    (payload) => console.log(payload)
  )
  .subscribe()
```

To listen to different events and schema/tables/filters combinations with the same channel:

```js
// Supabase client setup

const channel = supabase
  .channel('db-changes')
  .on(
    'postgres_changes',
    { event: '*', schema: 'public', table: 'messages', filter: 'body=eq.bye' },
    (payload) => console.log(payload)
  )
  .on(
    'postgres_changes',
    { event: 'INSERT', schema: 'public', table: 'users' },
    (payload) => console.log(payload)
  )
  .subscribe()
```