---
title: 'GitHub integration'
subtitle: 'Connect with GitHub to sync branches with your repository'
---

Supabase Branching uses the Supabase GitHub integration to read files from your GitHub repository. With this integration, Supabase watches all commits, branches, and pull requests of your GitHub repository.

## Installation

In the Supabase Dashboard:

1. Go to **Project Settings** > [**Integrations**](/dashboard/project/_/settings/integrations).
2. Under **GitHub Integration**, click **Authorize GitHub**.
3. You are redirected to a GitHub authorization page. Click **Authorize Supabase**.
4. You are redirected back to the Integrations page. Choose a GitHub repository to connect your project to.
5. Set the **Working directory** field.
6. Configure the other options as needed to automate your GitHub connection.
7. Click **Enable integration**.

### Set the working directory

The working directory is the path from your repository root to the directory that contains the `supabase/` folder. Enter `.` when `supabase/` is at the repository root.

If `supabase/` is nested deeper in your repository, enter its parent directory instead. For example, if your layout is `apps/web/supabase/`, enter `apps/web`.

## Preparing your Git repository

You will be using the [Supabase CLI](/docs/guides/local-development) to initialize your local `./supabase` directory:

<StepHikeCompact>
    <StepHikeCompact.Step step={1}>
        <StepHikeCompact.Details title="Initialize Supabase locally" fullWidth>

            If you don't have a `./supabase` directory, you can create one:

            ```markdown
            supabase init
            ```

        </StepHikeCompact.Details>
    </StepHikeCompact.Step>

    <StepHikeCompact.Step step={2}>
        <StepHikeCompact.Details title="Pull your database migration" fullWidth>

            Pull your database changes using `supabase db pull`. To get your database connection string, go to your project dashboard, click [Connect](/dashboard/project/_?showConnect=true&method=session) and look for the Session pooler connection string.

            ```markdown
            supabase db pull --db-url <db_connection_string>

            # Your Database connection string will look like this:
            # postgres://postgres.xxxx:password@xxxx.pooler.supabase.com:5432/postgres
            ```
        <Admonition type="note">

          If you're in an [IPv6 environment](https://github.com/orgs/supabase/discussions/27034) or have the IPv4 Add-On, you can use the direct connection string instead of Supavisor in Session mode.

        </Admonition>

        </StepHikeCompact.Details>
    </StepHikeCompact.Step>

    <StepHikeCompact.Step step={3}>
        <StepHikeCompact.Details title="Commit the `supabase` directory to Git" fullWidth>

            Commit the `supabase` directory to Git, and push your changes to your remote repository.

            ```bash
            git add supabase
            git commit -m "Initial migration"
            git push
            ```


        </StepHikeCompact.Details>
    </StepHikeCompact.Step>

</StepHikeCompact>

## Syncing GitHub branches

Enable the **Automatic branching** option in your GitHub Integration configuration to automatically sync GitHub branches with Supabase branches.

When a new branch is created in GitHub, a corresponding branch is created in Supabase. (You can enable the **Supabase changes only** option to only create Supabase branches when Supabase files change.)

Every Supabase branch, preview or persistent, is created as a clone of your base project. The new branch starts with the Edge Functions and configuration of that project. Its database schema is not cloned. Instead, it is built from the migrations you commit to your repository.

### Configuration

You can test configuration changes on your Preview Branch by configuring the `config.toml` file in your Supabase directory. See the [Configuration docs](/docs/guides/deployment/branching/configuration) for more information.

Your branch starts with the configuration of your base project. The settings in your `config.toml` file are applied on top of that clone.

A comment is added to your PR with the deployment status of your preview branch.

### Migrations

The migrations in the `migrations` subdirectory of your Supabase directory are automatically run when the branch is created. Each later commit runs only the migrations that haven't been applied yet.

If your project uses [declarative schemas](/docs/guides/local-development/declarative-database-schemas), the files in `supabase/schemas/` are not applied by branching. Run `supabase db schema declarative sync` to generate a migration from your schema changes, and commit the generated migration alongside your schema files.

Branching runs each migration file inside a single transaction and does not honor the `-- pg-delta: transaction=false` directive. A migration that can't run in a transaction (for example, one that uses `create index concurrently`, or a [`pg-delta`](/docs/guides/local-development/diff-engines) file that carries the directive) applies with `supabase db push` but fails when branching deploys it.

If you want to rerun existing migrations, reset the branch from the Supabase dashboard to start from scratch. Note that existing data on your branch will also be dropped by a reset.

### Seeding

Cloning your base project copies its Edge Functions and configuration, but not its data or storage objects. This is meant to protect your sensitive production data. Your branch starts with the tables your migrations create, and the only rows in them are the ones your seed files add.

You can seed your Preview Branch with sample data using the `seed.sql` file in your Supabase directory. See the [Seeding docs](/docs/guides/local-development/seeding-your-database) for more information.

Data changes in your seed files are not merged to production.

## Deploying changes to production

Enable the **Deploy to production** option in your GitHub Integration configuration to automatically deploy changes when you push or merge to production branch.

The following changes are deployed:

- New migrations are applied
- Edge Functions declared in `config.toml` are deployed
- Storage buckets declared in `config.toml` are deployed

All other configurations, including API, Auth, and seed files, are ignored by default.

## Preventing migration failures

We highly recommend turning on a 'required check' for the Supabase integration. You can do this from your GitHub repository settings. This prevents PRs from being merged when migration checks fail, and stops invalid migrations from being merged into your production branch.

<Image

className="max-w-[700px] mx-auto!"
alt='Check the "Require status checks to pass before merging" option.'
caption='Check the "Require status checks to pass before merging" option.'
src="/docs/img/guides/platform/branching/github-required-check.jpg?v=1"
width={1140}
height={979}
/>

### Email notifications

To catch failures early, we also recommend subscribing to email notifications on your branch. Common errors include migration conflict, function deployment failure, or invalid configuration file.

You can setup a custom GitHub Action to monitor the status of any Supabase Branch.

```yaml name=.github/workflows/notify-failure.yaml
name: Branch Status

on:
  pull_request:
    types:
      - opened
      - reopened
      - synchronize
    branches:
      - main
      - develop
    paths:
      - 'supabase/**'

jobs:
  failed:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: fountainhead/action-wait-for-check@v1.2.0
        id: check
        with:
          checkName: Supabase Preview
          ref: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha || github.sha }}
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

      - if: ${{ steps.check.outputs.conclusion == 'failure' }}
        run: exit 1
```