Supabase MCP with Cursor — Step-by-step Guide

It’s MCP season and Supabase came to play.

This week I setup the official Supabase MCP server with Cursor and build a React app (database + auth integrations).

Check out the video on YouTube

The video demo goes about 10 minutes and it took ~30 minutes real-time to create. Crazy times we live in…

Skip to around the 7:30 mark to see my mind really get blown.

AI Engineer Roadmap 🚀

Thanks to all who took the plunge last month and started in on your AI Engineer Roadmap — https://zazencodes.com/

Topics from this week’s video

• Supabase MCP Server Setup

  • Introduction to setting up the official Supabase MCP server with an IDE

  • Overview of model context protocol (MCP) on supabase.com

  • Steps to generate a personal access token for authentication

• Cursor IDE Integration

  • Creating a new project and configuring the .cursor/mcp.json file

  • Setting personal access token in Cursor settings

  • Enabling MCP server in Cursor and verifying it’s running

• Building a To-Do App with AI Assistance

  • Using agent mode in Cursor to request a to-do list app

  • Agent auto-selects Supabase tools and begins setup

  • Project creation and database setup with MCP tool calls

    • Listing organizations and creating a new Supabase project

    • Generating to-dos table schema and attempting to apply migrations

    • Initial issues with permissions and table creation

    • Automatic retries and problem resolution by the AI agent

• Application Scaffolding

  • Cursor generates project structure and environment files

  • Auto-fetching Supabase project URL and anon key

  • Installing packages via NPM and launching the development server

• To-Do List App Functionality

  • Creating and listing tasks from the frontend

  • Data syncing with Supabase backend in real-time

  • Confirming task records in Supabase database

• Adding Authentication

  • AI-assisted setup of Supabase Auth for sign-up/login

  • Handling account verification via email

  • Testing sign-up and login flows within the app

  • Verifying authentication data in Supabase dashboard

• Reflecting on AI Automation

  • Recap of how AI with MCP and Cursor handled setup:

    • React project creation

    • Environment config

    • Database and table setup

    • Auth integration

  • Commentary on how this process would have taken days without AI

  • Emphasizing the drastic improvement in developer experience

• Final Thoughts and Next Steps

  • Preparing project for Git with .gitignore and committing files

  • Encouragement to like and subscribe for more content

  • Teaser for next demo:

    • Building a wallpaper app using Supabase Storage

    • Using Cline IDE plugin in VS Code for open source dev workflows

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And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.

Friedrich Nietzsche