y-supabase

A Yjs provider that enables real-time collaboration and persistence through Supabase.

Features

• Real-time sync - Sync document changes across clients using Supabase Realtime broadcast
• Persistence - Persist document state to a Supabase Postgres table and restore on load
• Awareness - Track user presence, cursors, and selections with y-protocols/awareness
• Lightweight - Minimal dependencies, works with any Yjs-compatible editor
• TypeScript - Full TypeScript support with type definitions

Installation

npm install @supabase-labs/y-supabase yjs @supabase/supabase-js

Quick Start

import * as Y from 'yjs'
import { createClient } from '@supabase/supabase-js'
import { SupabaseProvider } from '@supabase-labs/y-supabase'

// Create a Yjs document
const doc = new Y.Doc()

// Create Supabase client
const supabase = createClient(
  'https://your-project.supabase.co',
  'your-anon-key'
)

// Create the provider
const provider = new SupabaseProvider('my-room', doc, supabase)

// Listen to connection events
provider.on('connect', () => {
  console.log('Connected to Supabase Realtime')
})

provider.on('error', (error) => {
  console.error('Provider error:', error)
})

// Use with any Yjs-compatible editor (Tiptap, Lexical, Monaco, etc.)
const yText = doc.getText('content')

Persistence

SupabasePersistence saves the full Yjs document state to a Supabase Postgres table and restores it when the document is opened. This works independently of SupabaseProvider — you can use either or both.

Database Setup

Create a table to store document state:

create table yjs_documents (
  room text primary key,
  state text not null
);

Usage

import * as Y from 'yjs'
import { createClient } from '@supabase/supabase-js'
import { SupabasePersistence } from '@supabase-labs/y-supabase'

const doc = new Y.Doc()
const supabase = createClient('https://your-project.supabase.co', 'your-anon-key')

const persistence = new SupabasePersistence('my-room', doc, supabase)

persistence.on('synced', () => {
  console.log('Document state loaded from Supabase')
})

persistence.on('error', (error) => {
  console.error('Persistence error:', error)
})

Using with SupabaseProvider

For real-time collaboration with persistence, pass persistence as a provider option:

const provider = new SupabaseProvider('my-room', doc, supabase, {
  persistence: true
})

// Access persistence events via getPersistence()
provider.getPersistence()?.on('synced', () => {
  console.log('Document state loaded')
})

You can also pass persistence options directly:

const provider = new SupabaseProvider('my-room', doc, supabase, {
  persistence: { table: 'custom_docs', storeTimeout: 2000 }
})

The provider handles live sync between connected clients, while persistence ensures the document state survives across sessions. The persistence instance is automatically destroyed when the provider is destroyed.

Persistence Options

type SupabasePersistenceOptions = {
  // Table name to store document state (default: 'yjs_documents')
  table?: string

  // Schema name (default: 'public')
  schema?: string

  // Column name for the room/document identifier (default: 'room')
  roomColumn?: string

  // Column name for the binary state (default: 'state')
  stateColumn?: string

  // Debounce timeout in ms before persisting updates (default: 1000)
  storeTimeout?: number
}

Persistence Events

Event	Payload	Description
synced	persistence	Initial state loaded from database
error	Error	An error occurred (fetch, persist, or flush failure)

Persistence API

new SupabasePersistence(name, doc, supabase, options?)

Creates a new persistence instance. Immediately fetches existing state from the database and applies it to the document.

• name - Room/document identifier (used as the primary key)
• doc - Yjs document instance
• supabase - Supabase client instance
• options - Optional configuration (see above)

Methods

• destroy() - Stop listening and flush any pending writes
• clearData() - Destroy and delete the persisted state from the database
• on(event, listener) - Subscribe to events
• off(event, listener) - Unsubscribe from events

Provider Configuration

Options

type SupabaseProviderOptions = {
  // Throttle broadcast updates (ms)
  broadcastThrottleMs?: number

  // Enable automatic reconnection on disconnect (default: true)
  autoReconnect?: boolean

  // Maximum reconnection attempts (default: Infinity)
  maxReconnectAttempts?: number

  // Initial reconnection delay in ms (default: 1000)
  reconnectDelay?: number

  // Maximum reconnection delay in ms (default: 30000)
  // Uses exponential backoff: 1s, 2s, 4s, 8s
  maxReconnectDelay?: number

  // Enable awareness for user presence (cursors, selections, etc.)
  // Pass `true` to create a new Awareness instance, or pass an existing one
  awareness?: boolean | Awareness

  // Enable persistence. Pass `true` for defaults, or pass SupabasePersistenceOptions
  persistence?: boolean | SupabasePersistenceOptions
}

Example with custom reconnection:

const provider = new SupabaseProvider('my-room', doc, supabase, {
  autoReconnect: true,
  maxReconnectAttempts: 5,
  reconnectDelay: 2000,
  maxReconnectDelay: 60000
})

Provider Events

Event	Payload	Description
connect	provider	Connected to Supabase Realtime
disconnect	provider	Disconnected from channel
status	'connecting' | 'connected' | 'disconnected'	Connection status changed
message	Uint8Array	Received update from peer
awareness	Uint8Array	Received awareness update from peer
error	Error	An error occurred (e.g., failed to decode update)

Provider API

new SupabaseProvider(channelName, doc, supabase, options?)

Creates a new provider instance.

• channelName - Unique identifier for the collaboration room
• doc - Yjs document instance
• supabase - Supabase client instance
• options - Optional configuration options (see above)

Methods

• connect() - Connect to the channel (called automatically)
• destroy() - Disconnect and clean up resources
• getStatus() - Get current connection status
• getAwareness() - Get the Awareness instance (or null if not enabled)
• getPersistence() - Get the SupabasePersistence instance (or null if not enabled)
• on(event, listener) - Subscribe to events
• off(event, listener) - Unsubscribe from events

Awareness

Awareness enables real-time presence features like user cursors, selections, and online status. It uses the standard y-protocols/awareness protocol, making it compatible with all Yjs editor bindings.

Enabling Awareness

const provider = new SupabaseProvider('my-room', doc, supabase, {
  awareness: true
})

// Set local user presence
const awareness = provider.getAwareness()!
awareness.setLocalStateField('user', {
  name: 'Alice',
  color: '#ff0000',
  cursor: { line: 10, column: 5 }
})

// Listen for remote awareness changes
provider.on('awareness', (update) => {
  console.log('Remote presence updated')
})

// Get all connected users
const states = awareness.getStates()
states.forEach((state, clientId) => {
  console.log(`User ${state?.user?.name} is online`)
})

Using an Existing Awareness Instance

import { Awareness } from 'y-protocols/awareness'

const awareness = new Awareness(doc)
const provider = new SupabaseProvider('my-room', doc, supabase, {
  awareness: awareness
})

Cleanup

Awareness states are automatically cleaned up when:

• provider.destroy() is called
• The user closes the browser tab (via beforeunload event)

Usage with Editors

Monaco

import * as Y from 'yjs'
import { MonacoBinding } from 'y-monaco'
import * as monaco from 'monaco-editor'
import { createClient } from '@supabase/supabase-js'
import { SupabaseProvider } from '@supabase-labs/y-supabase'

const supabase = createClient('https://...', 'your-key')
const doc = new Y.Doc()
const provider = new SupabaseProvider('my-room', doc, supabase, {
  awareness: true,
  persistence: true
})
provider.getPersistence()?.on('synced', () => console.log('Document state loaded'))

// Set user info for cursor display
const awareness = provider.getAwareness()!
awareness.setLocalStateField('user', {
  name: 'User ' + Math.floor(Math.random() * 100),
  color: '#' + Math.floor(Math.random() * 16777215).toString(16).padStart(6, '0')
})

const ytext = doc.getText('monaco')
const editor = monaco.editor.create(document.getElementById('editor')!, {
  value: '',
  language: 'javascript',
})

// Pass awareness for cursor/selection sync
new MonacoBinding(ytext, editor.getModel()!, new Set([editor]), awareness)

License

MIT