The AI-First Backend
Engineered in Rust

Introduction

nanobase is an ultra-lightweight, single-binary, Supabase-compatible backend engineered in Rust. It compresses the functionality of the official 12-container Supabase Docker stack into a single, high-performance process with near-instant cold-starts.

It is designed specifically for autonomous coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex) and scale-to-zero multi-tenant cloud hosting on platforms like Fly.io.

Installation & CLI

Install nanobase with the one-line installer:

curl -fsSL https://nanobase.dev/install.sh | bash

Verify the installation:

nanobase --version
nanobase keys

Project Quickstart & Lifecycle

Initialize nanobase inside any fresh or existing project directory:

cd my-app
nanobase init

This creates nanobase.yaml and .env.local with pre-configured keys and prints the Admin Studio token.

Mode 1: Unified App & Backend Lifecycle (nanobase dev)

Run both your application and the backend together with auto-injected Supabase environment variables and unified teardown:

# Run alongside Next.js, Node, Vite, etc.
nanobase dev -- npm start
# Or in package.json: "dev": "nanobase dev -- next dev"

Mode 2: Standalone Terminal Lifecycle (nanobase start)

Run the backend and Web Studio in a dedicated terminal:

nanobase start

Open http://localhost:54321/_/ (or over Tailscale LAN at http://mini:54321/_/) to access Web Studio.

Multi-Project Discovery (nanobase projects)

Discover and check status of all nanobase workspaces across your machine:

nanobase projects

PostgREST REST API (`/rest/v1/*`)

nanobase implements the PostgREST URL query grammar. Connect with @supabase/supabase-js:

import { createClient } from '@supabase/supabase-js'

const supabase = createClient('http://localhost:54321', 'ANON_KEY')

// Query with filters, embedded joins, and ordering
const { data, error } = await supabase
  .from('todos')
  .select('*, author:users(name)')
  .eq('done', false)
  .order('created_at', { ascending: false })

GoTrue Authentication (`/auth/v1/*`)

Complete authentication lifecycle backed by Argon2id password hashing and HS256 JWT tokens:

// Sign up
const { data, error } = await supabase.auth.signUp({
  email: 'dev@nanobase.dev',
  password: 'SuperSecretPassword123!'
})

// Sign in
const { data: session } = await supabase.auth.signInWithPassword({
  email: 'dev@nanobase.dev',
  password: 'SuperSecretPassword123!'
})

Realtime CDC Hub (`/realtime/v1/*`)

Subscribe to database mutations over Phoenix WebSockets in real time:

supabase
  .channel('public:todos')
  .on('postgres_changes', { event: '*', schema: 'public', table: 'todos' }, (payload) => {
    console.log('Change received:', payload)
  })
  .subscribe()

Model Context Protocol (MCP) for Agents

nanobase includes an embedded MCP server exposing 26 tools. Connect Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex by adding to your MCP configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nanobase": {
      "command": "nanobase",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}