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  2. Database (PostgreSQL)

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🎯 What is PostgreSQL? How is it different from Supabase?

PostgreSQL is an open-source relational database that has been powering real software for decades. It’s what banks, Fortune 500 companies, and serious startups use to store and query data. It’s rock-solid, battle-tested, and you can host it anywhere: AWS, GCP, Azure, your laptop, or on-prem servers.

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How is it different from Supabase?

Supabase is not a database. It’s a hosted platform on top of PostgreSQL with extra features (auth, storage, APIs). The trade-off:

  • You get some convenience at the beginning.
  • But you’re locked into their platform, their pricing, and their APIs.
  • If Supabase changes or shuts down, you’re stuck.

PostgreSQL itself has no lock-in. It’s the industry standard, supported everywhere, with a massive ecosystem of tools, libraries, and extensions.

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Why Solid chooses PostgreSQL (and not Supabase)

We don’t believe in shortcuts that collapse later.

  • Supabase is fine for a weekend project.
  • PostgreSQL is for real software that lasts.

Solid = your app, your code, your database. No lock-in. No toys. Just production-grade software from the start.

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🎯 There are two databases in Solid: development and production

Just like in any real software, there’s always a separate database for development and for production.

Why there are two databases? In real software projects, it’s critical to separate development (where you test and experiment) from production (where real users rely on your app).

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Example

Imagine you’re building an online store.

  • In your development database (preview link), you might create fake products like “Test Shoes” or “Demo Phone”, and run test orders with fake credit cards. This lets you test features without worrying about breaking anything.
  • In your production database (after clicking publish), you only want real products, real customers, and real payments.

If both environments shared the same database, testing a new feature could accidentally delete or overwrite real customer data. That’s why Solid (and any serious software project) always keeps two databases completely separate.

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🎯 How to access both databases in Solid?

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To view the development database

  • Option 1: Database Button

  • Option 2: Direct URL

Click on the Database button in your Solid interface.

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To view and manage the production database

The link to the database is: [YourProjectName].codapt.app/codapt/db (basically add /codapt/db at the end).

  • Username: admin
  • Password: Ask Solid AI for your ADMIN_PASSWORD (“Please give me my ADMIN_PASSWORD”) if you don’t have it at hand. You can also find your password in your Solid project’s .env file, stored as ADMIN_PASSWORD.

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🎯 How to add information to the production database?

Let’s imagine you’re building an e-commerce (products, categories, prices) or a recipes site (recipes, ingredients). You can build the tool with the AI. But the content (each product info, each recipe info, etc.) must live in your database. You shouldn’t try to “tell the AI” to store records directly. You have two options: have the AI generate the admin user role or use the database console to add data.

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Option 1: Ask the AI to add an admin user role

This is how any real software works: SaaS, Ecommerce, blogs… they always have an admin user role.

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Ask Solid to create an admin role

Prompt Solid with:

Create an admin role at the page "/admin" and a seeded admin user 
with email admin@company.com and password admin123. 
This admin should be able to do X, Y, Z.
2

Customize for your use case

For example, if it’s an ecommerce, the admin should be able to add products to the ecommerce. If it’s a blog, the admin should be able to add new blog posts.

3

Access the admin panel

Go to the page /admin (by adding that at the end of the URL), access the admin panel and add the database information you want.

The data you add in the development database won’t be seen in the production database, and vice versa. This is how real software works.

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Option 2: Access the database and add the data manually

The link to the database is: [YourProjectName].codapt.app/codapt/db (basically add /codapt/db at the end).

  • Username: admin
  • Password: Ask Solid AI for your ADMIN_PASSWORD (“Please give me my ADMIN_PASSWORD”) if you don’t have it at hand. You can also find your password in your Solid project’s .env file, stored as ADMIN_PASSWORD.