The pattern

The whole point of doing the auth work in step 6 was to get to this line:

const supabase = supabaseFor(user);

After which every database call is automatically scoped to what the user can see. No where user_id = ? in app code, no risk of forgetting one and leaking data.

How that works:

  1. supabase-js takes an Authorization: Bearer <jwt> header per request.
  2. Postgres receives the JWT, parses it into auth.uid() and friends.
  3. Our RLS policies (step 3) reference auth.uid() to decide row visibility.
  4. The database returns the right slice; the application is none the wiser.

1. Create the client factory

Make supabase/functions/mcp/supabase.ts:

import { createClient, SupabaseClient } from "@supabase/supabase-js";
import type { AuthedUser } from "./auth.ts";
 
const SUPABASE_URL = Deno.env.get("SUPABASE_URL")!;
const SUPABASE_ANON_KEY = Deno.env.get("SUPABASE_ANON_KEY")!;
 
/**
 * Build a Supabase client scoped to the given user. Every query through
 * this client runs as that user, so RLS policies enforce access control
 * without the application having to repeat `where user_id = ?` everywhere.
 *
 * IMPORTANT: never share a client across requests — it carries the user's
 * token. One client per (request, user).
 */
export function supabaseFor(user: AuthedUser): SupabaseClient {
  return createClient(SUPABASE_URL, SUPABASE_ANON_KEY, {
    global: {
      headers: {
        Authorization: `Bearer ${user.raw}`,
      },
    },
    auth: {
      persistSession: false,
      autoRefreshToken: false,
    },
  });
}

A few specifics:

  • We pass the anon key as the apikey. The anon key is fine because it has no special database role — authenticated (driven by the JWT) is what does the work.
  • persistSession: false and autoRefreshToken: false keep the client stateless. Each request rebuilds its own client.
  • The user's JWT is in the Authorization header on every request the client makes to Supabase. Postgres reads auth.uid() from that JWT and enforces RLS.

2. Smoke test the RLS chain end-to-end

Add a quick test route to supabase/functions/mcp/index.ts:

import { supabaseFor } from "./supabase.ts";
 
// TEMPORARY — for verifying RLS works. Remove before deploying.
app.get("/_debug/workspaces", requireAuth, async (c) => {
  const user = c.get("user");
  const supabase = supabaseFor(user);
 
  const { data, error } = await supabase
    .from("workspaces")
    .select("id, name, created_at")
    .order("created_at", { ascending: false });
 
  if (error) return c.json({ error: error.message }, 500);
  return c.json({ workspaces: data, callerSub: user.sub });
});

Then:

TOKEN=$(curl -s -X POST \
  "https://<ref>.supabase.co/auth/v1/token?grant_type=password" \
  -H "apikey: <your-anon-key>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"email":"you@example.com","password":"your-password"}' \
  | jq -r .access_token)
 
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
     http://127.0.0.1:54321/functions/v1/mcp/_debug/workspaces | jq

You should see:

{
  "workspaces": [
    {
      "id": "...",
      "name": "you@example.com",
      "created_at": "..."
    }
  ],
  "callerSub": "..."
}

If you signed up two different accounts and got a different token each time, hitting the same endpoint with each token should return only that account's workspaces. That's RLS doing its job.

3. Confirm a "leaky query" doesn't leak

To convince yourself nothing's secretly running with elevated privileges, try selecting all workspace_members (which would include other users' rows if RLS weren't applied):

app.get("/_debug/everyone", requireAuth, async (c) => {
  const supabase = supabaseFor(c.get("user"));
  const { data, error } = await supabase
    .from("workspace_members")
    .select("workspace_id, user_id, role");
  return c.json({ members: data, error: error?.message });
});
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
     http://127.0.0.1:54321/functions/v1/mcp/_debug/everyone | jq

You should only see memberships of workspaces the caller is a member of, not the universe. The RLS policy members_select we wrote in step 3 (using ( public.is_workspace_member(workspace_id) )) is what enforces this.

4. The factory in context

When we wire MCP tools in step 8, every tool handler will look like:

async (input, ctx) => {
  const user = ctx.user;             // AuthedUser, attached by requireAuth
  const supabase = supabaseFor(user);
 
  const { data, error } = await supabase
    .from("snippets")
    .select(...)
    .eq(...);
 
  if (error) throw new Error(error.message);
  return { result: data };
}

The body of the handler is just "do the query, return the result." No where user_id = $1. No "is this user a member of that workspace" check. The RLS policies handle it, and any mistake in a tool implementation can't escalate beyond what the user already has access to.

5. Strip the debug routes

Before moving on:

// Remove these — they were only for verification
app.get("/_debug/workspaces", ...)
app.get("/_debug/everyone", ...)

(Or hide them behind if (Deno.env.get("ENV") === "dev") if you'd like them around for debugging.)

6. Quick mental model recap

Claude
  │ Bearer <jwt>
  ▼
Hono middleware: requireAuth
  │ verifies signature, audience, exp; attaches user
  ▼
Tool handler
  │ supabase = supabaseFor(user)
  ▼
PostgREST (via supabase-js)
  │ forwards Authorization header to Postgres
  ▼
Postgres
  │ auth.uid() == user.sub
  │ RLS policies fire on every row read/write
  ▼
Filtered rows ── back up the stack ──> Claude

The work-per-tool is now zero auth code. We can spend the next four steps just writing the actual MCP tool surface.

Step 8 wires the MCP SDK in properly and implements the first three tools: list_snippets, get_snippet, save_snippet.