Rebase

The Open-Source Backend-as-a-Service for Postgres — with the Admin Panel that comes with it

Point it at a database and get a working backend in minutes.
REST, auth, storage, realtime and backups over your own Postgres — then add a schema-driven admin panel, or don't.
Own your data, own your code. The absolute easiest way to build on PostgreSQL.

Public beta. The API you write against can change in a minor, with a changelog entry. Your data cannot break quietly.
What that promise rests on, and which subsystems are ready

Live Demo • Documentation • Features • Discord

What is Rebase?

Rebase is a developer-first, open-source backend-as-a-service built on PostgreSQL — authentication, S3-compatible storage, realtime, backups and auto-generated REST APIs over a database you own. It is self-hosted and agent-native, with a built-in MCP server for AI-assisted development.

The admin panel is the second layer of the same definition: add collection definitions and you get a schema-driven back-office built from them, extensible with your own React components, serverless functions, and scripts.

Adopt only what you want

Three modes, same packages, wired differently — see MODULAR-ARCHITECTURE.md.

✨ Key Highlights

• 🔓 No Vendor Lock-in — Self-host anywhere. Full control over your infrastructure, code, and database.
• 🧱 Modular — Start as a pure API and add the admin panel later, or never. Nothing is bundled that you didn't ask for.
• ⚡ Instant Setup — pnpm dlx @rebasepro/cli init scaffolds a complete project in seconds.
• 🗄️ PostgreSQL First — First-class Postgres support with Drizzle ORM, schema introspection, and automatic migrations.
• 🔒 Secure by Default — Authorization is Postgres RLS, not application code. Tables without row-level security aren't served.
• 🧩 Radical Extensibility — Not constrained to pre-built widgets. If you can build it in React, you can build it in Rebase.
• 🎨 Premium UI — Fast, accessible design system built on Tailwind CSS v4 and Radix UI.
• 🤖 AI-Ready — MCP server for AI-assisted database management, plus data enhancement and insights plugins.

⚡ Quick Start

Scaffold a complete, self-hosted Rebase application connected to your database:

pnpm dlx @rebasepro/cli init my-rebase-app
cd my-rebase-app
pnpm install
pnpm run dev

That is the whole first run — no database to install, no schema step. With no DATABASE_URL set, rebase dev starts a managed PostgreSQL (PGlite) that lives in the project directory, generates the schema from your collections, and creates the tables at boot.

Read the URLs from its output. rebase dev picks a free port per project rather than fixed ones, so they differ between projects. PORT and VITE_API_URL in .env apply to rebase start, not here.

Useful flags: --yes (required when there is no terminal to prompt, such as CI), --headless (see below), --template <name>, and --install / --no-install on init; --docker on dev to use the compose Postgres in this project instead, and --no-db to start nothing — set DATABASE_URL yourself.

To use your own Postgres instead: uncomment DATABASE_URL in .env and run pnpm run dev again. Nothing else changes — a DATABASE_URL that is set is never touched, and one pointing anywhere other than this machine is left alone entirely.

Just want the API?

Rebase is modular — take only the parts you want:

pnpm dlx @rebasepro/cli init my-api --headless

That scaffolds a headless backend: REST, auth, storage, realtime and backups over your database, with no collection files and no UI. Tables are served automatically, derived from your schema at boot — change the schema with a migration and the API follows. No React anywhere in the dependency tree.

A fresh headless project has no tables yet, so /api/data/* answers 404 NO_COLLECTIONS until you create some. Point it at a database that already has tables, or add them with a migration, and they appear.

The three adoption modes — BaaS (like Supabase), CMS (like Payload/Directus), and both together — are described in MODULAR-ARCHITECTURE.md.

Features

🏓 Full Admin Panel & CMS

An incredibly fast, windowed spreadsheet view to manage your database with inline editing, real-time updates, filtering, sorting, and text search. Switch between multiple view modes:

• Spreadsheet table — Inline editing, column reordering, drag-and-drop
• Card grid — Visual overview with image previews
• List view — Compact, scannable layout
• Kanban board — Cards grouped into columns by a property, dragged between them
• Custom views — Build any React component as a collection view

🔒 Typed Schema & Database Migrations

Define your data models using pure TypeScript collections. Rebase automatically generates your Drizzle ORM schema, handles PostgreSQL migrations, and keeps your live database perfectly in sync using built-in tooling like rebase doctor.

💾 Backups & Restore

First-class database backups for self-hosted Postgres, built on pg_dump / pg_restore:

• rebase db backup --out <path|s3://…> — compressed, custom-format dumps
• rebase db restore <backup> — confirmation-gated, with --create-db / --target-db to restore into a fresh database
• Scheduled backups via the built-in cron system, uploading to your configured storage backend with retention pruning
• Studio Backups panel — browse and download backups from the admin UI

See docs/backups.md for the full guide, including security and PITR notes.

🔐 Authentication & Access Control

Built-in authentication with multiple providers:

• Email/Password — With password reset flow
• OAuth — Google, Apple, GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Microsoft, Facebook, LinkedIn, Discord, Slack, Spotify and X
• Magic link and one-time codes — Passwordless sign-in by email
• MFA — TOTP second factor with recovery codes
• Anonymous — For guest access, opt-in
• Captcha and API keys — Bot protection on sign-up and the routes that send mail; scoped keys for scripts and agents

Granular role-based access control (RBAC) with customizable permissions per collection, field, and action.

📦 S3-Compatible Storage

Native S3-compatible file storage with:

• Drag-and-drop uploads with progress tracking
• Automatic image resizing and optimization
• File metadata management
• Storage browser in Studio

🛠️ Studio — Developer Toolbox

A full developer environment built into the admin panel — SQL and JS editors, RLS policies, a schema visualizer, database branches, backups, request logs, cron jobs, a storage browser, an API explorer and API keys. What each tool does →

🔌 Realtime Engine

A full WebSocket engine built into every Rebase backend:

• Live data subscriptions — Subscribe to collection queries or individual entities. Changes propagate instantly with RLS-aware security.
• Broadcast channels — Send typed messages between connected clients. Build chat, notifications, or collaborative features.
• Presence tracking — Track who's online, sync user state across clients (typing indicators, cursor positions, online status).
• Auto-reconnect — Exponential backoff, automatic resubscription, and token refresh on reconnect.

📴 Offline & Local-First Sync

Opt in with offline: true and the client SDK keeps a local database of rows instead of a cache of responses: