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Databases I created manually don't show up

A database made with CREATE DATABASE isn't a SupaHost project, so it has no API, Auth, Storage or dashboard entry. Why, and what to do instead: a new project, or a schema.

What you see

You connected over the SSH tunnel and ran something like:

create database analytics;

The command succeeded, but analytics doesn't appear anywhere in the SupaHost dashboard, Studio doesn't show it, and there's no API URL for it.

Why it happens

On SupaHost, a project is a database plus the services around it. Each project is a database named p_<name> (project app-one is p_app_one) on your instance's Postgres server, with its own Auth, Data API, Storage, Realtime tenant, Edge Functions, keys and URL. The dashboard creates the database and all of those services together, and everything (Studio, backups restore, exports, branching, usage) works one project at a time.

A database you create by hand is just a database. Nothing knows about it, so:

  • it has no Data API, Auth, Storage or Realtime, and no keys;
  • it isn't listed in the dashboard or reachable from Studio;
  • it can't be restored, exported or branched from the Backups and Branches tabs;
  • cron jobs from the dashboard can't target it.

SupaHost doesn't manage extra databases inside a project, and there's no way to attach one to an existing project.

How to fix it

If you need a separate app or environment, create a new project. Dashboard → Projects → New project, or ask your AI agent to call the MCP create_project tool (it needs an instance-wide access token). The new project gets its own database, services and keys. Your plan includes several projects; see How many projects can I run on one instance?.

If you only wanted to keep some tables apart, use a schema in the same project:

create schema analytics;
create table analytics.page_views (
  id bigint generated always as identity primary key,
  path text not null,
  viewed_at timestamptz not null default now()
);

Schemas other than public, storage, graphql_public and pgmq_public aren't exposed through the Data API on SupaHost. That's useful for internal data. If you need to read it from the app, expose it through a view or a function in public. See Exposed schemas.

Move any data you put in the manual database, then remove it. Over the tunnel:

pg_dump "postgresql://postgres:[email protected]:5432/analytics" -Fc -f analytics.dump
pg_restore --no-owner -d "postgresql://postgres:[email protected]:5432/p_app_one" analytics.dump

-- connected to p_app_one, not to analytics
drop database analytics;

On SupaHost

  • Direct Postgres access (and so create database) is only possible on Business and Enterprise, through the SSH tunnel. On other plans you work inside each project's database through Studio, the Data API or MCP.
  • sudo supahost-status over SSH lists the instance's projects.

Updated 11 November 2026 · View as Markdown · Something wrong or missing? Tell us