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PostgREST

Turns an existing PostgreSQL database into a REST API with no hand-written server code.

GitHub Download v16.5
Stars
27.7k
Forks
1.2k
Licence
MIT
Language
Haskell
Last update
6 days ago
Type
App

What it is

PostgREST is a server that reads your existing PostgreSQL database and serves a RESTful HTTP API from it. Developers use it to avoid writing and maintaining custom API code for common create, read, update, and delete operations. Authentication uses JSON Web Tokens, and authorization relies on the database's own roles.

  • Expose tables or views from an existing PostgreSQL database as a REST API
  • Publish versioned API endpoints by placing public-facing views in a separate schema
  • Generate OpenAPI documentation for the API and render it with a tool such as Swagger-UI
  • Authenticate API users with JSON Web Tokens while the database enforces their permissions

Great for

  • Developers who already have a PostgreSQL database and want an HTTP API on top of it quickly
  • Teams that want database rules and permissions to be the single source of truth for access control
  • Projects that need API versioning through database schemas and views
  • Backends that prefer declarative constraints in the database over application-level validation

Not ideal for

  • Projects not using PostgreSQL, since the README describes it only for PostgreSQL databases
  • Teams that need a lot of custom application logic inside the API layer, which the README's model of delegating work to the database does not suit well
  • Non-developers, because setup requires database roles, JWT configuration, and familiarity with SQL
Step-by-step guide: how to use PostgRESTInstall, first run, examples, tips and FAQs
FlareSolverr vs PostgREST

How to get it

  1. 1

    Download the app

    You'll need: PostgreSQL database

    Show help after installing

    postgrest --help
  2. 2

    Run it

    • Follow the install guide at docs.postgrest.org for your platform, or use the Docker image
    • Run postgrest --help to see the available options
    • Point PostgREST at your existing PostgreSQL database and start the server
    • Send an HTTP request to a table endpoint to confirm it returns data
  3. 3

    Get the most out of it

    • Put public-facing views in a dedicated schema to version your API without breaking clients
    • Use declarative PostgreSQL constraints so the database rejects bad data regardless of the client
    • Use JWT authentication and database roles to control what each authenticated user can do
    • Use the generated OpenAPI documentation with Swagger-UI for interactive API exploration

Downloads

Source code (.zip)main branch · straight from GitHubRelease v16.56 files incl. postgrest-v16.5-macos-aarch64.tar.xzOfficial website & docspostgrest.org

Strengths

  • Uses the database as the source of truth for authorization and data validation
  • Built in Haskell with pooled connections and binary protocol access, which the README says gives good response times
  • Generates OpenAPI documentation automatically from the database structure

Trade-offs

  • Performance claims in the README come from a single Heroku free-tier benchmark and should be verified for your own workload
  • Its security and data-integrity model depends on correctly designing database roles and constraints, which takes SQL expertise
  • The README is truncated here, so details of configuration and limitations are not covered in this entry

How it compares

ProjectStarsTypeLevelUpdatedBest for
postgrest (this)27.7kAppintermediate6 days agoDevelopers who already have a PostgreSQL database and want an HTTP API on top of it quickly
crystal12.9kFrameworkadvanced4 days agoDevelopers who have a PostgreSQL database and want an auto-generated GraphQL API
quivr39.6kFrameworkadvanced4 days agoDevelopers building a search or monitoring pipeline over a stream of documents
FlareSolverr16.1kAppintermediate12 days agoDevelopers whose scripts are blocked by Cloudflare challenges on pages they are allowed to access
usql10.2kCLIbeginner4 days agoDevelopers who use several different databases and want one tool for all of them
typeorm36.7kLibraryintermediate8 days agoNode.js or TypeScript developers building apps backed by a relational database

Stats synced from GitHub. The assessment above was drafted with AI from the project's README on 2026-10-29 and may miss recent changes — check the README before relying on a command. MIT licence: free to use, modify and distribute, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.