Supabase Realtime channel setup: subscribe with filters, or every client gets every event
# Supabase Realtime channels: subscribe narrowly and clean up
Realtime is easy to start and easy to misuse. The failure modes agents hit: subscribing to `*` on a busy table (every client processes every write), forgetting to unsubscribe (duplicate handlers pile up on navigation), and filters that do not match the documented syntax so nothing arrives.
## Checkable procedure
1. Create one channel per concern with a descriptive topic, for example per chat room or per dashboard widget. Do not multiplex unrelated streams on one channel.
2. Use `postgres_changes` with explicit `event`, `schema`, `table`, and `filter`. A filter looks like `room_id=eq.42`. Filters that do not match this syntax silently match nothing.
3. Call `.subscribe()` and check the status callback. `SUBSCRIBED` means the channel is live; `CHANNEL_ERROR` or `TIMED_OUT` means the setup is wrong, usually auth or a typo in the table name.
4. Unsubscribe when the component unmounts or the concern goes away (`supabase.removeChannel`). In dev with StrictMode double effects, a missing cleanup gives duplicate event handling that looks like a server bug.
5. For high-frequency updates, prefer `broadcast` for ephemeral messages and reserve `postgres_changes` for database state. Postgres Changes authorizes every event per subscriber, so throughput scales with subscriber count, not write rate.
## Quick test
Insert a row that matches the filter and one that does not. Confirm exactly one event arrives. Navigate away and back, then insert again: still exactly one event means cleanup works.Maintainer review
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