Postgres Requirements

Supported Postgres versions

Hasura GraphQL Engine supports all supported versions of Postgres per the public documentation.

Postgres permissions

If you're running in a controlled environment, you might need to configure the Hasura GraphQL Engine to use a specific Postgres user that your DBA gives you.

The Hasura GraphQL Engine needs access to your Postgres database(s) with the following permissions. You may have a dedicated Metadata database as described here.

Metadata Database Permissions

• (required) Read & write access on the schema hdb_catalog.

User Database Permissions

• (required) Read access to the information_schema and pg_catalog schemas, to query for list of tables. Note that these permissions are usually available by default to all Postgres users via PUBLIC grant.
• (required) Read access to the schemas (public or otherwise) if you only want to support queries.
• (optional) Write access to the schemas if you want to support mutations as well.
• (optional) To create tables and views via the Hasura Console (the admin UI) you'll need the privilege to create tables/views. This might not be required when you're working with an existing database.
• (required only if Event Triggers are needed) Read, write & create access on schema: hdb_catalog.

Sample scenarios

Following are sample SQL blocks that you can run on your database (as a superuser) to create the right credentials for a sample Hasura user:

1. Different roles to manage metadata database and user database

-- We will create separate users to manage the user database
-- and metadata database and grant permissions on hasura-specific
-- schemas and information_schema and pg_catalog.
-- These permissions/grants are required for Hasura to work properly.

-- create a separate user for to manage metadata database
CREATE USER hasura_metadata_user WITH PASSWORD 'hasura_metadata_user_password';

-- create the schemas required by the hasura system
-- NOTE: If you are starting from scratch: drop the below schemas first, if they exist.
CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS hdb_catalog;

-- make the user an owner of the schema
ALTER SCHEMA hdb_catalog OWNER TO hasura_metadata_user;
ALTER ROLE hasura_metadata_user SET search_path TO hdb_catalog;

-- Hasura needs pgcrypto extension
-- See section below on pgcrypto in PG search path
CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS pgcrypto;

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- create a separate user for to manage user database
CREATE USER hasurauser WITH PASSWORD 'hasurauser';

-- create pgcrypto extension, required for UUID
-- See section below on pgcrypto in PG search path
CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS pgcrypto;

-- The below permissions are optional. This is dependent on what access to your
-- tables/schemas you want give to hasura. If you want expose the public
-- schema for GraphQL query then give permissions on public schema to the
-- hasura user.
-- Be careful to use these in your production db. Consult the Postgres manual or
-- your DBA and give appropriate permissions.

-- grant all privileges on all tables in the public schema. This can be customized:
-- For example, if you only want to use GraphQL regular queries and not mutations,
-- then you can set: GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES...
GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA public TO hasurauser;
GRANT ALL ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA public TO hasurauser;
GRANT ALL ON ALL SEQUENCES IN SCHEMA public TO hasurauser;
GRANT ALL ON ALL FUNCTIONS IN SCHEMA public TO hasurauser;

-- Similarly add these for other schemas as well, if you have any.
-- GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA <schema-name> TO hasurauser;
-- GRANT ALL ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA <schema-name> TO hasurauser;
-- GRANT ALL ON ALL SEQUENCES IN SCHEMA <schema-name> TO hasurauser;
-- GRANT ALL ON ALL FUNCTIONS IN SCHEMA <schema-name> TO hasurauser;

-- By defaults users won't have access to tables they have not created (and thus do not own).
-- You can change these default privileges to grant access to any object created in the future.
ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES IN SCHEMA public GRANT ALL ON TABLES;
ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES IN SCHEMA public GRANT ALL ON SEQUENCES;
ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES IN SCHEMA public GRANT ALL ON FUNCTIONS;

-- Alternatively, you may restrict this to objects created by a specific user
-- ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES FOR ROLE postgres IN SCHEMA public GRANT ALL ON TABLES TO hasurauser;
-- ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES FOR ROLE postgres IN SCHEMA public GRANT ALL ON SEQUENCES TO hasurauser;
-- ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES FOR ROLE postgres IN SCHEMA public GRANT ALL ON FUNCTIONS TO hasurauser;

-- grant these privileges to use create and use all Hasura GraphQL Engine functionality
GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA hdb_catalog TO hasurauser;
GRANT CREATE ON SCHEMA hdb_catalog TO hasurauser;
GRANT ALL ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA hdb_catalog TO hasurauser;
GRANT ALL ON ALL SEQUENCES IN SCHEMA hdb_catalog TO hasurauser;
GRANT ALL ON ALL FUNCTIONS IN SCHEMA hdb_catalog TO hasurauser;

2. A single role to manage Metadata and user objects in the same database

-- We will create a separate user to grant permissions on hasura-specific
-- schemas and information_schema and pg_catalog.
-- These permissions/grants are required for Hasura to work properly.

-- create a separate user for to manage metadata database
CREATE USER hasurauser WITH PASSWORD 'hasurauser';

-- create the schemas required by the hasura system
-- NOTE: If you are starting from scratch: drop the below schemas first, if they exist.
CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS hdb_catalog;

-- make the user an owner of the schema
ALTER SCHEMA hdb_catalog OWNER TO hasurauser;

-- See section below on pgcrypto in PG search path
CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS pgcrypto;

-- grant select permissions on information_schema and pg_catalog. This is
-- required for hasura to query the list of available tables.
-- NOTE: these permissions are usually available by default to all users via PUBLIC grant
GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA information_schema TO hasurauser;
GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA pg_catalog TO hasurauser;

-- The below permissions are optional. This is dependent on what access to your
-- tables/schemas you want give to hasura. If you want expose the public
-- schema for GraphQL query then give permissions on public schema to the
-- hasura user.
-- Be careful to use these in your production db. Consult the Postgres manual or
-- your DBA and give appropriate permissions.

-- grant all privileges on all tables in the public schema. This can be customized:
-- For example, if you only want to use GraphQL regular queries and not mutations,
-- then you can set: GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES...
GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA public TO hasurauser;
GRANT ALL ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA public TO hasurauser;
GRANT ALL ON ALL SEQUENCES IN SCHEMA public TO hasurauser;
GRANT ALL ON ALL FUNCTIONS IN SCHEMA public TO hasurauser;

-- Similarly add these for other schemas as well, if you have any.
-- GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA <schema-name> TO hasurauser;
-- GRANT ALL ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA <schema-name> TO hasurauser;
-- GRANT ALL ON ALL SEQUENCES IN SCHEMA <schema-name> TO hasurauser;
-- GRANT ALL ON ALL FUNCTIONS IN SCHEMA <schema-name> TO hasurauser;

-- By defaults users won't have access to tables they have not created (and thus do not own).
-- You can change these default privileges to grant access to any object created in the future.
ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES IN SCHEMA public GRANT ALL ON TABLES;
ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES IN SCHEMA public GRANT ALL ON SEQUENCES;
ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES IN SCHEMA public GRANT ALL ON FUNCTIONS;
-- Alternatively, you may restrict this to objects created by a specific user
-- ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES FOR ROLE postgres IN SCHEMA public GRANT ALL ON TABLES TO hasurauser;
-- ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES FOR ROLE postgres IN SCHEMA public GRANT ALL ON SEQUENCES TO hasurauser;
-- ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES FOR ROLE postgres IN SCHEMA public GRANT ALL ON FUNCTIONS TO hasurauser;

Notes for managed databases (AWS RDS, GCP Cloud SQL, etc.)

Hasura works out of the box with the default superuser, usually called postgres, created by most managed cloud database providers.

On some cloud providers, like Google Cloud SQL, if you are creating a new user and giving the above privileges, then you may notice that the following commands may throw warnings/errors:

postgres=> ALTER SCHEMA hdb_catalog OWNER TO hasurauser;
ERROR:  must be member of role "hasurauser"

This happens because the superuser created by the cloud provider sometimes has different permissions. To fix this, you can run the following command first:

-- assuming "postgres" is the superuser that you are running the commands with.
postgres=> GRANT hasurauser to postgres;
GRANT
postgres=> ALTER SCHEMA hdb_catalog OWNER TO hasurauser;

You may also notice the following commands throw warnings/errors:

postgres=> GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA information_schema TO hasurauser;
WARNING:  no privileges were granted for "sql_packages"
WARNING:  no privileges were granted for "sql_features"
WARNING:  no privileges were granted for "sql_implementation_info"
ERROR:  permission denied for table sql_parts

postgres=> GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA pg_catalog TO hasurauser;
ERROR:  permission denied for table pg_statistic

You can ignore these warnings/errors or skip granting these permission as usually all users have relevant access to information_schema and pg_catalog schemas by default (see keyword PUBLIC).

pgcrypto in PG search path

Hasura GraphQL Engine needs the pgcrypto Postgres extension for the following:

• Metadata Database
• User Database (only if Event Triggers are used)

It needs to be ensured that pgcrypto is installed in a schema which is in the Postgres search path for the Postgres user/role that Hasura connects with.

If pgcrypto is installed in a schema that is not in the search path, the schema can be added to the search path by executing one of the following SQL commands depending on your setup:

-- set search path to include schemas for the entire database
ALTER DATABASE <database_name> SET search_path TO schema1,schema2;

-- OR --

-- set search path to include schemas for a particular role
ALTER ROLE <hasura_role> SET search_path TO schema1,schema2;

Metadata Database

During initialization, Hasura GraphQL Engine attempts to install the pgcrypto extension in the public schema if it is not already installed. You may choose to install the Postgres extensions in a different schema by setting that schema name in the HASURA_GRAPHQL_METADATA_DATABASE_EXTENSIONS_SCHEMA environment variable.

User Database

Hasura's Event Triggers depend on the Postgres pgcrypto extension. Hasura GraphQL Engine creates this extension in the source database if it hasn't already been installed when the first Event Trigger on the source is created. By default, the extensions are created in the public schema but if you want to install the Postgres extensions in a custom schema you can achieve this by specifying the schema name in the extensions_schema field of the source configuration.

Note

If you're using Heroku Postgres instance for the first time, you will get an error pgcrypto can only be created in heroku_ext schema.

For Metadata database, set environment variable HASURA_GRAPHQL_METADATA_DATABASE_EXTENSIONS_SCHEMA: heroku_ext and for user database with Event Triggers, set extensions_schema: heroku_ext in source configuration.

Managed Postgres permissions

Hasura works out of the box with the default superuser, usually called postgres, created by most managed cloud database providers.

If you use another database user, you will need to make sure that this user has the right Postgres permissions.

Sample Scenario

Here's a sample SQL block that you can run on your database (as a superuser) to create the right credentials for a sample Hasura user called hasurauser:

-- create a separate user for hasura (if you don't already have one)
CREATE USER hasurauser WITH PASSWORD 'hasurauser';

-- create pgcrypto extension, required for UUID
CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS pgcrypto;

-- create the schemas required by the hasura cloud system
CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS hdb_catalog;
CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS hdb_views;
CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS hdb_pro_catalog;

-- make the user an owner of the hasura cloud system schemas
ALTER SCHEMA hdb_catalog OWNER TO hasurauser;
ALTER SCHEMA hdb_views OWNER TO hasurauser;
ALTER SCHEMA hdb_pro_catalog OWNER TO hasurauser;

-- grant select permissions on information_schema and pg_catalog
GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA information_schema TO hasurauser;
GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA pg_catalog TO hasurauser;

-- grant all privileges on all tables in the public schema (this is optional and can be customized)
GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA public TO hasurauser;
GRANT ALL ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA public TO hasurauser;
GRANT ALL ON ALL SEQUENCES IN SCHEMA public TO hasurauser;
GRANT ALL ON ALL FUNCTIONS IN SCHEMA public TO hasurauser;

-- Similarly add these for other schemas as well, if you have any
-- GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA <schema-name> TO hasurauser;
-- GRANT ALL ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA <schema-name> TO hasurauser;
-- GRANT ALL ON ALL SEQUENCES IN SCHEMA <schema-name> TO hasurauser;
-- GRANT ALL ON ALL FUNCTIONS IN SCHEMA <schema-name> TO hasurauser;

You may notice the following commands throw warnings/errors:

postgres=> GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA information_schema TO hasurauser;
WARNING:  no privileges were granted for "sql_packages"
WARNING:  no privileges were granted for "sql_features"
WARNING:  no privileges were granted for "sql_implementation_info"
ERROR:  permission denied for table sql_parts

postgres=> GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA pg_catalog TO hasurauser;
ERROR:  permission denied for table pg_statistic

You can ignore these warnings/errors or skip granting these permission as usually all users have relevant access to information_schema and pg_catalog schemas by default (see keyword PUBLIC).

Note

If you first connect Postgres with the default superuser, and afterwards with another user, you might get an error. You then need to reset the permissions to the new user.

Note for GCP

On Google Cloud SQL, if you are creating a new user and giving the above privileges, then you may notice that the following commands may throw warnings/errors:

postgres=> ALTER SCHEMA hdb_catalog OWNER TO hasurauser;
ERROR:  must be member of role "hasurauser"

This happens because the superuser created by the cloud provider sometimes has different permissions. To fix this, you can run the following command first:

-- assuming "postgres" is the superuser that you are running the commands with.
postgres=> GRANT hasurauser to postgres;
GRANT
postgres=> ALTER SCHEMA hdb_catalog OWNER TO hasurauser;

Further reading

For more information and a more detailed explanation on Postgres permissions, refer to the Hasura core Postgres requirements page.