Why are my Supabase branches empty?

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This is a copy of a troubleshooting article on Supabase's docs site. It may be missing some details from the original. View the original article.

Branching in Supabase (Branching 2.0) relies on the current migration files in your project—not a schema dump—when creating environments from main. This means if your main branch lacks migration history, branching will not fully capture your schema. This is a known limitation highlighted in the Branching 2.0 documentation. Follow the steps below to generate, synchronize, and repair your migration history for smooth branching.

1. Prerequisites: Prepare local Supabase environment

• If you do not have a local environment set up already, follow the Supabase local development getting started guide:
  • Running Supabase Locally.

Execute the following commands to initialize and start a local project:

supabase init
supabase start

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2. Pull remote schema into migrations

With your project linked, run:

supabase db pull --linked

This command generates a migration file in your supabase/migrations folder which reflects your remote schema. This will not run the migration locally or overwrite anything.

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3. Sync remote migration history

Upon running the above command, the Supabase CLI will typically prompt with:

Update remote migration history table? [Y/n]

Type Y to update your remote project’s migration history and ensure it matches your new local migrations.

If the CLI suggests repairing migration history due to mismatches, you might see:

Make sure your local git repo is up-to-date. If the error persists, try repairing the migration history table:
supabase migration repair --status applied TIMESTAMP_OF_MIGRATION_TO_REPAIR

Run the exact repair command provided, replacing the timestamp as instructed (example timestamp: 20251006141726). This synchronizes the migration state between local and remote.

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4. Proceed with Branching

Once your migration history is up to date, continue to use branching features as normal. Each new branch will now inherit the correct migrations from your main branch.

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Additional tips

If further issues arise (such as schema drift or migration mismatches), review the troubleshooting documentation, and consider manual repair with supabase migration repair.