Supabase gen types --db-url Fails Without Docker Desktop

[istarkov]

Runneing the following command

npx supabase gen types --lang=typescript --db-url postgresql://postgres:pass@localhost/webstudio

produces the error message: Docker Desktop is a prerequisite for local development. Follow the official docs to install: https://docs.docker.com/desktop

To Reproduce

npx supabase gen types --lang=typescript --db-url postgresql://postgres:pass@localhost/webstudio

Expected behavior
I am not using any Supabase services to generate types. Installing Docker for type generation seems unnecessary.

[sweatybridge]

Are you generating types for local database or a remote project? It seems like local from your comment but starting a local database relies on docker anyway so I'm confused why you can't use docker for type generation.

If you are generating for a remote project, you can use npx supabase gen types --lang=typescript --project-id <your-project-ref> which doesn't rely on docker.

[istarkov]

I am using the cli for https://github.com/supabase/postgrest-js, which can operate independently of Supabase dependencies. This means it doesn’t require the entire Supabase stack to be installed via Docker.

In my setup, the entire environment is placed inside a devcontainer, which is essentially a Docker container without internal Docker support. When a CLI tool depends on Docker, it often results in a substantial download of several gigabytes of various images. This can be quite costly in some locations. It would be greatly appreciated if the CLI could provide an estimate of the data it will download, especially for one-time executions.

[sweatybridge]

When a CLI tool depends on Docker, it often results in a substantial download of several gigabytes of various images. This can be quite costly in some locations. It would be greatly appreciated if the CLI could provide an estimate of the data it will download, especially for one-time executions.

That's a good idea. What I will probably do is to add series of prompts when running supabase init for services that users actually want. If you don't need any services, they can also be disabled via supabase/config.toml. That would save a lot of time / data by not downloading potentially unused images.

tracked here #2551