SQLite vs Supabase MCP Server

These sit at opposite ends of the database lifecycle. SQLite is a local file with no auth and a two-minute install — the right choice for prototyping, testing SQL logic, and giving an agent a scratch datastore it can own. Supabase is hosted Postgres with OAuth 2.1, migrations, and row-level security, aimed at the application you actually ship.

Choose SQLite when nothing about the data needs to outlive the machine or be shared: agent memory, a throwaway analysis, offline work. Its own listed limits are the tell — not for production workloads, multi-user concurrency, or large datasets. Choose Supabase the moment more than one client touches the same data, or when RLS policies and migrations become part of the job rather than an afterthought.

A common and effective pattern is both at once: SQLite as the agent's local scratchpad, Supabase as the real backend, with the agent explicitly told which is which. The failure mode to avoid is the reverse of the obvious one — not scaling SQLite too far, but pointing an exploratory agent at production Supabase because it was the connection already configured.