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Introduction

This guide shows you how to add PowerSync to a Next.js app for local-first data and sync. You install the Web SDK, define a client-side schema, and connect sync so components query the local database instead of blocking on the network.
For a runnable reference that includes API routes for JWTs, JWKS, and writes to Postgres, clone the Next.js demo app in the powersync-js repository and follow its README (Docker, local Postgres, and the PowerSync Service).
PowerSync is tailored for client-side applications — there isn’t much benefit to using SSR with PowerSync. Some frameworks like Next.js push towards enabling SSR by default, which means code is evaluated in a Node.js runtime. The PowerSync Web SDK requires browser APIs which are not available in Node.js. For ergonomics, the SDK performs no-ops if used in Node.js (rather than throwing errors), but you should not expect any data from PowerSync during server-side rendering. If you are using SSR in your application, we recommend explicitly isolating PowerSync to client-side code.

Setup

Next.js Project Setup

Let’s start by bootstrapping a new Next.js application using create-next-app.
When running this command you’ll be presented with a few options. The PowerSync suggested selection for the setup options Next.js offers are:
Turbopack is supported in Next.js 16+. If you’re using an older version of Next.js, see the Webpack configuration (legacy) section below.

Install PowerSync Dependencies

Using PowerSync in a Next.js application will require the use of the PowerSync Web SDK and it’s peer dependencies. In addition to this we’ll also install @powersync/react, which provides several hooks and providers for easier integration.
This SDK currently requires @journeyapps/wa-sqlite as a peer dependency.

Copy Worker Assets

When using Turbopack, you need to copy the PowerSync worker files to your public directory. Add a postinstall script to your package.json:
package.json
Then run the script to copy the assets:
This copies the pre-bundled worker files to public/@powersync/, which are required since Turbopack doesn’t support dynamic imports of workers yet.
Add public/@powersync/* to your .gitignore file since these are generated assets.

Next.js Config Setup

For Next.js 16+ with Turbopack, the configuration is minimal:
next.config.ts
Run pnpm dev to start the development server and check that everything compiles correctly, before moving onto the next section.

Webpack Configuration (Legacy)

If you’re using an older version of Next.js (before 16) or prefer to use Webpack, use this configuration instead:
next.config.ts

Configure a PowerSync Instance

Now that we’ve got our project setup, let’s create a new PowerSync Cloud instance and connect our client to it. For the purposes of this demo, we’ll be using Supabase as the backend source database that PowerSync will connect to. To set up a new PowerSync instance, follow the steps covered in the Installation - Database Connection docs page.

Configure PowerSync in Your Project

Add Core PowerSync Files

Start by adding a new directory in ./src/lib named powersync.

AppSchema

Create a new file called AppSchema.ts in the newly created powersync directory and add your App Schema to the file. Here is an example of this.
lib/powersync/AppSchema.ts
This defines the local SQLite database schema and PowerSync will hydrate the tables once the SDK connects to the PowerSync instance.

BackendConnector

Create a new file called BackendConnector.ts in the powersync directory and add the following to the file.
lib/powersync/BackendConnector.ts
There are two core functions to this file:
  • fetchCredentials() - Used to return a JWT token to the PowerSync Service for authentication.
  • uploadData() - Used to upload changes captured in the local SQLite database that need to be sent to the backend source database, in this case Supabase. We’ll get back to this further down.
You’ll notice that we need to add a .env file to our project which will contain two variables:
  • NEXT_PUBLIC_POWERSYNC_URL - This is the PowerSync instance url. You can grab this from the PowerSync Cloud dashboard.
  • NEXT_PUBLIC_POWERSYNC_TOKEN - For development purposes we’ll be using a development token. To generate one, please follow the steps outlined in Development Token from our installation docs.

Create the PowerSync Provider

Add a new file at ./src/lib/powersync/PowerSyncProvider.tsx. This is the client-side boundary that initializes the PowerSyncDatabase and exposes it via React Context.
lib/powersync/PowerSyncProvider.tsx
The 'use client' directive marks this as a Client Component — PowerSync requires browser APIs, so initialization must happen on the client. The lazy getDB() singleton ensures the database is only instantiated once (and only in the browser), which avoids duplicate connections when modules are re-evaluated during development. The worker paths point to the pre-bundled workers copied to the public directory by the powersync-web copy-assets command. db.connect() is called with an instance of BackendConnector, which will validate the token returned from fetchCredentials and start syncing with the PowerSync Service.

Update layout.tsx

Update RootLayout to wrap children with the PowerSyncProvider. Importantly, the root layout should remain a Server Component — do not add 'use client' here. This is the standard Next.js App Router convention and is required if you want to export metadata (or use generateMetadata) from the layout. The client boundary is drawn at PowerSyncProvider, which is all that’s needed to get PowerSync running in the browser.
app/layout.tsx

Use PowerSync

Reading Data
In our page.tsx we can now use the useQuery hook or other PowerSync functions to read data from the SQLite database and render the results in our application.
app/page.tsx
Writing Data
Using the execute function we can also write data into our local SQLite database.
Changes made against the local data will be stored in the upload queue and will be processed by the uploadData in the BackendConnector class.