Creating a PostgreSQL Table in Vela: Tables View Walkthrough

This walkthrough follows the video flow exactly: open the Tables view, create a users table, add key columns, and keep RLS enabled by default.

Video Chapters

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:08 Open Tables view
• 00:21 Create users table
• 00:30 Add columns (username, email, names, external_id)
• 01:15 RLS by default (recommended)

Prerequisites

• An active Vela account and project.
• At least one running branch (database) in your project.
• Basic familiarity with SQL CREATE TABLE syntax.

Step 1: Open the Tables View

• Sign in to demo.vela.run.
• Open your organization and project.
• Select the branch where you want to create the table.
• Open Database and then Tables.
• If this is a new project, you should see no app tables yet.

Step 2: Create the users Table

Click Create table and name it users. Keep the default auto-increment ID and created-at timestamp.

• id (auto increment, primary key)
• created_at (timestamp, default now)

Step 3: Add Columns from the Tutorial

Add these fields in the table builder:

• username (text, not nullable)
• email (text, set to not nullable as shown later in the video)
• first_name (text, nullable)
• last_name (text, nullable)
• external_id (text, nullable)

This gives you a practical user profile shape while keeping flexibility for external identity providers.

Step 4: Keep RLS Enabled (Recommended)

In the tutorial, row-level security is enabled by default and recommended. Keep it on so table access can be controlled safely as your app grows.

RLS by default is the safer baseline for authorization-heavy applications.

Optional: SQL Equivalent

If you prefer SQL, this mirrors the same structure:

create table if not exists public.users (
  id bigserial primary key,
  created_at timestamptz not null default now(),
  username text not null,
  email text not null,
  first_name text,
  last_name text,
  external_id text
);

alter table public.users enable row level security;

What to Do Next

• Add RLS policies for your application roles.
• Create indexes for your main query paths.
• Move schema changes into migrations for team workflows.