SupabaseS
Supabase•5mo ago
motivated

python realtime silent timeout issue

I have a long-running, asynchronous Python service (using asyncio) that runs inside a Docker container. Its primary job is to listen for database changes.

Implementation:
My implementation follows this pattern:

  1. On service startup, I create a single, global AsyncClient instance using await acreate_client(...).
  2. I then immediately subscribe to INSERT and UPDATE events on a specific table using the Realtime client:
    # In my main async function:
supabase_channel = supabase.realtime.channel("my_table_changes")
await (
    supabase_channel
        .on_postgres_changes(event="INSERT", ..., callback=my_async_insert_handler)
        .on_postgres_changes(event="UPDATE", ..., callback=my_async_update_handler)
        .subscribe()
)
# The service then waits indefinitely on an asyncio.Event for a shutdown signal.
  3. The callback functions (my_async_..._handler) are async and use asyncio.create_task to process events without blocking the listener.
Problem:
The Realtime connection works perfectly for a while, but eventually (often after several hours or a day) it seems to silently time out or disconnect. The service doesn't crash and no exceptions are raised, but it simply stops receiving any new database change events.

Question:
What is the recommended, robust pattern for handling these silent timeouts with supabase-py's async Realtime client? Is there a built-in auto-reconnect mechanism that I'm not implementing correctly, or what would be the idiomatic solution for a heartbeat/health check and resubscribe logic to ensure the connection stays alive?
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