railway-cli

name	railway-cli
description	Use the Railway CLI to deploy services, manage environment variables, view logs, and configure projects on Railway.app. Use this instead of the Railway MCP server.

Railway CLI

Official CLI for Railway. Deploy apps, manage services, databases, and environment variables.

• Official repo: https://github.com/railwayapp/cli
• Docs: https://docs.railway.app/reference/cli-api

Authentication

railway login             # Browser-based login
railway login --browserless  # Token-based login
railway whoami            # Check current user

Common Commands

Projects

railway init                  # Create new project
railway link                  # Link to existing project
railway status                # Show current project/environment
railway list                  # List all projects

Deployments

railway up                    # Deploy current directory
railway up --detach           # Deploy without following logs
railway logs                  # View service logs
railway logs --follow         # Stream logs in real-time

Environment Variables

railway variables             # List variables
railway variables set KEY=value
railway variables delete KEY

Services

railway service               # Select active service
railway add                   # Add a new service (database, etc.)
railway domain                # Generate a domain for the service

Shell

railway shell                 # Open shell with Railway env vars loaded
railway run <command>         # Run command with Railway env vars

Agent Best Practices

• Use railway run to execute commands with the project's env vars injected
• Check railway status to confirm you're linked to the correct project/environment
• Use railway logs --follow for debugging deployment issues
• Use railway variables to inspect and manage env vars without the dashboard
• Deploy with railway up --detach for non-blocking deploys

Example Workflows

Deploy and check logs

railway up --detach
railway logs --num 50

Run database migration with Railway env vars

railway run npx prisma migrate deploy