railway

name	railway
description	Deploy applications on Railway platform. Use when deploying containerized apps, setting up databases, configuring private networking, or managing Railway projects. Triggers on Railway, railway.app, deploy container, Railway database.

Railway Deployment

Deploy and manage applications on Railway's platform.

Quick Start

# Install Railway CLI
npm i -g @railway/cli

# Login
railway login

# Initialize project
railway init

# Deploy
railway up

railway.toml Configuration

[build]
builder = "nixpacks"
buildCommand = "npm run build"

[deploy]
startCommand = "npm start"
healthcheckPath = "/health"
healthcheckTimeout = 300
restartPolicyType = "on_failure"
restartPolicyMaxRetries = 3

[service]
internalPort = 3000

Nixpacks Configuration

# nixpacks.toml
[phases.setup]
nixPkgs = ["nodejs-18_x", "python311"]

[phases.install]
cmds = ["npm ci"]

[phases.build]
cmds = ["npm run build"]

[start]
cmd = "npm start"

Environment Variables

# Set variable
railway variables set DATABASE_URL="postgres://..."

# Set from file
railway variables set < .env

# Link to service
railway service
railway variables set API_KEY="secret"

Database Services

PostgreSQL

# Add PostgreSQL
railway add -d postgres

# Get connection string
railway variables get DATABASE_URL

Redis

railway add -d redis
# Access via REDIS_URL

MySQL

railway add -d mysql
# Access via MYSQL_URL

Private Networking

# Services can communicate via internal DNS
# Format: ${{service-name}}.railway.internal

# Example: API calling database service
DATABASE_HOST: ${{postgres.railway.internal}}
DATABASE_PORT: 5432

Volumes (Persistent Storage)

# Create volume
railway volume create my-data

# Mount in service
railway volume attach my-data:/app/data

In code:

// Data persists across deploys
const dataPath = '/app/data';
fs.writeFileSync(`${dataPath}/file.json`, JSON.stringify(data));

Cron Jobs

# railway.toml
[deploy]
startCommand = "node cron.js"
cronSchedule = "0 */6 * * *"  # Every 6 hours

Multi-Service Setup

my-project/
├── api/
│   ├── railway.toml
│   └── ...
├── worker/
│   ├── railway.toml
│   └── ...
└── frontend/
    ├── railway.toml
    └── ...

Deploy each:

cd api && railway up
cd ../worker && railway up
cd ../frontend && railway up

Dockerfile Deploy

FROM node:18-alpine

WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci --only=production
COPY . .

EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["npm", "start"]

# railway.toml
[build]
builder = "dockerfile"
dockerfilePath = "./Dockerfile"

Health Checks

// Express health endpoint
app.get('/health', (req, res) => {
  res.status(200).json({ 
    status: 'healthy',
    timestamp: new Date().toISOString()
  });
});

# railway.toml
[deploy]
healthcheckPath = "/health"
healthcheckTimeout = 100

Resources

• Railway Docs: https://docs.railway.app
• Railway CLI: https://docs.railway.app/develop/cli