Deploy to Railway

Name: deploy-railway
Rating: 78
Author: dralgorhythm

Why Railway?

•Zero config deployments
•Automatic HTTPS
•Built-in databases
•Environment management
•Preview environments

Quick Start

bash

# Install CLI
npm install -g @railway/cli

# Login
railway login

# Initialize project
railway init

# Deploy
railway up

Configuration

railway.json

json

{
  "build": {
    "builder": "NIXPACKS"
  },
  "deploy": {
    "startCommand": "npm start",
    "healthcheckPath": "/health",
    "restartPolicyType": "ON_FAILURE"
  }
}

Environment Variables

bash

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

# Set from file
railway variables set < .env.production

Database Setup

bash

# Add PostgreSQL
railway add --database postgres

# Get connection URL
railway variables get DATABASE_URL

Deployment Workflow

1. Connect Repo

bash

railway link

2. Configure Build

Railway auto-detects most frameworks. Override with:

bash

# Nixpacks (default)
railway up

# Dockerfile
railway up --dockerfile

3. Set Domain

bash

railway domain

Best Practices

•Use Preview Environments: Test PRs before merge
•Separate Databases: Different DB per environment
•Use Variables: Never hardcode secrets
•Health Checks: Enable for reliability
•Logs: Use railway logs for debugging

Common Commands

bash

# View logs
railway logs

# Open dashboard
railway open

# Run command in environment
railway run npm run migrate

# List services
railway status