Deploying to Railway

Guide for deploying Python services to Railway.

Prerequisites

Install Railway CLI

npm install -g @railway/cli

Login

railway login

Basic Workflow

1. Link Project

cd /path/to/service railway link

Select workspace and project (or create new)

2. Add PostgreSQL (if needed)

railway add

Select: Database → Postgres

IMPORTANT: Standard Postgres does NOT have pgvector. For vector search:

• Delete standard Postgres

• Add service from template: https://railway.com/deploy/pgvector-latest

3. Set Environment Variables

railway variables set KEY="value"

Reference another service's variable:

railway variables set 'DATABASE_URL=${{Postgres.DATABASE_URL}}' railway variables set 'DATABASE_URL=${{pgvector.DATABASE_URL}}'

4. Deploy

railway up --detach

5. Get Domain

railway domain

Returns: https://service-production.up.railway.app

Multi-Service Pattern (API + Worker)

Deploy API Service

railway link # Link to main service railway up --detach

Add Worker Service

railway add --service worker railway service link worker railway variables set 'DATABASE_URL=${{pgvector.DATABASE_URL}}' railway variables set OPENAI_API_KEY="$OPENAI_API_KEY"

Set start command in dashboard or railway.toml

railway up --detach

Gotchas

• pgvector not available - Use pgvector template, not standard Postgres

• Interactive prompts - Some commands need interactive mode (run manually)

• Variable references - Use ${{ServiceName.VARIABLE}} syntax

• Dockerfile required - For custom Python services, include Dockerfile

• Procfile - Railway can use Procfile for multi-process apps

Useful Commands

railway status # Current project/service railway variables # List environment variables railway logs # View service logs railway service status # Deployment status railway redeploy --yes # Force redeploy

Example Dockerfile

FROM python:3.11-slim

WORKDIR /app

RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y libpq-dev gcc && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

COPY pyproject.toml ./ COPY myapp/ ./myapp/

RUN pip install --no-cache-dir .

CMD ["gunicorn", "--bind", "0.0.0.0:8080", "--workers", "2", "myapp.app:app"]