Railway

Railway deploys from your Git repo with zero configuration. Push to main and Railway builds, deploys, and gives you a URL.

First deploy

1. Push your code to GitHub

Railway deploys from GitHub (or GitLab).

2. Create a project

Go to railway.app/new → Deploy from GitHub repo → select your repository.

3. Configure the service

Railway auto-detects Rust projects. For faster builds, add a Dockerfile — Railway will use it automatically.

Set environment variables in the dashboard or via CLI:

4. Expose the service

Settings → Networking → Generate Domain (or add a custom domain).

railway.toml

[build]
builder = "dockerfile"
dockerfilePath = "Dockerfile"
 
[deploy]
healthcheckPath = "/health"
healthcheckTimeout = 3
restartPolicyType = "on_failure"
restartPolicyMaxRetries = 3

Railway CLI

# Install
npm install -g @railway/cli
 
# Login
railway login
 
# Link to existing project
railway link
 
# Deploy from local
railway up
 
# Open the dashboard
railway open
 
# Set variables
railway variables set RUST_LOG=info
 
# View logs
railway logs

Database

Provision a database

Click + New in your project → Database → choose PostgreSQL, MySQL, or Redis. Railway provisions it and injects the connection URL into your service environment automatically.

Example: PostgreSQL

After provisioning, DATABASE_URL is available in your service:

let db_url = std::env::var("DATABASE_URL").expect("DATABASE_URL not set");

No manual secret management needed.

Scaling

• Horizontal: Railway supports multiple instances via the dashboard
• Vertical: Adjust RAM/CPU in service settings (Pro plan)
• Auto-sleep: On the free/Hobby plan, services sleep after inactivity

Custom domains

1. Settings → Networking → Custom Domain
2. Add your domain (e.g. api.example.com)
3. Create a CNAME record pointing to the Railway-provided target
4. Railway provisions TLS automatically

CI/CD

Railway deploys on every push to main by default. To change:

• Settings → Deploy → select branch
• Enable/disable auto-deploy
• Add a Deploy trigger for specific branches or tags

Preview environments

Railway creates isolated preview environments for pull requests:

• Each PR gets its own URL and database
• Merging the PR promotes to production
• Closing deletes the preview

Monorepo support

If your Ultimo app is in a subdirectory:

1. Settings → Source → set Root Directory to your app path
2. Railway builds from that directory

Cost optimization

• Use the Hobby plan ($5/mo) for small projects — includes 8 GB RAM, 8 vCPU hours
• Dockerfile builds cache layers → subsequent deploys are fast
• Services auto-sleep on Hobby plan when unused
• Add a railway.toml with health checks to avoid unnecessary restarts