dennisonbertram/go-code/railway-deploy

# Install Railway CLI
npm install -g @railway/cli
 
# Login (opens browser)
railway login
 
# Verify authentication
railway whoami

# Link current directory to an existing Railway project
railway link
 
# Initialize a new Railway project
railway init
 
# Show current project info
railway status

# Deploy from current directory (triggers a build + deploy)
railway up
 
# Deploy with verbose output
railway up --verbose
 
# Deploy detached (do not stream logs)
railway up --detach
 
# Deploy a specific service
railway up --service my-service
 
# Force a redeploy of the current image (no rebuild)
railway redeploy

# List all environment variables for current environment
railway variables
 
# Set an environment variable
railway variables set DATABASE_URL="postgresql://..."
railway variables set SECRET_KEY="$(openssl rand -hex 32)"
 
# Set multiple variables at once
railway variables set \
  APP_ENV=production \
  LOG_LEVEL=info \
  PORT=8080
 
# Delete an environment variable
railway variables delete OLD_VAR
 
# Import from a .env file
railway variables import .env.production

# List environments
railway environment
 
# Switch to a specific environment
railway environment staging
 
# Create a new environment
# (done via Railway dashboard or CLI prompts)
 
# Show the current environment
railway status

# Generate a Railway subdomain for the service
railway domain
 
# Add a custom domain
railway domain add myapp.example.com
 
# List all domains for the service
railway domain list

# Tail deployment logs
railway logs
 
# Stream logs in real time
railway logs --tail
 
# View logs for a specific deployment
railway logs --deployment <deployment-id>
 
# Filter logs by search term
railway logs | grep ERROR

# After adding a Postgres plugin in the dashboard, the
# DATABASE_URL variable is automatically injected.
 
# Connect to Railway Postgres from CLI
railway run psql $DATABASE_URL
 
# Run a migration against Railway Postgres
railway run goose -dir migrations postgres "$DATABASE_URL" up
 
# Dump the Railway database
railway run pg_dump "$DATABASE_URL" > backup.sql

# Execute a command in the Railway environment (uses Railway env vars)
railway run go test ./...
railway run ./scripts/migrate.sh
railway run bash -c "echo $DATABASE_URL"

# List all services in the project
railway service
 
# Show service info
railway service --json
 
# Restart a service
railway service restart

# Check deployment status
railway status
 
# List recent deployments
railway deployments list 2>/dev/null || railway status
 
# Verify the deployed commit
railway status --json | jq '.deploymentStatus'

# GitHub Actions example
name: Deploy to Railway
 
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
 
jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
      - name: Install Railway CLI
        run: npm install -g @railway/cli
 
      - name: Deploy
        env:
          RAILWAY_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.RAILWAY_TOKEN }}
        run: railway up --detach

# Check the service is responding
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" https://myapp.up.railway.app/health
 
# Verify the correct commit was deployed
railway status --json | jq '.commitSha'
git rev-parse HEAD
 
# Monitor initial startup logs
railway logs --tail | head -50

# View build logs for a failed deployment
railway logs --deployment <id>
 
# Check environment variable is set
railway run printenv APP_ENV
 
# Validate the Railway config file
cat railway.json 2>/dev/null || cat railway.toml 2>/dev/null
 
# Force a fresh deployment (clear build cache)
railway up --no-cache 2>/dev/null || railway up

{
  "$schema": "https://railway.app/railway.schema.json",
  "build": {
    "builder": "DOCKERFILE",
    "dockerfilePath": "Dockerfile"
  },
  "deploy": {
    "startCommand": "./server",
    "healthcheckPath": "/health",
    "healthcheckTimeout": 100,
    "restartPolicyType": "ON_FAILURE",
    "restartPolicyMaxRetries": 3
  }
}