Railway is a modern PaaS that makes deploying OpenClaw effortless. With built-in CI/CD, automatic HTTPS, and one-click PostgreSQL, you can have a production-ready OpenClaw instance running in minutes. This guide covers everything from initial deployment to custom domains and zero-downtime updates.
Why This Is Hard to Do Yourself
These are the common pitfalls that trip people up.
Cost management
Railway charges by resource usage. Without limits, OpenClaw can rack up unexpected bills.
Ephemeral storage
Railway containers have ephemeral filesystems. Data persistence requires volumes or external storage.
Environment secrets
Managing API keys and secrets across deployments requires proper Railway environment configuration.
Network configuration
Configuring custom domains, HTTPS, and websocket connections requires understanding Railway proxies.
Step-by-Step Guide
Create a new Railway project
Set up your Railway project and connect your GitHub repository.
Add PostgreSQL database (if needed)
Add managed PostgreSQL for OpenClaw data persistence.
Configure environment variables
Set up API keys and OpenClaw configuration.
Warning: Never commit API keys to Git. Use Railway environment variables for all secrets.
Create railway.toml configuration
Configure build and deploy settings.
Add volume for persistent data
Mount a Railway volume for OpenClaw data persistence.
Deploy OpenClaw
Push to GitHub to trigger Railway deployment.
Add custom domain (optional)
Configure custom domain with automatic HTTPS.
Railway Deployment Getting Complex?
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