Deploy to Railway

Railway handles infrastructure so you can focus on collecting feedback. One click gives you Quackback, PostgreSQL, and Redis with automatic SSL, deployments on push, and no server management.

Prerequisites

• A Railway account (free tier available)
• A domain or subdomain for your instance (e.g., feedback.yourcompany.com)

One-Click Deploy

Click the button below to deploy Quackback to Railway:

The template provisions three services:

Manual Setup

If you prefer to configure each service yourself:

1. Create a New Project

1. Go to railway.app/new
2. Click Empty Project

2. Add PostgreSQL

1. Click + New → Database → PostgreSQL
2. Railway provisions a PostgreSQL instance automatically

3. Add Redis

1. Click + New → Database → Redis
2. Railway provisions a Redis instance automatically

4. Deploy Quackback

1. Click + New → GitHub Repo
2. Connect the quackbackio/quackback repository (or your fork)
3. Railway detects the Dockerfile and builds automatically

5. Configure Environment Variables

In the Quackback service settings, add these variables:

# Railway injects DATABASE_URL and REDIS_URL automatically if you link the services.
# If not linked, set them manually:
DATABASE_URL=${{Postgres.DATABASE_URL}}
REDIS_URL=${{Redis.REDIS_URL}}
 
# Authentication (generate with: openssl rand -base64 32)
SECRET_KEY="your-32-character-minimum-secret-key"
 
# Public URL (set after assigning a domain)
BASE_URL="https://feedback.yourcompany.com"

6. Link Services

1. Go to the Quackback service → Variables
2. Click Add Reference to link DATABASE_URL from the PostgreSQL service
3. Click Add Reference to link REDIS_URL from the Redis service

7. Add a Domain

1. Go to the Quackback service → Settings → Networking
2. Click Generate Domain for a Railway subdomain, or Custom Domain for your own
3. If using a custom domain, add a CNAME record pointing to Railway
4. Update BASE_URL to match

Email Configuration

Without email, OTP codes are printed to Railway logs. For production, configure SMTP or Resend:

# SMTP
EMAIL_SMTP_HOST="smtp.example.com"
EMAIL_SMTP_PORT="587"
EMAIL_SMTP_USER="your-username"
EMAIL_SMTP_PASS="your-password"
EMAIL_FROM="feedback@yourcompany.com"
 
# Or Resend
EMAIL_RESEND_API_KEY="re_xxxxxxxxxxxx"
EMAIL_FROM="feedback@yourcompany.com"

File Storage

For image uploads, configure S3-compatible storage:

S3_ENDPOINT="https://your-s3-endpoint"
S3_BUCKET="quackback-uploads"
S3_ACCESS_KEY="your-access-key"
S3_SECRET_KEY="your-secret-key"
S3_REGION="us-east-1"

Upgrades

Railway rebuilds and redeploys automatically when you push to the connected branch. Migrations run on every startup, so schema changes are applied automatically.

To upgrade a template deployment:

1. Fork the Quackback repository if you haven't already
2. Pull the latest changes from upstream
3. Push to your fork — Railway redeploys automatically

Monitoring

Logs

View real-time logs in the Railway dashboard:

1. Go to your Quackback service
2. Click Deployments → select the active deployment
3. Click View Logs

Health Check

Railway can restart the service if it becomes unhealthy:

1. Go to Settings → Deploy
2. Set the health check path to /api/health

Cost

Railway bills based on usage. A typical Quackback instance costs $5–20/month depending on traffic:

Troubleshooting

Build Fails

Check the build logs for errors. Common causes:

• Missing environment variables — ensure DATABASE_URL and SECRET_KEY are set
• Docker build issues — Railway uses the repository's Dockerfile

Database Connection Failed

1. Verify the PostgreSQL service is running
2. Check that DATABASE_URL references the correct service
3. Try restarting the Quackback service

"Port Already in Use"

Railway assigns a port via the PORT environment variable. Quackback reads this automatically. Do not hardcode a port.

Next Steps

• Configuration Reference - All environment variables
• Reverse Proxy - Custom proxy configurations
• Docker Deployment - Alternative deployment with Docker