Builds
Railway uses Nixpacks to build and deploy your code with zero configuration.
Currently, we support the following languages out of the box.
Build Configuration
Nixpacks has a variety of options that can be configured with environment variables. These include things like
- Install/build/start commands
- Nix/Apt packages to install
- Directories to cache
For a full list of these options, please view the Nixpacks docs.
If you have a language or feature that you want us to support, please don't hesitate to reach out on Discord or on the Nixpacks GitHub repo.
Build Command
If using the Nixpacks builder, you can customize the build command that is run. For those familiar with Nixpacks, this gets set as the --build-cmd
argument during the Nixpacks build.
Root Directory
The root directory defaults to /
but can be changed for various use-cases like
monorepo projects. When specified, all build and deploy
commands will operate within that root directory. Additionally, files changed
outside the root directory will not trigger a new build.
Watch Paths
Watch paths are
gitignore-style patterns
that can be used to trigger a new deployment based on what file paths have
changed. For example, a monorepo might want to only trigger builds if files are
changed in the /packages/backend
directory. When specified, any changes that
don't match the patterns will skip creating a new deployment. Multiple patterns
can be combined, one per line.
Note, if a Root Directory is provided, patterns still operate from /
. For a root directory of /app
, /app/**.js
would be used as a pattern to match files in the new root.
Here are a few examples of common use-cases.
Note, negations will only work if you include files in a preceding rule.
Build Providers
With Nixpacks, we analyze the app source directory and generate a build plan. This determines which language provider to install packages and runtimes for.
If there is a detected nixpacks.toml
file, it is possible to define a build provider ahead of time like so:
Within your Service's settings, under the Builds section, you can define within the multi-select box which Nixpacks language providers you would like to use for your builds. This is useful if you have code that calls libraries that need to be built from another language within your repo.
When multiple providers are defined, Railway will build your service with the language providers (in the order you defined) and ensure your binaries are ready to be called. The runtime(s) will then initialize as soon as you start your application.
Procfiles
If using Nixpacks, you can override the start command with a Procfile at the root of your app. Only a single process type is supported at the moment.
HTTP servers should use the web
process type. This process should listen on
the PORT environment variable and will receive
HTTP traffic.
Note: some buildpacks specify a default start command
Dockerfiles
We will also build using a Dockerfile if found at the project root.
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